In this informal, parent‑child cooking video, Chef James and his daughter Thea demonstrate how to make two varieties of homemade vitamin‑C‑rich gummies: cherry‑cranberry gummies and Meyer lemon gummies. Thea helps with every step, from squeezing lemons to measuring ingredients, while James explains the purpose of each component. They start by preparing the fruit base—using frozen cherries, fresh cranberries, and freshly squeezed Meyer lemon juice—adding raw honey (or optional maple syrup) for sweetness, a splash of water, and grass‑fed gelatin to set the gummies. The mixture is blended, transferred to a pot, gently heated to dissolve the gelatin, then poured into silicone molds shaped like stars and hearts (or a simple dish). After a brief 17‑minute chill in the refrigerator, the gummies are ready to be served, with a note to save some for Mom who prefers the lemon flavor. Throughout, James offers practical tips on handling lemon halves, avoiding seed mess, using towels, and involving kids safely in the kitchen.
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Hello, my name is Chef James.
What?
My name is Thea, and today we're making gummies.
Um, cherry cranberry gummies.
Yeah, less lemons.
Yes.
And we're gonna make Gummy lemons too!
Oh yeah, we did make some. So we're using Meyer lemons because they're a little sweeter, but you can use regular lemons too. Will you start getting the juice out of these lemons?
I can't, I don't know how.
Oh, okay. Oh, here. So you take the lemon half and you push it down with all your strength, and then you squeeze it. I'll do the first one, you do the second one.
Okay, Daddy. Whoa, that's a lot of juice.
That's a lot of juice.
Daddy, can you push with me?
Okay. Good. Yeah, I need a towel. Oh, okay, one second.
Yeah, we need towels if we get all dirty.
That's right.
And I always leave this towel here.
So when you're doing gummies, we have to have these. Yeah, you need molds. Now we have some that are like— what are these the shape of?
Shells.
What are these the shape of?
Stars!
What are these the shape of?
Hearts!
Yeah, or you can just use a dish. First things we're gonna do is we're gonna throw our stuff in the blender.
What's a blender?
Here's the blender top. So this is 1 cup of frozen— we're using frozen cherries, but you can use fresh. But the key is you're doing 1 cup. And then we're adding some cranberries because we had some leftover, so we're using some cranberries. We're using 2 tablespoons of cranberries. Pour that in there. And then we're going to add that lemon juice.
Now, I'm going to pour this in here. How do I get the seeds out?
No, when you pour it, see how the seeds are stuck inside the ring? So when you pour it, you just hold it there and just tip it. There you go. So now we have to add our sweetener. We're using raw honey. You could technically use maple syrup. But we like the honey aspect of it because it keeps it a nice, clear, brighter gummy. So then we also have 2 tablespoons of water just to add even more liquid. Next, we're gonna blend it. We have our blend. We're now gonna stick that into a pot here, and we're also gonna add our gelatin. That's what's gonna help make it into a gummy. You can get an opening all the way through the circle. And so we use grass-fed gelatin. This is actually a great product. So we're going to measure out 3 tablespoons. Okay, there's 1. Okay, how about I pour it in here and then you, um, you pour it in.
There you go. 2. Can I stir it?
Yeah. We're going to just briefly stick it on the stove. And heat it up because this gelatin needs a little heat to, to basically dissolve.
And now the jellies are all ready.
I'm just transferring it to a pourable container because otherwise it gets really messy. So what mold should we use?
I will say star and hearts.
Heart. Okay, so we're going to do stars and hearts because this recipe fits about 2 of these. So then you're just pouring it in, just try to go as slow as possible. I'm going to get these in the refrigerator and we have to wait for— do you know how long?
17 minutes.
17 minutes.
Here's our finished gummies. Cranberry, lemon.
We better save some for your mama because she said she wants all the lemon ones.
Oh yeah, yeah. Okay, how about we take the lemon ones for her?
That sounds like a plan.
Thanks, because she don't like these.
Okay, so Sia just left the room, so this is just between me and you parents. So these gummies are really great for hiding For example, if your kid is feeling sick, you can add mixed sorbet powder, you can add echinacea. Now, I have secret access to this stuff because my wife's a nutritionist, but you can find these in store, or you can go to— if you're working with her, you can get them. But I seriously recommend it because every time our daughter starts to feel sick, basically what I do is I hide these ingredients, particularly the echinacea. Does she know? It doesn't really taste very good, but I hide it in these gummies and she eats them all up and it's so good for her. And then she doesn't get sick for very long. So I highly recommend it. But shh, keep it a secret between you and me.
