Guava Jelly

My neighbor Lila graciously passed on to us a huge bag of pineapple guavas or fejjoas, which are in season right now in our area.  On my wild forages I used to find these trees all over, especially in parking lots and landscaped places.  We have always just eaten them raw but with this many I needed to do something else.  So in the spirit of Bob Marley, yes I did blast Songs of Freedom all day, I made guava jelly.  We are having it on our toast this morning and its delicious.  Tangy, tart and sweet.

I'm not usually one to use recipes, as many of my friends know, but this is basically what i did if you happen to come across a bunch of this aromatic fruit and are so inspired. 
Wash and cut up the fruit removing the stems, and boil in a large pot with a little water.
Boil for about 1/2 hour until the fruit has broken down, stirring frequently and watching that the water does not boil out.  Strain out the solids in a fine mesh strainer or a jelly bag, measure the liquid and add to a new clean pot.  Compost the solids and bring the liquid back to a boil. Add juice of a couple of lemons and sweetener to taste, about half as many cups sweetener than liquid or a little less than half.  I used organic cane sugar because I didn't want to boil my raw honey.  (If you use honey you may want to add some pectin.)  Simmer for a while until it reduces to about half.  Pour into clean jars and let set. 

On the topic of making things from scratch, one of my current favorite library books is Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It, and Other Cooking Projects, by Karen Solomon.  The recipes for hot sauce and ginger beer are both amazing!!!  We have also recently tried her recommendations for curing olives so we'll see how that goes.