🍬 Homemade Gummy Worms — A Fun & Simple Halloween Treat

Today in Farm School, we celebrated with a fun Halloween party and enjoyed homemade gummy worms for our snack. These treats are always a hit and surprisingly easy to make! One of the best parts about this recipe is that it doesn’t require high heat—you only need to warm the juice enough to dissolve the honey and gelatin.

🍓 Choose Your Flavor & Color

You can use any juice or fruit purée for your gummies. Our juice was already on the sweeter side, so I didn’t add honey this time. The recipe allows 0–3 tablespoons of honey, so you can adjust based on the sweetness of your liquid.

You can get creative by making two flavors or colors in a single worm. Simply layer different juices or purées in sections of the mold before refrigerating. Kids love experimenting with colors and seeing the layered effects!

Science of Color Change

Remember our blue butterfly pea experiment? When we added lemon juice, it turned purple! Purple cabbage works in a similar way. These ingredients contain pigments called anthocyanins, which are pH-sensitive. Adding citrus juice like lemon or orange will turn purple cabbage pink or red, because the acid changes the pigment. This is the same principle scientists use in pH indicator experiments, making it a fun, edible way for kids to explore chemistry.

Tips for experimenting with color:

• Start with small amounts of powders to avoid overpowering flavor.

• Mix juice and herbal tea for pastel shades.

• Try adding a little citrus to purple cabbage juice to see a color change in real time!

  🌈 Color Your Gummies

  Even just using juice gives the gummies some color, but you can make them even more vibrant with natural powders and purées:

  Green: spirulina powder, spinach juice, matcha powder
  Red / Pink: beet juice or powder, strawberry or raspberry purée
  Orange / Yellow: carrot juice, turmeric powder, mango purée
  Purple / Blue: blueberry purée, purple cabbage juice, blue spirulina
  Brown / Tan: cacao powder, chai or rooibos tea

❄️ Chill, Dry, and Enjoy

Once your gummies are poured into molds, refrigerate until set. You can enjoy them immediately—the kids often do! 😋 They’ll be a little softer and wetter than store-bought gummies.

For a firmer, chewy gummy-bear texture, leave the gummies uncovered in the fridge for 1–2 days to dry out slightly.

Refrigeration is important for homemade gummies for a few key reasons:

1. Sets the Gelatin – Gelatin needs cool temperatures to firm up. Without chilling, the gummies will stay liquid or too soft and won’t hold their shape.

2. Improves Texture – Cooling the gummies helps them develop that classic chewy texture. Starting them in the fridge allows them to solidify evenly and prevents them from being sticky or runny.

3. Preserves Freshness – Refrigeration slows bacterial growth and keeps your gummies safe to eat for several days.

4. Helps Layers Hold – If you’re doing multi-colored or multi-flavor layers, chilling each layer before adding the next prevents them from mixing together, keeping your worms visually appealing.

🍋 Add a Little Tang

You can even add that sour coating but a couple things to note:

Make sure your gummies are fully dried before coating. If they’re too moist, the sugar will draw out water and make the gummies sticky.

This sour coating trick demonstrates a simple chemistry principle: sugar is hygroscopic, meaning it naturally attracts water. If the gummies still have moisture on their surface, the sugar pulls it out, creating a sticky mess. Drying first ensures the coating stays crisp.

You can also turn this into a mini experiment: coat half your gummies right away, leave the others to dry, and compare which ones stay firm. It’s a delicious way for kids to see science in action!

🐄 Why Gelatin Is So Good for Growing Kids

These gummies aren’t just fun—they’re nutritious! I use high-quality grass-fed gelatin, which gives them perfect texture while supporting health.

Gelatin is rich in collagen-building amino acids like glycine and proline. These nutrients help support:

• Strong bones and flexible joints

• Healthy hair, skin, and nails

• Gentle digestion and gut lining repair, supporting immune health

Historically, families ate more of the whole animal—bones, skin, and connective tissues—through soups, broths, and stews. Gelatin was a kitchen staple in Europe and America for fruit jellies, aspics, and more. Using it in snacks like these is a simple, kid-friendly way to bring back those nourishing benefits.

Is grass-fed important??

Using grass-fed gelatin matters because the source and quality of the animals directly affects the nutritional value and purity of the gelatin. Here’s why:

1. Higher Nutrient Density – Animals that eat a natural grass-based diet produce collagen with a better amino acid profile, including glycine and proline, which are key for healthy joints, skin, hair, nails, and gut lining.

2. Fewer Additives & Contaminants – Grass-fed animals aren’t fed genetically modified grains, antibiotics, or hormones that are sometimes found in conventionally raised livestock. This makes the gelatin cleaner and safer.

3. Better Ethical and Environmental Practices – Grass-fed animals are typically pasture-raised, which is better for animal welfare and the land compared to factory-farmed animals.

4. Consistency & Quality – Grass-fed gelatin often gels more reliably and tastes neutral, so your gummies set perfectly and have a clean flavor.

For kids and families, this ensures you’re getting maximum nutritional benefit while keeping snacks wholesome and safe.

🌿 Make It Even More Nutritious

You can boost nutrition by substituting your juice:

• Elderberry juice for immune support

• Herbal teas for flavor and gentle nutrients

• Fresh fruit purées for vitamins, color, and sweetness

Mix, match, and layer flavors and colors—each batch can be its own creative experiment!

Sourcing Ingredients

For molds, I used silicone gummy worm molds, but you can also use Halloween-themed shapes like spiders, skulls, or multi halloween shapes make the activity extra festive. I plan to order some of these fun shapes for next year!

For gelatin, I make sure I use high-quality grass-fed gelatin. This ensures it’s nourishing and free from unnecessary additives. This is the one I use Grass Fed Gelatin

(Yes, I’m an Amazon affiliate. At no extra cost to you, it’s a way we can keep providing our free Farm School materials. These links above all send you directly to the amazon link. Thank you for supporting our family farm!)

Thank you for your support! If you make this recipe feel free to tag us on social media @k2acres! We love to be kept in the loop and appreciate ANY and ALL feedback!