Wild Food

You can make rose hip jelly from any kind of rose bush fruit, the bigger the fruit the better. I use wild roses because I like to glean wild foods for a hobby. I created a painting today because I can't find my photos I took of my wild rose bushes and their fruit. Painting is on 300lb hot press cotton paper using pen, watercolor, and gouache. 

                                                      Link to the progression work of this painting.

Make sure your rose bushes haven't been sprayed with chemicals. The rose hips taste better after the first frost. Rose hips have an amazing amount of Vitamin C and are great for your immune system. You can also make rose hip tea, here is a link to a nice recipe. 

                                Details on Canning Jams and Jellies

                                            Rose Hip Jelly With No Pectin

•   2 pounds of rose hips, remove what's left of the flower and rinse well with water.
•   2 pints of water for your rose hips, 3 cups of water for your apples
•   3 cups of sugar
•   Sieve and colander
•  Large cheese cloth 
•  1/3 cup of lemon juice if you are not using crab apples.
•   5 - tart apples around, 3 lbs, 1 cup of water to one pound of apples, cut into quarters.  The apple with the most pectin, which sets up a firm jelly are called crab apples, they are small, any where to plum size to the size of a small ladies fist.  If you don't have access to crab apples use 5 green apples, both varieties don't need to be peeled unless they are commercial produce and covered with pesticides and herbicides. The core and the peel contain a lot of pectin as well. One pound of fruit should produce one cup of liquid.

Boil rose hips in 2 pints of water until tender, around 25 minutes. Tender enough to be smashed through a fine sieve to remove seeds and make a puree. 

Whilst boiling your rose hips, also boil your apples until tender and run them through the sieve with the left over water. Usually it takes about 25 minutes for the apples and rose hips to become tender enough to run through a sieve easily. 

 Your puree will look cloudy with bits of apple and rose hips floating around. Lay your cheese cloth in a big bowl with a colander inside after the puree is cool enough to work with if you want to squeeze out the liquid immediately and pour your puree into the cloth covered colander, round up the cloth ends and gently squeeze out the liquid. 

My Grandma would hang the cheese cloth full of puree over night. I still remember getting in trouble when I poked holes in the cloth. Gosh I must of been around 5 years old, I was bored if I remember correctly.

Once you have strained all the liquid you can out of the puree. Boil all ingredients, liquids and sugar for 15 minutes or until it is thick and drips in globs from your spoon. The link I gave at the top of this page will give you detailed instructions if you get lost reading my directions. 

If I remember correctly this is enough four 12 6oz jars. I haven't made jelly in a couple years because I don't eat sugar anymore.

    Link to my blog.