Canning for Therapy

What could be more Little House on the Prairie than canning?  I suppose slaughtering and butchering a pig would be, but too bad for me, I missed out on buying a Fair Pig this year.  Ah well, maybe next year.
Anyways, I received a gift of Elderberries yesterday.  I have never tasted, seen, or even heard of an Elderberry before.  The berries are small, and grow in clusters.  These were still attached to their stems and looked like pretty little bunches of tiny grapes.  They were dark purple with a frosted white over them.  I pulled out the recipe my friend had included with the berries and carefully looked it over, because not only was I unfamiliar with how to work with Elderberries, this was also the first time I would be making a jelly instead of a jam.  (Did I mention that my very bestest friends send me gifts of homegrown food?)
As I stood over the sink roughly stripping the fruit from the stems and rinsing them in a colandar, I could feel the stress of my day slipping away.  I don't know that yesterday was any different than any other day, but for some reason my stress levels had grown to epic proportions.

Stemmed Elderberries

I boiled the berries with a little water and then strained them through a cheese cloth and mesh colandar overnight.  This morning, I had a beautiful bowl of plum-colored Elderberry juice waiting to be made into jelly.  The process was just like making jam at this point.  I added lemon juice and pectin to the juice, boiled it, added sugar and brought it to a boil again.
Suddenly, I had a pan full of the prettiest jelly I have ever seen.  It was so dark it looked black, but when I stirred it, the color was a beautiful dark reddish purple.

I finished the process by ladling the hot jelly into hot jars, attaching the 2-piece lids, and then boiling them to seal them.*  When I look at my new jars of jelly sitting on the counter I feel happy and proud of them.  I'm sure that canning is much cheaper than spilling my troubles to a therapist and I feel so good and accomplished when I see the final product.

Elderberry jelly
Dark Purple Cupcake Wrapper to Decorate

*My jars actually did NOT seal the first time I processed them.  I don't think I was getting my lids hot enough or keeping them hot enough, so I reheated just the lids, and attached them one at a time while the others stayed in the hot water.  I reprocessed in a water bath and set them back onto a towel, on the counter.  Seconds later I heard the POP POP POP, that gives every canner a thrill no matter how many times they have heard it.