City-Hippie Oregon Grape Jelly

I was driving to pick the kids up from the water park and as I drove by a subdivision with front entrance landscaping I noticed a new development. Purple-blue berries clustered in dark green leaves. I heard almost audibly, "Oregon Grapes." I say that because I had never actually seen any before, but I do peruse herb and garden books so I may have seen pictures. At the water park I looked up Oregon Grapes on my iphone to verify on Wikipedia. I know, I am a walking contradiction of terms.

Only one kid was ready to come home so he and I stopped and inspected the plants. Look how many we picked!

I think he was pretending to be grossed out by the purple blood color on his hands. There were so many bursting clusters we would get excited and prick our fingers on the leaves. People gave us weird stares as they drove by.

I remembered eating Oregon Grape Jelly once when my aunt sent us some, so I knew the flavor. We normally don't like jelly because it is too sweet so the tart flavor of this is perfect for us. Here is the recipe I used:

Oregon Grape Jelly (makes 6 half pints)
3.5 lbs of washed, stemmed Oregon Grapes
3 cups of water
5 cups sugar
1 pkg liquid pectin

Crush the grapes and add the water. (I used my kitchen aid hand blender.) Boil for 10 minutes. Place mixture in a colander lined with two layers of cheese cloth overnight. Here is where pre-reading a recipe comes in handy!
Discard cloth, seeds and skins. Measure 3-3/4 cups of juice and place in a pan with the sugar. Bring to a rapid boil, add pectin. Return to a full boil and boil 1 minute. Place into prepared jars and process 10 minutes. It has a tart, earthy flavor and a beautiful dark color.