Borage Jelly

Borage jelly is a fun herbal jelly with a fresh cucumber flavor that’s lovely spread on a warm spring biscuit.

Herbal jellies are just another fun way to enjoy your herb garden. In past years, we’ve made lemon balm jelly, sunny calendula jelly, cozy chamomile jelly, and even spicy, savory chive blossom jelly, so borage jelly felt like a natural next one to try.

Borage is an aggressive self-seeder, and once you’ve planted it, you’ll be growing it for life. That means there’s always plenty on hand to experiment with, and a jelly is a nice way to put some of it up.

What Does Borage Jelly Taste Like?

Borage jelly has a light, fresh cucumber flavor that comes through clearly, whether you use the flowers, the leaves, or both. It’s mild and a little herbal, the kind of thing that’s lovely on a spring biscuit or alongside a soft, mild cheese.

The color is a soft, pale green. The blue flowers look beautiful in the garden but don’t pass much color into the pot, so if you want a deeper green you can add a few drops of natural green food coloring. For a pink-purple jar instead, use just the flowers and muddle in a few blueberries or blackberries.

Choosing and Harvesting Borage

Borage is an easy garden herb, and once you’ve planted it, it tends to reseed itself and come back on its own each year. Both the leaves and the blue star-shaped flowers are edible and carry the same cucumber flavor, so you can harvest whichever you have more of, or a mix of the two.

When I was working out this recipe, I tried batches with just the flowers, just the leaves, and both together. They all tasted similar, but the mix of flowers and leaves gave the fullest flavor. Harvest from plants grown without pesticides, pick the leaves and flowers over for insects (bees love borage), and rinse them before you start.

Ingredients for Borage Jelly

Borage jelly uses the same basic formula as other flower jellies: fresh borage steeped into a tea, then set with sugar, pectin, and a bit of lemon juice for balance and safety.

• Borage Leaves and Flowers: Use the leaves, the flowers, or a mix of both, all chopped finely so they give up the most flavor. Harvest from plants grown without pesticides and rinse them first. Borage is best enjoyed in moderation, so if you’ve never eaten it before, start with a small amount.
• Water: Use clean filtered water if your tap water has a strong chlorine taste, which can carry through into the mild borage flavor.
• Lemon Juice: The lemon juice adds a bit of tart contrast that brings out the borage flavor, helps the pectin set, and lowers the pH enough to make the jelly safe for canning. Use bottled lemon juice for its consistent acidity, and don’t cut it back. For a more neutral flavor you can use citric acid powder instead, at about 1 teaspoon in place of the 1/4 cup of lemon juice.
• Sugar: Regular powdered pectin needs plenty of sugar to gel, so this recipe follows the current Sure Jell ratio of 5 cups sugar to 4 cups of liquid for an old-fashioned jelly that sets reliably. There’s a lower-sugar option in the note just below if you’d prefer one.
• Pectin: Reach for regular powdered pectin (like Sure Jell) here. It’s dependable and gives a consistent set with this borage tea.

How to Make Borage Jelly

Making borage jelly works like the other herbal and flower jellies: steep the borage into a tea, then set that tea with lemon juice, pectin, and sugar. Borage is a leafy herb as much as a flower, so it needs to be chopped before steeping to pull out the most flavor.

Don’t skip the lemon juice. It balances the sweetness, helps the pectin set, and lowers the pH enough to make the jelly safe for water bath canning, so it stays in the recipe even if you’re keeping your jars in the fridge.

Prepare the Borage

You’ll want 2 to 4 cups of fresh borage, leaves or flowers or a mix of both. I like to pick directly into a quart jar, since it’s the right size for steeping, tearing the leaves up as I go.

Borage really does need to be chopped to give up its flavor, so don’t skip that step. Pick the leaves and flowers over for insects and give them a quick rinse before you start.

Make the Borage Tea

Bring 4 cups of water to a boil and pour it over the chopped borage. Let it steep for about 15 to 20 minutes, which is plenty of time to pull the cucumber flavor into the water.

Strain the tea through a fine mesh strainer into your jelly pot, pressing gently on the borage, and you should have about 4 cups of borage tea.

Add Lemon Juice and Pectin

Add 1/4 cup of bottled lemon juice to the borage tea. (The lemon balances the sweetness, helps the pectin set, and brings the pH down into the safe range for canning, so don’t leave it out.) Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat.

Once it’s boiling, whisk in one box of powdered pectin until it dissolves completely, then keep it at a full boil for one minute before you add the sugar.

Add the Sugar

After that minute of boiling with the pectin, add 5 cups of sugar all at once. (Don’t add the sugar before or at the same time as the pectin, or the jelly won’t set.) Stir until the sugar dissolves completely, then bring everything back to a full rolling boil for one more minute.

Pull the pot off the heat and skim off any foam with a spoon. Ladle the hot jelly into prepared jars right away, leaving 1/4 inch of headspace.

Canning Borage Jelly

Canning is optional, but it’s a nice way to keep this herbal jelly on the shelf year-round, and it makes a thoughtful gift. If you’d rather skip it, let the jars cool completely on the counter, then store the jelly in the refrigerator for a few weeks or in the freezer for up to 6 months.

To can borage jelly, have your water bath canner, jars, and lids ready before you start. After filling the jars and leaving 1/4 inch of headspace, wipe the rims with a clean, damp cloth, set on the two-part canning lids, and tighten the bands until fingertip tight.

Process in a boiling water bath canner for 10 minutes. Lift the jars out and let them cool undisturbed on a towel for 24 hours, then check the seals. Refrigerate any jars that didn’t seal and use them first. Properly sealed jars hold their quality on the pantry shelf for 12 to 18 months, and you’ll want to refrigerate after opening.

Ways to Use Borage Jelly

Borage jelly is mild and cucumber-fresh, so it suits light, simple foods. Spread it on a warm biscuit, a scone, or a piece of toast, or set it out next to a soft, mild cheese where its herbal side can come through. It also makes a pretty gift, especially for a fellow gardener.

This jelly takes well to a savory turn, too. You can make fresh borage in my savory herbal jelly recipe if you’d rather pair it with a cheese board than a breakfast spread. And for more ways to use borage, the plant turns up in everything from borage tea to sauteed greens with walnut sauce.

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