UGAK9 wrote:

"George Shirley" wrote in message
...

Ellen Wickberg wrote:


in article , zxcvbob at
wrote on 16/10/03 5:11 pm:



I'm in Houston this week, and have had very little access to the

Internet.

My parents planted some mayhaw trees a few years ago; this is the first
year the trees produced much, and they had a bunch of mayhaws in the

freezer.

Daughter juiced about 7 or 8 pounds of frozen whole mayhaws and made 2
batches of jelly using Certo, and we froze the rest of the juice.

George

was kind enough to send me a couple of mayhaw jelly recipes -- one with
added pectin and one without. (And there was the mayhaw jelly recipe

right

there in our Certo package. D'oh!) She juiced the mayhaws all by

herself

and she made the first batch of jelly by herself using the first

running

of the juice. Then we made a second batch with juice from squeezing the
jelly bag. Both batches are beautiful; even the one where I squeezed

the

juice out of the jelly bag. The texture is perfect and the jars look

like

watermelon jello. It oughtta win best of show -- not that I'm biased or
anything.

Barb sez we gotta keep 2 half-pint jars for the state fair next year.

Best regards,
Bob


So what do mayhaws look and taste like? Ellen


Sort of like possum haws only better. Look like little orange Xmas balls
up to 1 inch in diameter. The taste is hard to describe, you gotta eat
some jelly to get the effect and they're not really very good as fruit
to eat out of hand. My two dumb, 15 year old trees have never borne
fruit and are on their way to the dump very soon. I'm gonna get me a
named variety from a reputable nursery. A politician was handing these
out so it's no wonder they're sterile.

George


Mayhaws grow wild in this area. I grew up on Mayhaw Jelly and my hometown
(Colquitt, Georgia) has the Mayhaw Festival every spring. The local grocery
store at home makes it in the deli and sells it by the case. It makes a
beautifully colored jelly with a very delicate taste. We call it the "Best
Jelly in the World."

Lana Stuart



They also grow wild over most of East Texas and a large portion of
Louisiana. Starks, LA has a Mayhaw festival with prizes for the best
jelly. There's a place in Many, LA that makes the jelly commercially and
I swear you can't tell it from homemade. I like dewberry jelly better
but mayhaw runs a close second.

LSU and Texas A&M have both worked on mayhaw trees that produce larger
fruit and more fruit and are more reliable than the every other year
wild ones around here. When I was a boy you only found them in ditches,
marshes, and creek beds because the old settlers rooted them out in the
fields.

George