Crab Apple Jelly

Today I tried (for the 2nd time) to make crab apple jelly.

The first time I didn't have any real way to strain it or drain it, so it ended up all screwed up. It's ok, I have MORE than enough crab apples to screw things up with. 

Today went much better. :) I've got 8 small jars all done. It is a time consuming process. It is a labor intensive process. And no matter how many I make at a time, it doesn't seem to make much of a dent in the apples I have. So, I know that it is going to take a long long time to get this all to work. ;)

The last batch I did based on a youtube video. It worked just fine, and so far 5 of the 6 have self sealed. They are more liquid looking than I had hoped, maybe I didnt boil them long enough, or maybe I do need to add some pectin. I didn't add any pectin in the first test batch, and it turned out just fine (so it appears - it is much thicker in the jars)

Anyway, it is hard to do this. There are so many apples, I am easily overwhelmed by how large a project this really is. I'm glad for the "shortcuts" but I just hope all the shortcutting actually does make good jelly. My overwhelmed self wants to just cook them all at once and get it over with, and yet, I know I cant really get a good result that way (besides it would take longer than the day is long).

Patience. I don't have a lot of it.