Have you always wanted to make jam? Let’s talk about how to make jam.
I had a bumper crop of Rosellas this year and I’m looking forward now to making some Rosella Jam. After planting the Rosella plants (I only planted 3!!) out in summer I have been surprised by the size of the crop. It’s a pleasure to pick the fruit and getting it at the right time makes the fruit easier to remove.
Once the flower has died, leave the fruit to mature for a week or two, it will increase in size over this time. The hardest part is removing all the red flesh from the seed pod but this job is made easy if you don’t leave the fruit on the bush for too long. The red flesh is the part that is used to make the jam, discard the bulk of the seed pods keeping a handful at the end of your harvest. The seed pods are added to the jam mix to contribute to the thickening of the jam.
My plants just wanted to keep flowering this year so I have many containers full of Rosella flesh. I’ve frozen these so I can just make one big batch for bottling.Many recipes state that when making jam you use equal quantities of fruit to sugar but the thought of this nearly puts me into a hypoglycemic coma. I’ve decided to reduce the amount of cane sugar I’m adding and I’m going to use a low GI sugar instead.
Over the coming months I will post a blog including the Rosella Recipe and I’ll share some of the tricks of making a good Rosella Jam. I will be due by then to pick the Cumquats so will include the jam making for them at the same time. I’m really looking forward to hot toast, jam and a nice cup of tea over the winter months, especially with two homemade jams to choose from.
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