Things That Make Me Go "Hmmm": Jelly

The other day I went to the store, and bought jelly.  And at this very moment, most people reading this blog post are thinking "You're telling us this, why?" because going to the store and buying jelly is a perfectly normal, ordinary thing.  Not something blog worthy.

So let me back up a bit, and explain why my purchasing jelly at the grocery store is notable enough to post about.  Why jelly makes me go "hmmm".

Jelly makes me go "hmmm" because it has been, apparently, too many years since I have bought it.    I can't remember the date of my last jelly purchase, prior to the other day.  I can't even remember if I lived at this little place here when I bought jelly last.  We've lived at this little place here for coming on ten years.

In that time, jelly has changed.  It still looks the same, but when I turned the jar over and read the list of ingredients, I went "hmmm".  Maybe it's because I've been making jelly and jam of various flavors for so many years (at least 14), that the lists I read on the jars boggled my mind.  You see, when I make jelly it has three or four simple ingredients:  fruit, sugar, pectin, and maybe lemon juice to help stabilize color (especially in my strawberry jam).  That's it.  Four simple things.  Short words.  Words that pretty much anyone can read, and visualize what that item is, does, and looks like.

Not so the store jelly.  I was looking for grape jelly, since I was having a Push-Over Mom moment and actually buying some for DD1, who insisted it's her favorite and that she hasn't had it in forever because, well because I never buy it and I haven't had enough grapes yet to make it from scratch.  She laid the guilt trip on me that she has only had grape jelly at other people's houses in the last ten years.

I confess, grape is not my favorite.  When I was a kid, every pb & j sandwich my mom made, was with grape jelly.  As a mom myself, and a mom who makes jam and jelly, why would I go buy grape when I have in my cellar, made by myself (and a lot of the time, grown by myself) strawberry jam, blackberry jam, black cherry jam (sweet), tart cherry jam (like eating a sandwich with cherry pie slathered on it), peach jam, blueberry jam, apple jelly, dandelion jelly. . . See where I'm coming from???

So, anyway, I fell for her sob story, hook, line and sinker.  On my next grocery shopping trip, I actually went down the jelly aisle.  I actually grabbed a jar of grape jelly. Then I turned it over and read:

Concord grapes, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, fruit pectin, citric acid, sodium citrate.

Hmmm.

I picked up a jar of another brand of grape jelly.  And found concord grape juice, high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, fruit pectin, citric acid and sodium citrate.

Hmmm.

A third jar of grape jelly, store brand.  Exactly the same ingredients as the second jar.

Hmmm.

Was it impossible to buy jelly without that darn high fructose corn syrup?  (I could do an entire website devoted to my disgust with how prevalent high fructose corn syrup is.  It is on my 'not a food' list; it gives me migraines and is one of those dreaded artificial sweeteners that used to send DS2 into asthma attacks before I learned to scan labels for it.)

Desperate, my eyes fell on a jar of "natural" concord grape spread.  Not jelly, mind you, but "spread".  What the difference is, I have no idea.  It, however, does not contain high fructose corn syrup.  Says so right on the label, in big letters, just as big as the ones that say "spread". On the back, where the ingredients are listed, I find:  concord grapes, sugar, fruit pectin, citric acid and sodium citrate.

Phew.  I still don't understand the sodium citrate, as sodium indicates a type of salt, and no jelly I've ever made has called for salt, but oh well.  It's grape jelly, made with real grapes, and real sugar.  Winner, winner, chicken dinner! I'm taking it home!

It also cost about a dollar more than the same size jars of grape jelly made with high fructose corn syrup.  Hmmm.  I need to plant more grapes.


(bonus points to anyone who was of high school or college age in the early 1990's who went to youtube and looked up C&C Music Factory.  Things that make you go hmmm.  Ahh, memories, LOL)