Rosehip Jelly

Canned: 2022-11-2

Stored: 12 x 125mL(canned) + <1 x 500mL(in fridge)

What I did:

1. Gathered rose hips (a nut jar + a handful more = about 1kg) & 5 fist sized apples (about 450g)
2. Trimmed and washed and added some grocery apples. Rose hips, just pulled off flower end and trimmed stem is present then cut in 1/2. Apples cut in quarters and each quarter in 1/3s. (don't bother removing cores, seeds, anything like that)
3. 1kg rosehips + 1kg apples + 1L water in stock pot.
4. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 1 hour stirring occasionally to test for squishiness
5. Using chinois and pestle, mash & filter out the big pieces
6. This made about 7 cups of slurry/thick juice.
7. Poured into wet jellybag to drip for an hour
8. Didn't seem like enough so I very carefully poured 1/2 cup boiling water over/into the paste left in the jelly bag to drip for another 30 min
9. This made (just barely) 4 cups of juice
10. 4 cups juice + 800g sugar + 1/2 tsp citric acid in pasta pot *(see notes!)*
11. Boiled for 5 min stirring constantly 
12. Jarred up and water bathed for 10 min

Notes on this batch:

• This was a "natural pectin" type recipe that doesn't use any powdered pectin. Unfortunately it was late and I was tired so I didn't think to jell test before canning... and it has not solidified yet 24 hours later. (I'll fix that later)
• Use the stock pot next time... lol  Boiling the juice and sugar BARELY fit in the pasta pot and I was stirring and blowing just desperately trying to keep it in the pot. 
• The chinois and pestle was really good at removing the large chunks like seeds and skins and turning the rest into a smoothie. 
• The jelly bag worked well and although the juice was cloudy, it cleared up during cooking so it was likely just the pectin/starches. 
• Maybe drip the goo to separate juice from paste overnight next time(recommended in another recipe).
• Waiting for the first frost means that all the rosehips I picked were very ripe and the jell might have set better with firmer/less ripe rosehips.

Photos: