Lemon + Honey Jellies

For some time now, Joan has been interested in letters and words. With her glitter pens and notebook, she’ll sit at the kitchen table and write pages of letters, some of them backwards, then ask me to read her writing out to her. I have a growing collection of her work on top of the fridge, which is admittedly not the best place to store cherished keepsakes; perhaps I’ll get around to creating a good system now we are all home with extra time on our hands.

Last week Joan was watching Sesame Street. When the letter of the day song came on (do you know the one? It’s a gem) she called me in, as she always does, so that we could dance together and take a guess at what letter it would be (it was C, FYI). As I was singing along I realised this was something we could do ourselves - we could select a letter and use it to punctuate our days at home. I don’t feel the need to do any formal lessons with Joan while we’re isolating, but I do want to give her opportunities to explore her interests and continue to foster a love of learning. And because she’s interested in language, I felt this might be a good fit.

We’ve been doing the letter of the day thing for a week now and Joan has become increasingly engaged with the concept. Each night at dinner we select the letter for the following day. Then, once she’s asleep, I draw the chosen letter on a piece of paper and leave it on the kitchen bench for her to find in the morning, along with one or two objects that begin with that letter. That’s pretty much the extent of my planning; the rest unfolds quite naturally. Indeed, even when I’m having the sort of day when I just want to hide in my bedroom with a book and cup of coffee, I find it exceedingly easy to thread the letter throughout our day, allowing it to gently influence what books we read, what coloured pencils we use, what food we make and what music we listen to.

A couple of days ago the letter of the day was L. We started the day drawing love hearts and the word LOVE, then we played libraries, read books with titles that begin with L, made lasagne for dinner and collected leaves to decorate the dining table. It was a good day; L was fun. We especially enjoyed making lemon + honey jellies during Walt’s morning nap.

I’ve been making jellies ever since I was pregnant with Walt and struggling with nausea, as they were one of the few foods I found appealing (the gelatin also gives your body nutrients that are super valuable during pregnancy). Joan loves them and I’ll often include a jelly in her kinder lunchbox. I buy NutraOrganics gelatin powder and have always followed the instructions on the packet, adding 100% fruit juice as my liquid. Until a couple of days ago, that is, when we tried a recipe I had bookmarked on 123 Nourish Me’s instagram page (I buy their sunscreen, it’s excellent). Their recipe called for lemons and honey along with the gelatin powder, which was perfectly fitting because had a bowlful of lemons from my parents’ tree, waiting to be used. Mum and Dad had dropped a bunch of homegrown fruit and some sourdough to our doorstep last week. As we stood there, waving to each other on either side of the window, it felt so strange to not be able to open the door and hug them. Walt was squealing with joy, trying to touch my Dad’s hands through the glass, and I just wanted to sob.

These jellies, though…

My goodness, they’re GREAT. Joan and I couldn’t quite believe how good they were. In between bites we’d say, “wow” and “yum” over and over. I’m hoping our lemon tree comes through with the goods this year because I know I will want to make these jellies often. I recommend you use meyer lemons here if you can, or any lemon you enjoy the taste of, as that will influence the overall flavour. The same goes for the honey. In terms of the silicone moulds we used, they’re a mix of little ones in different shapes that used to belong to my Mum.

Lemon + Honey Jellies recipe link

Heidi xo