Living in an apartment you might be interested in collecting wild fruits
and berries from which to make jam, jelly, and wine. I find plenty along
the banks of the river here in town where I go exploring on foot or by
bicycle. They ripen in August here but I find many plants in the spring by
looking for the blooms when there aren't so many leaves hiding everything.
I've also been planting the seeds leftover from making jelly to see if
that will increase the riverbank yield.

There is some information on making wild fruit and berry jelly on my
website (see below) under "Food".

You can buy jars and equipment at grage sales and rummage sales, and
new seals at the Dollar Store. The new seals I use are $1.50 at the
supermarket but only $1 at the Dollar Store.

For the amount of preserves and wine I make it's economical to buy sugar
in a 50 lb bag at a grocery wholesaler who sells to small indpendent
grocery stores. One bag does all my fermenting, preserving, baking, tea
and coffee making for a year at 2/3 the cost of buying in small bags from
the supermarket.

Lately I've paid 10 cents for used preserving jars (normally 25 cents
used) and maybe 5-10 cents per jar for the sugar in the jelly. The fruit
is free so it's quite inexpensive, although preserving is labour intensive
and therefore time consuming. For my own consupution I use old jam jars
for free. (Make sure there are no rust spost in th eunderside of the lid.)
For jelly to put away for future years or give away or I use preserving
jars with new seals.

I second the suggestion to cover up and wear an apron while boiling pots
of jelly. Also beware of staining from juices. They'll even stain some
painted surfaces if not wiped off before they dry.


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