FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
Qi 
possible to give methods or recipes. 
Should you be interested in these, you will 
find a collection of the ones that Dr. 
Straughn, of the U. S. Department of 
Agriculture, Bureau of Chemistry, Wash¬ 
ington, D. C. and others have worked out 
for us, in Bulletin No. 8, “Jellies, Pre¬ 
serves and Marmalades.’’ 
GUAVAS 
In entering this discussion, we will first 
take up the guava. The two products 
from this fruit which we are emphasiz¬ 
ing, are the canned guava in tin and glass, 
and the jelly from seed, pulp and peel. 
We recommend the canning of the thick 
meated guava, with seed and pulp re¬ 
moved, in a heavy syrup; and the making 
of jelly from the seed, peel and pulp. 
The guava may be canned without sugar, 
but the fruit canned in the syrup is a far 
superior product. This should in part 
replace the canned California peach on 
the Florida grocery shelves. 
In DeSoto County last fall, Elma 
Wetherington, assisted by members of her 
family, put up 1,000 No. 2 cans of guavas 
in a heavy syrup, and soldi them for 
from 10 to 12 cents per can. In Marion 
County one family put up 895 No. 3 
cans and sold them at 35 cents per can 
retail. In a number of other instances, 
families have canned guavas. I have 
never heard of anyone failing to dispose 
of their guavas. Of course, it is much 
better for commercial purposes to can any 
fruit in tin. Even with cans at the pres¬ 
ent prices, we will be able to sell products 
for sufficient profit to make it worth 
while. 
GUAVA JELLY 
In studying the making of any jelly, 
we might with profit, refer to Miss 
Goldthwaite’s Bulletin on Jellies and 
Jelly-making, published by the University 
of Illinois, (Champaign, Ill.) as result of 
Miss Goldthwaite’s reseach work begun 
in 1908. Miss Goldthwaite says : “Ideal 
fruit jelly is a beautifully colored, trans¬ 
parent, palatable product obtained by so 
treating fruit juice, that the resulting 
mass will quiver, not flow, when removed 
from its mold; a product with texture so 
tender that it cuts easily with a spoon, 
and yet so firm that the angles thus pro¬ 
duced, retain their shape, a clear product 
that is neither syrupy, gummy, sticky nor 
tough, neither is it brittle, and yet it will 
break and does this with a distinct beauti¬ 
ful cleavage which leaves sparkling char¬ 
acteristic faces. This is that delicious, 
appetizing substance, a fruit jelly.” 
To get an ideal fruit jelly, several fac¬ 
tors must be considered. In the fruit 
juice there must be a substance akin to 
starch in composition and similar to gela¬ 
tin in characteristics only, called pectin. 
This substance occurs in cooked juices in 
larger quantities than in the raw juice. 
A jelly may be produced if the juice 
contains this substance and also> contains 
sufficient acid, with the proper amount of 
sugar added. An equal amount of ethyl 
alcohol and the fruit juice shaken to¬ 
gether gently, but never stirred, gives 
you instantly, definite information as to 
whether or not the juice contains pectin 
and in what proportion. If pectin is pres¬ 
ent the alcohol precipitates in a clot. The 
quantity of sugar added, should be based 
