Rosella (Wild Hibiscus) Harvest and making Rosella jam

The Rosella Harvest has finished for another year. It has been one of my slower weeks, where I have had a head cold and have been trying to really look after myself so that it doesn't develop into anything nastier. So homemade chicken soup, Inner Health Immune Booster tablets, the occasional whisky to soothe the throat (it really works), lots of veges, indulgent reading, Rosella jam on toast from last year's produce, watching Wimbeldon, and I am feeling as if I am on the road to recovery today. Thank goodness the Antarctic blast hasn't reached us up here yet. It might get slightly colder but it is magical weather here today.

Growing Rosellas in the Tropics

GROWING ROSELLAS IN THE TROPICS

Rosella plants

Growing rosella plants from seed is very easy. Last year I dried and saved some seeds from our first crop of rosellas. These were the rosellas which I didn't consider good enough for jam, however they produced enough seeds for a future planting, I just dried the seeds on absorbent kitchen paper in my sunny laundry for a couple of weeks and then stored them in a plastic container in the crisper of the refrigerator until I was ready to use them. 

ROSELLA JAM

Click here for recipe and more information

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.

The Rosella Harvest has begun

The Rosella harvest has begun

My rosella plants are beckoning for attention. Once again 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 are calling out to me to be picked. So I oblige.