Blue Jelly: Love Lost & the Lessons of Canning

by Debby Bull

Former Rolling Stone writer Debby Bull recovers from a broken heart by making jelly. Though her boyfriend dedicates a novel to her and then leaves her in the middle of a party she gives to celebrate its publication, she comes away from it all with more than the bouquet of magazine scent strips that he left behind. In attempting to get rid of his stuff, she discovers the Zen of making jam, and through it the simple pleasure of creating a little world in which things turn out the way they're supposed to. She shares her funny stories of love lost, the twisted road out of her depression and the advice she got from psychics and strangers. Each of the chapters sees her go off in a new direction, looking for help in a different way, from dating again to taking a job, and sampling all the new cultural landscape has to offer to heal, from seeing a shrink to taking a seminar with a relationships guru. After years in New York and a move to Montana, Bull finds herself suddenly drawn back to her childhood home of Wisconsin, where "USA Today has just announced in a colorful pie chart that the people there are the only ones in the country who are fatter and drinking more beer than they were ten years ago." Bull delights in taking aim at all the celebrities who've crossed her path as a journalist, tossing their worst moments into the stories wherever they help. Wise, funny, and enlightening in spite of itself, Blue Jelly argues that depression, when it sends you off on adventures like these, is very good for the soul. Plus, there are 15 real canning recipes.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Food, Foodie, Humor, Book Club, Cookbooks

176 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1997

Reviews

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve bought this book about 4 times because I keep giving it away to friends, but then I miss having my own copy. This book makes me laugh no matter what is going on around me. It’s a hip version of “Like Water for Chocolate” following the model of sharing a story through personal recipes. “Blue Jelly” is all canning tips and recipes mixed in with recovery over a lost love.

[Debra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bull's depression drove her to jelly. Yes, the love of her life left her and as she tries one lame therapy or technique after another, we learn that there is a string of ruined relationships. She leaves the details of the failed relationship to our imagination. We just know she hates her life at this point. Canning and preserving is her means back to some semblance of normalcy. Each chapter ends with a jelly or jam or pickle recipe that somewhat illustrates the theme of the chapter. Don't dismiss the recipes. You need to read them in their entirety. If you skip the instructions you will certainly miss her discussions about dating semi-famous men and interviewing the likes of Bob Marley.

As Bull tries to pull herself together, she seeks out different paths (besides canning) to ease her suffering and to try to find enlightenment and happiness.

There's the 35,000-year-old channeler in the California desert.
There's the House of Gurus (no, wait, that's the House of Guns).
There's the therapist that equates her situation to the plot of The Little Mermaid.
There's the Loving Relationship weekend workshop that turns out to be rebirthing mumbo-jumbo.
There's getting sage advice from a mass murderer in a state mental institution.
There's another self-help retreat in the Bahamas, but she's on the outside looking in on that one.
There's the LA psychic.
There's her attendance of a murder trial, the suspect on trial for poisoning her abusive husband.
There's the trip to India for fortune telling and guru guidance.

As she weaves her hilarious tale of canning to survive, she describes her other near misses and relationship rubble:

She inspires a break up song that becomes a hit for Marty Stuart.

She gets kissed by Steven Wright during an interview and "thinks" they're dating for a while.

Luckily, she found her "own private Oprah" in Cara, a woman she met in the desert. Cara's no-nonsense-ness was about the only thing Bull had going for her, that and the jelly (and jam and pickles).

Blue Jelly is a quick read and although you might get a bit perturbed at the author and want to yell, "Snap outta' it!", I think by the final chapter you might smile. (Especially with her epilogue entitled "Better Than Botulism---A few things you need to know about canning.")

Regarding getting jelly to the proper temperature and stage, she writes, "This is the part where you have to concentrate. You could wreck everything, or you could turn your whole life around"(17). I think she needed to just stick with the jelly making. But then, we wouldn't have her humorous misadventures into enlightenment.

[Katt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book. It helped me think through a fog of Zanex and divorce papers.

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Martha Stewart meets Cameron Crowe. A novel approach to "getting over the ex" and this genre. Light, funny and educational.

[raccoon reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fabulously quick read. If David Sedaris had been a female with a canning obsession, he would have written a book like this. I love her smooth easy style of writing. It's very conversational and to the point. Make sure to read the fine print of the recipes or you'll miss out on some very funny commentary and tips. I think only people who have a)ever been depressed and b)canned and c)wondered why everyone else seems to be married and with kids will get the dark honest humor of this book. If I could quote this whole book I would.

[Greta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very entertaining! Following a bad breakup, the details of which are never fully revealed, the author turns to canning and travel to lift her spirits. Even the recipes, included at the end of each chapter, are entertaining to read, as the author embellishes the instructions somewhat with memories or comments.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book in one sitting. I love when people write from a place of complete vulnerability and honesty, and especially when they do it with humor, and that's exactly what this author did. Plus she really makes you want to learn how to make jam!

[Abby Hastings · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a short and easy book to read. It had a lot of great information about both canning and human emotion, which was an interesting combination. It was pretty funny at times too.

[Librarian Bee · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars
A great resource for simple canning recipes. Other than that, I was not a fan of the writing style.

[Andi · Rating 4 out of 5]

So somehow, when my dating life finally seems to be going well (really well - can you see my smile from there?), I find these great books like Drunk, Divorced, and Covered in Cat Hair that deal with break-ups. I think there’s something to this - maybe I can just hear what these books have to say now. In any case, they’re great.

And I just finished another wonderful one - Blue Jelly by Debby Bull. I will admit that it’s not the best writing I’ve ever read - at times, Bull loses me completely, like a train of thought or crucial transition accidentally got deleted - but all of that gets overridden by the sentiment and concept of the book.

In short, after Bull’s boyfriend leaves, she begins canning - making jelly, jam, blueberry butter, etc - and finds this therapeutic. In the book she details her emotional recovery and intersperses directions for canning various things. The recipes are solid and wittily conveyed, and at moments, Bull is prescient for anyone who has had a broken heart (and who hasn’t?)

For instance, she says:

You get to practice restraint when you make jelly; the juice drips in an agonizingly slow way from the jelly bag, and you just have to wait. Crabapple juice is a dream pink. I’ve found that when you’re really devastated, it’s the best color to wear. People don’t want to cream you when you’re wearing pink. Instead, they’ll ask you if you need anything, which is probably a far cry from the way Bob was treating you when he left.

The book is falling into a tradition of books by women who are empowering themselves to survive life’s heartbreaks by using the tools women have often used - food, yarn, and conversation. These may be things feminism should not have been so quick to discard. Is it really bad to be in the kitchen if we choose to put ourselves there?

So pick up Bull’s book for the recipes and the insight - and the laughs (those that may even come through tears). And if you’re down, make something - apple butter, bread, a scarf . . . Love yourself back; this seems key.

[Eric_W · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently obtained an enormous selection of audiobooks in MP3 format from a company in England called Audiobooksforfree.com. They insert very short little promos at the beginning of each chapter, and that’s how they are able to supply these books for free. They can be downloaded off the Internet or obtained in bulk. Of course, one takes the risk of getting crud or worse, abridged titles, but they are free.

I was poking around through the selections and stumbled on this little gem. Even though it’s abridged, the episodic nature of the chapters means that the abridgement could be done without castrating the content, as is usually the case.

Debby Bull was a Rolling Stone editor and writer who became very depressed after the end of a love affair, and her book describes the odd little events and observations on her way through serious soul-searching. The best therapy, of the many she tried, was canning jellies and jams, and her comments before, during and after the recipes are hilarious. You will laugh out loud. Sheila and I listened to the book while traveling and both of us enjoyed it immensely. Listen to it. It's just great.

[TienvoorNegen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Funny, hopeful, close to the heart imaginative feel good book with a few excellent canning recipes.
I love this book about working yourself through the grief of a love that has been lost, picking yourself up from the kitchen floor where you laid crying and finding new ground to build yourself up.
Laughing out loud funny.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book a couple of years ago. I remember loving it. I should read it again sometime. I also remember that it had some great/unique jelly recipes.

[Vicki · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very funny book if you are in the mood.

[Les · Rating 2 out of 5]

My Original Notes (1998):

Didn't do anything for me. A quick, but somewhat dull read.

I met the author in Cleveland at a small book conference. She's very witty, but the book was a disappointment.

My Current Thoughts:

I enjoyed meeting the author at a book conference in Cleveland in 1998, but had never heard of her and wasn't impressed with her book. I do remember that she was quite humorous. She, Lorna Landvik and Mary Doria Russell had us in stitches, they were so funny! Too bad her book wasn't.

[Katherine Joyce · Rating 4 out of 5]

144 pages, super short but sweet.
Great advice...when everything around you is crashing down and you can't control anything, find a little world that you can be the ruler of. Now I want to do some canning with my mama.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another breakup book, but this one was really different. Her wit is apparent, but is muted because of her sadness. I can understand that.

There’s hope at the end, as well as an appendix on canning, and it is actually something I really want to try.

[Cecil · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book when it first came out in 1997, and it is what convinced me that even I could make jelly (and jam and fruit butter, etc). Since then, I’ve turned into that person who can pickle anything. All thanks to Debby Bull’s heartbreak.

[Carrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book isn't for everyone but for me it was the right book at the right time, given to me by a dear friend right after I got divorced. Re-reading again now it still holds some bitter but amazing humor, and the WI/ND/MT locations bring it home for me.

[Annie Mahre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny and wise with good recipes!

[Seo H. Choi · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a delightful little read. It was hilarious and touching in so many parts and overall full of uplifting wisdom.

[Tangerine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Outdated.

[Nikki Leitzke · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really just enjoyed the recipes and learning a bit about canning!

[Bonnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a sucker for cooking as a metaphor, and in no other book have I run across it more than in this one. A wonderful laugh-at, laugh-along book, and a quick read. I read the entire thing, 144 short pages, on a walk through a ravine, and just enough up a hill to snatch a bunch of wild green grapes from the backyard of a sunflower miser, while a hawk floated lazily overhead to remind me that life can be light and breezy.

Crab Apple Jelly: "Add the sugar to the boiling juice, stir to dissolve it, and boil fast to the jelly stage. This is the part where you have to concentrate. You could wreck everything, or you could turn your whole life around."

"If you don't know what a jelly bag is, invent something. It'll make you feel too clever to be in a relationship with a jerk."

But the author really had me from the get-go with, "You can die trying to get along with a disagreeable man."

And then the redemptive ending: "And there it was, suddenly and quickly, out of nowhere, that feeling I'd almost forgotten, when someone's heart opens to let you in. I knew that I wouldn't be canning for a while, but I had absorbed in every cell the lesson of jelly: if you are patient enough, it always turns out."

[eRin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this a few months ago when I was attempting to recover from a horrible break-up. I didn't know at the time that it was about to get much, much worse. Back to the point, it was a decent book. I was hoping to get some single, I-just-lost-the-love-of-my-life-and-my-whole-future inspiration. That didn't really happen. What did happen was I convinced myself that I would start to can stuff, too! It would be a terrific distraction and I could enjoy my work all year long. It was a nice dream for a second before I realize that I despise cooking and the recipes clearly indicated that it was far too complicated for my short attention span. The end result was that I decided I need a hobby like Bull, but it's sure as hell not going to be canning. I'm still looking...

[Clare · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yes, like you, I only heard about this book from the April 2013 issue of Real Simple magazine. But it is seriously sooooo good.

Debby Bull recounts the pain of her breakup while teaching herself how to make jelly.

I know how odd it sounds, but it's an amazing, inspiring book. I plan to give this to a recently divorced friend

It's pee-your-pants funny - right in the middle of a scene that has me weeping - and the jelly & canning recipes, while they don't appeal to me, have basic and true life lessons that apply to everything.

"Take your time throwing the scum out or you might get burned."

"Out of bitter, the sweet is surprising" - Stuff like that.

It's a short read and worth it.

[Emilie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Blue Jelly is a really cute novel and an easy read. I can't say it's awe inspiring or life altering but it's a good story about a woman who's dumped by her boyfriend that she's been supporting for years while he wrote his novel. Jelly making became her hobby to try and get her ex off of her mind and it worked!


When I went throught a major break up, I went on a semi permanent retreat! I moved out to the country. I was surrounded by a pasture of horses, cows and chickens! I believe it helped. Sometimes you have to latch onto what makes you comfortable at the time and ride that wave for a few months.

[Kellie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book up at a garage sale. It is a quirky, fun to read book about the end of a romantic relationship and how the author distracts herself by canning. It seems she cans everything you can possibly think of and she is very good at it. I can't say I ever laughed out loud but I was highly amused by some of the situations she found herself in and the way she described canning as though it was her drug of choice. I thought it was a pleasant read and hope she's found someone who deserves her. The recipes are actually real ones and I'll keep it with my cookbooks.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Blah blah blah, whine, whine, whine. Granted, I have not had a breakup in a very long time, but if I did, would I go to countless seminars and retreats to recover? No. So, that was annoying. The redeeming quality of this book was that you can tell Debby Bull is an author, and an accomplished writer, in SOME sentences. There are some sentences that are written so exceptionally well that it made it worth my time to read to the end.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author goes through a break-up and spends many months in different therapies trying to determine what went wrong. Each month, when she returns from the latest therapy failure, she can what grew in her garden while she was gone. This is a quick read, and is entertaining. It also contains recipes for what she cans.