Rosella Jam making is a lesson in chemistry, botany and good time management but is good fun and very rewarding. I think it is the most delicious jam on the planet. Rosella jam is made from the red fleshy calyx surrounding the green seedpods. These pods need to be boiled to extract the valuable pectin, essential for the thickening of the jam. Not all homegrown Rosella fruit ripen at the same time and can be collected gradually and stored in the freezer until you have enough to make a worthwhile quantity of jam.
Separating the seedpod from the calyx can be a time consuming and tricky procedure. Courtesy of a helpful neighbour of mine, we used a modified empty bullet shell to push the seedpod up through the calyx from the base of the fruit in a very simple operation. Quite primitive but very effective. There are many homemade devices that have been used for this operation or you could just use an apple corer. Wear firm fitting gloves when removing the calyx.
