Our Garden’s Rose Hip Jelly

After 3 years of caring, our old dying rosebush was finally brought back to life. Dozens of flowers this summer! Enough to give bright orange berries last week… Just enough for rose hip tea or jelly. I just clipped them off and voila!

The best of summer in a jar.

Ingredients (2 jars):

2 cups rose hip berries

1½ cups water

1 cup apple juice

2 cups castor (berry) sugar

1 lemon

1. Wash the berries, cut off the tops and ends.
2. Place the berries in a small saucepan.
3. Add 1 cup of water.
   
4. Bring to a boil.
5. Let simmer for 1 hr, stirring and adding water to prevent the berries from sticking to the pan.
6. Once the berries are soft, strain the seeds out.
7. Add the apple juice to the seeds in three portions and stir the pulp through the sieve using a spatula.
8. For the last portion of juice, cover the seeds with plastic wrap and press the juice through with extra weight. (I used a mortar and a bottle of wine to get about 1 ½ cup of juice)
9. Transfer the juice into a clean saucepan.
10. Stir in the castor sugar.
11. Heat to medium high for 15 mins. The jelly will be ready when it sets on a cold metal spoon.
12. Add the lemon zest and juice into the jelly.
13. Pour into jars and let the jelly set overnight.