Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Cut Glass Jelly Jar: 2nd Time Around

Welcome to "2nd Time Around Tuesday!"

I hope you will visit our gracious hostess Diane at A Picture is Worth a 1,000 Words, and see the pretty bird bath her son bought for her at an estate sale ... plus everyone else's treasures for today.

I'd like to share this little cut glass jelly jar that I bought several years ago at a flea market.

I think I paid around $12.00 for it, and it came with two glass spoons. I love using it, especially to serve my mama's delicious mayhaw jelly.

For those of you who are not familiar with Mayhaw Jelly, it is a rare delicacy made from the tart red berry that grows in the swamps and bogs here in the South. The Mayhaw Jelly recipe dates from the Civil War era.

Mayhaw trees grow wild in such a small geographical area that the berries are highly prized and the tart sweet jelly hoarded for special occasions. Mayhaws are called berries, but technically they are members of the apple family. In May, the red berries are gathered by hand or scooped out of the water in fishnets. The berries are boiled, then squeezed, to get clear coral-colored juice that is made into the best jelly in the world.

My sweet uncle has been gathering berries for Mama for many years, and this year she made 14 jars of jelly, most of which she gave to me and our children. Those may last us until next spring when my uncle goes berry-gathering again.

I appreciate Diane taking the time to host our "2nd Time Around Tuesdays," and look forward to seeing what everyone is sharing today.

12 comments:

SmilingSally said...

I love the gracious way of serving jelly in a cut glass.

Our moving day is the 18th of this month.

The Quintessential Magpie said...

Janie, I adore mayhaw jelly, and it's so pretty in that cut glass jelly jar! Granny used to make homemade crabapple jelly, and that will always rank right up there as one of my favorite foods. She also made fig preserves which I love, too, but mayhaw is also delicious!

Happy Second Time Around Tuesday...

XO,

Sheila :-)

Karen at Nittany Inspirations said...

OMG, I have that jar, w/o the spoon. I don't know where I got it. I thought it was a votive holder. Well, I'll have to give it more respect. lol

Picket said...

That is the cutest thing ever... (of course in this family I'd have to stick a SMUCKER's label on it for the Burlys! lol) That is just beautiful girl...but I have never heard of mayhaw jelly but is is so pretty in that little server...

Congrats on your '15 minutes of fame' girl..that is awesome that one of your pics is in a magazine across the world like that!!!! Of course all your pics are magazine worthy! Hope you have a great day my friend!

Stacey said...

Your jelly jar is gorgeous. It all looks so yummy sitting there with that biscuit. :)

I've never had mayhaw jelly but have always heard of it.

bj said...

I've never even heard of a Mayhaw berry. Guess we don't have them here in our part of the country. We have things like Sand Plums that grow wild...they do make delicious jelly but they are thorny and hard to gather...so I go to my groc. store and buy SMUCKERS!
I do love your little jelly server.
Congrats on being PUBLISHED !!
xo bj

Salmagundi said...

I've never heard of Mayhaw jelly, but bet it is as delicious as it is beautiful in that jelly glass. Sally

Bo said...

Hi Janie...I've missed visiting your blog & seeing your always fab photos...maybe I can back track when we get home from our little trip. I have never heard of mayhaw jelly... bet it's even more delicious served from that beautiful cutglass jar with a glass spoon...so southernly elegant! ;-) Bo

Tonja said...

I LOVE mayhaw jelly! My granny used to make it. Haven't had any in a good while, though. Love the server, too. So elegant!

Lady Katherine said...

I just love Mayhaw Jelly, Have not had it in years! I love your cut glass jelly jar! Oh, I bought a few weeks ago a glass spoon, in Carthage,MS and it was with one more spoon and a jar! Now I know what it was! A beautiful Jelly Jar! I need to go back!

nikkicrumpet said...

How pretty...and the fact that it's filled with home made jelly makes it even BETTER!

Anonymous said...

Morning Janie! First congrats on your picture being published! How exciting and well deserved! I'll bet this is only the beginning; you never know who is lurking out there!lol
I've never heard of this jelly or berry! I've learned so much visiting you over the past year! I guess that jelly is like "gold" in the South and it will never make it up here!lol Have a great weekend! Sincerely yours, Jeannette