The beautyberries are in full fruit right now and it's time to make jelly from this highly useful plant!

Picking the berries:


Measure out 6 cups of berries, wash and pick out any trash:


Add 8 cups of water and bring to a boil for 20 minutes:


Then mash and boil another 10 minutes. Then strain through a fine cloth. I ended up with about a quart of liquid.


Bring back to a boil, add 4.5 cups of sugar (yes, that much). Add your pectin.


Ten minutes in the boiling water bath and you're done!


This batch yielded 3 and a half pints. Initial taste tests indicate positive results!!

Nice to see the men in the kitchen.

Never heard of Beautyberry. What does it taste like? Must be a bit sour to require that much sugar.

I looked it up in the database but does not truly describe it.

It's hard to describe the flavor of this. It's earthy and maybe a little musty. I wouldn't describe it as "delicious" but more interesting and unique.

I had no idea they were for human consumption! I have three large bushes and they're bending over from the weight of the berries after a short, but heavy downpour. You had me until "earthy and musty."

Sandi, you can eat them raw. They have a mealy texture because of the seeds inside. If you give it a taste you'll get a pretty good sense of its flavor. The jelly is, of course, much better than the raw berries.

I might be inaccurate calling it musty. It's not really musty, just very hard for me to describe. Certainly unique!

I'll be brave and pick a few.

You could eat just one little berry to get a sense of the flavor.

Reminds me of uncooked mushrooms, but with a hint of sweet.
Earthy like that.

Cool...I have always loved the beautyberry because my "color" is purple and shades there of. Who knew they were OK for humans!? Now I do. Might just have to try it when things are more "normal" here. Thanks, Dave for the heads up and receipe

Tried some, but only one at a time because of the seeds. Couldn't discern a flavor. I will try again , but smash some first. I plan to take a few branches to my garden club mtg tomorrow night.
Love having the tutorial to follow if I get brave enough to try making the jelly. Wonder if it would work as freezer jelly?

I can't say, Sandi. This is actually my very first foray into jelly making! I put the instructions/recipe together from research I did online, starting mostly with Green Dean's eattheweeds.com website. I will be curious what your fellow garden club friends think of it!

I will report back.

I have Beautyberry shrubs in my yard because I think the berries are really pretty plus the backyard birds eat them come fall and winter. I never thought to try to eat any myself.

Reporting back about the beautyberry taste testing at garden club mtg. Everyone I asked to try the berries said the same thing, "Can you really eat them?" All of them (about 10 that I counted) said the first bit of juice was sweet and they were surprised. I didn't come home with any cuttings. I was surprised that so many people didn't know what beautyberries looked like. Thanks for sharing the recipe and photos.

Interesting report!

I'll have to try it next year before the birds get to them. They're picked clean now. I have the white berried ones too. I wonder if they taste the same.

I've never grown (or even seen) the white berried ones.

I didn't even know there were white berried ones. But to me those beautiful livid purple berries they normally have are the reason for growing the shrubs. Love that color on the berries.

They aren't easy to find. I have tried to start them from seeds and cuttings with no luck but I am not set up to do cuttings properly with misters & all. I'll know I have pics of mine somewhere so I'll hook up my external hard drive and find them. They look just like the purple except the berries are white.

Dave, if you're any good at starting cuttings, I would be happy to send you some now or in the spring.

Actually, my pics are here in the plant database.