The Rosella Harvest has begun

My rosella plants are beckoning for attention This morning I have been sidetracked from writing the difficult conclusion to my latest family history chapter by my garden, specifically my rosellas. As Neil and I wander around the garden, our freshly brewed coffee in hand, and with rain showers imminent, he remarks that some of the rosellas look as if they are ready to be harvested. After all he has some experience in this area having volunteered once when he was in his still in his teens to assist a struggling family near Byfield, Yeppoon,  with harvesting their rosella farm. So of course I quickly perform a couple of google searches, and yes it looks like some of them are ready although there still isn't that much information on when to precisely harvest this precious commodity. Three weeks after flowering seems to be the consensus of opinion, when the fleshy red calyx, is surrounding a still green seedpod, however when all of the flowers erupt at different times this is a difficult thing to gauge. Also, all of the fruit are different sizes, some nice and large, some quite small, even though their seedpods are nice and green and calling out to me to be picked. So I do.

Rosellas, some ready for harvesting, some still in flower.

This morning's harvest has yielded only a pie plate full of rosella fruit, some of the recipes call for half a bucketful. Never mind, I'll be optimistic and trust that the harvest will be ongoing. I have a small amount in the freezer which were picked much earlier from my older bush. I only have two plants. One was planted last year in Spring and is quite bushy, the other one was planted only 2 months ago and is now an impressive upright, strong looking specimen.

Two months old, and producing

Today's harvest of rosellas. It's a start.

The lure of Rosella jam and other interesting concoctions keeps me going with this project, they are very attractive plants, and virtually maintenance free as well. Neil keeps me optimistic by saying things like well you should be able to make one bottle of jam from that amount of Rosellas. Oh well, we all have to start somewhere.

Stay posted for when I produce my miraculous first bottle of Rosella jam.

Now, back to my Scottish ancestors. I wonder if they grew Rosellas.