Ramp Thyme Jelly

I swore I would never eat ramp jelly. Then it showed up on my ice-cream at my favorite new local restaurant. It tasted beyond my expectations into the realm of amazing. Could I find a recipe? No! Nowhere! I’m sure recipes must exist but I couldn’t find one. So I made this one up cobbling together ideas from several recipes including one I’m sure was never really cooked. Or if it was cooked, it should not have been, because it called for 2 lbs. of these tiny spring jewels. That’s a mountain of fresh ramps, which would cause an extinction of ramps if many people did it. That’s enough to overflow my biggest cooking pot. So be careful with those recipes that call for you to harvest more than your share. There is no need to substitute equal weights of ramps for chopped sweet onions. OMG, ramps are way stronger.

Ann’s Ramp Thyme Jelly Recipe

• 1 lb. ramps cut into fine pieces
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 2.5 cups (or more) water
• 3/4 cup organic rice vinegar
• 3 Tbs fresh picked thyme leaves and flowers
• 5.5 cups sugar (no kidding)

Make the juice first. Combine the chopped ramps and olive oil in a large pot and stir on low heat to release the juices. The leaves and white parts should be wilted and soft. Once they have reached the stage of cooked but not browned, add 2.5 cups of water. Bring to a low boil for a minute. Remove from heat and let cool enough to strain the mixture through a jelly bag. I strain it two or three times to get clear jelly. Measure the juice and add water to bring volume to 3 cups.

Make the jelly next. Combine the juice, thyme and vinegar in a large clean pot and bring to a boil. Add 1.75 oz. pectin*, stirring continuously to dissolve it completely. Bring to a boil. Once pectin is dissolved and mixture is boiling, add the sugar. Stir continuously to dissolve the sugar and bring to a boil yet again. Let it boil hard for one minute. Remove it from the heat and start the canning process. This makes about 13 four oz. jars. Use standard hot water bath canning methods, boiling for 10 minutes. https://www.healthycanning.com/water-bath-canning-step-by-step It makes a beautiful pinkish gold clear jelly with little thyme leaves and blossoms floating around in it if it turns out perfectly. Good luck!

*I had the best luck with Ball Realfruit Classic Pectin dry pectin. When I used the pre-measured Original Sure Jell Premium Fruit Pectin, the thyme floated. Go figure (still tasted amazing).