Rosella Jam

Last week I finally made my rosella jam. I also finished pulling the plants out and saving the last of the seedpods for next years crop. If you don’t grow rosellas you really should. They’re quite ornamental, with olive green leaves, bright cranberry red stems and beautiful pink hibiscus like flowers that have the most amazing red circle at their centre. And lets not forget the main event - the calyces! After the flower dies down, the seedpods form, but it’s the fleshy calyces that cover the seedpod that are turned into jam (or cordial, or tea, or just eaten fresh!).

My rosella bushes this year.

The first year I waited for a good crop, then harvested them all at once. Bad idea - a lot of them had been on the plant for a while by then and unbeknownst to me, mealy buy had moved in, under the protected cover of the calyces. I threw a lot away and spent a lot of time cleaning what remained!

Since then I harvest regularly throughout the season, picking the plumpest calyces every week or so. After picking them, I peel off the fleshy calyces (also known as sepals), and store them and the remaining seedpods, separately, in ziplock bags in the freezer. I add to the bags over the season until the plants are finished and then a few weeks later, (when I’m sick of the bags taking up precious freezer space..) it’s jam time!

I use this recipe to make my rosella jam although I’ve never warmed sugar in my life, and I don’t usually worry about the butter. When you start cooking, put a few saucers in the freezer. To test the jam is ready, drop some on one of the saucers (cools it down quickly!) and push the edge gently to see if the surface crinkles. When it does, it’s bottling time!

Syrupy jam!

Finished jars

Check out my plant profile on Rosella’s as well.