Anyone know a "natural" jelly that won't break my bank account?

[BreweryYardRat]

I've been looking for a brand of jelly (grape or apple, ideally) that isn't packed to the gills with high-fructose corn syrup. Unfortunately, all the "natural" brands on store shelves are double the cost or more of the regular HFCS-loaded crap. I'm a college student -- peanut butter and jelly's a staple, so I can't be paying 2x the normal cost for something I'm going to go through on a pretty regular basis (especially since my roomies have been known to scrounge on occasion), but I don't want to be ingesting HFCS all the damn time, either..

Any suggestions?

[Shell Beau]

1. I am not sure how much Polaner All Fruit cost, but it is good.

Try it out if it isn't too $$$.

[Flaxbee]

2. do you have a Big Lots nearby?

because a few of ours will occasionally have gourmet-food clearance items, and I've scored some very tasty, natural jams and jellies over the years. I pretty much clear them out when I see them, but you can find find a jar of good mostly-fruit jelly/jam for $1.50 - $2.

Otherwise, yeah, it sucks. Everything now has HFCS in it - I bought a box of Frosted Flakes the other day for nostalgia's sake and it was so disappointing; I hadn't thought to look at the ingredients before buying but there is was, the 3rd or 4th ingredient. Damn.

[JVS]

11. Try Aldi as well, I've seen the German jelly Schwartau there, although most Aldi stuff has hfcs

[LeftyMom]

3. Are you looking at the regular grocery store, or a natural foods kinda place?

Generally if you want to eat anything that isn't pure, unadulterated shit, it winds up being cheaper to look at the latter. There's a Asswhole Foods under the Target on Fuck if I Remember What Street that would set you right up, jelly should be about the same price as a regular store.

Alternately, do you guys have some sort of import food place, like Cost Plus, or a hole in the wall importer of European food stuff? You could look there.

[BreweryYardRat]

9. Hey, I remember the location you're talking about.

I've got to be down that way on the 17th, I'll look in on it then. Thanks!

Shit, I'm impressed you remembered such a minor detail about Tampa after what, a year or so?

[LeftyMom]

20. I have an amazing memory for minor details.

:shrug:

[flvegan]

13. Dale Mabry

Dale Mabry and I275. God, I have to do everything around here.

Seawolf, you might also check the fresh market in Ybor on Saturday mornings. There used to be a lady there that sold fresh herbs, honey and jelly there.

[LeftyMom]

21. I actually was pretty sure what street, but I like to make you feel useful.

:shrug:

[TK421]

4. K-Y?

Just kidding, but I really would go with what Shell Beau said

[Pierre.Suave]

If you have a Trader Joes around

go look there, I bet they have something for not much money.

[LeftyMom]

7. In yet another sign that Florida sucks, they do not have Trader Joes.

x(

[Pierre.Suave]

16. Wow

that really sucks.

[mykpart]

5. Church bazaars; flea markets

Anywhere that folks sell their homemade preserves. I'm not much of a jelly/jam person and didn't realize they were putting HFCS in them now. BTW, have you seen the commercials for HFCS?

[Sebastian Doyle]

6. Countdown to the HFCS lobby shills hijacking this thread

5....4....3....2..... :nuke:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3639008&mesg_id=3639008

[Grey]

8. I make my own....

A tin of juice, some sugar and pectin, then boil. and put in jars. Put the lid on tight and you don't even have to process it. But, keep it in the fridge.
Google making jelly. I do put the jars in the oven to bake at 250' for half an hour to sterilize them. It's dead easy.

[yellowdogintexas]

17. it really isn't that hard, I agree. I have made it from grapes, crushed, drained

strained etc. That is labor intensive. But buy a gallon of 100 % Welch's, and some SureJell. If you don't have jars, Mason jars are not that expensive. You can probably score some jars at a thrift store and get new lids @ the supermarket. Lids are cheap.

Or you could do it the old fashioned way and seal with melted paraffin which is what my grandmother, aunts and mother taught me to do. I used to assist with this every summer when Granny's grapevines were overloaded, and did it by myself a couple of times as an adult.

The paraffin seal allows you to use any kind of glass jar. You need about 1/2 inch of seal. Pour the melted paraffin on the jelly after it has set firmly.

Since you don't lose any quantity from the juice to jelly transition, if you have 1/2 gallon of juice, you should end up with approximately that much jelly. We used to put it in old jars, small glasses (this is the source of the term 'jelly glass' by the way) and seal with the wax.

You do want to boil, steam or oven heat the jars. I always put them in a big kettle of boiling water. You don't need a boiling water bath or pressure cooker to make jellies like you do with canning vegetables.

You also have the advantage of total control of the sweetness. Since you can get concord, red or white grape juice you can also have different colors of jelly. Grapes have a lot of pectin so it jells dependably, as do apples. My great grandmother made jelly from the peels and cores left over from apple preserves that she canned. Cherry juice would make great jelly, and I think you can get that these days.

You know, these skills may become necessary again. I am glad I still know how to do some of these home made things.

Next lesson: home made sauerkraut.

[Bossy Monkey]

10. Aldi has a good one under their Fit & Active brand

We get the Fruits of the Forest flavor; they also have strawberry and black currant. Haven't tried those.

[Catch22Dem]

12. Mmmm, around here there are some Amish bakeries

They gots da good stuffs.

[madinmaryland]

14. Petroleum jelly is quite inexpense.

:hide:

[Deja Q]

15. Isn't there a grape flavored Astroglide ye can get mail order?

:yoiks:

[eyesroll]

18. Most of our local supermarkets carry Hero, a Swiss brand.

It might be a few cents more a jar than Smuckers, but nothing too bad.

All sorts of interesting flavors, too. I'm not sure if they have grape but they have all kinds of others--strawberry, plum, quince, rosehip, gooseberry...

[supernova]

19. Try apple butter

Fruit butters are actually a very cooked down, condensed fruit puree with added spices. No real butter. :P The most common one is apple butter.

Apple butter has has less sugar and no HFCS than jelly or preserves. You can find it in any grocery store and it's cheaper than jelly. And it tastes great with peanut butter. :-)

More rarely, you can find pear butter or peach or apricot butter too.