Look at those juicy hips..rose hips that is

One of my favorite memories of first moving to Nova Scotia was visiting the French shore for the first time.  Camping out by the beach in the fall, I fell in love with the wild rose hips that grew everywhere!  All I could think about was harvesting them to drink for tea.  In fact I did pick some and took them home, but they ended up just going bad because I didn't dry them properly.  Now that we live in the country, I look for wild edibles every time I go for a walk.  There aren't that many wild roses growing around our property, but I managed to pick just enough to make two and a half tiny jars of rose hip jelly.

WILD ROSE HIP JELLY

1 quart of autumn ripe wild red rose hips (4 cups)

1 litre of water

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

1 cup local honey

2 tsp Pomona's Universal Pectin Powder

2 tsp Pomona's Universal Calcium Water

Method:  Rinse rose hips thoroughly and pick off the scraggly ends.  Place rosehips in a saucepan with water and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to simmer for one hour or until rose hips are soft and mashable.

     Use a potato masher to smush the rosehips.  Set up a jelly bag or layers of cheesecloth in a mesh strainer.  Transfer the rose hip mixture into the strainer and strain and smoosh all the liquid out.  Ideally you want to have 2 cups of liquid.  If you must, top it up with apple cider.

     Prepare your canning jars.  Measure juice into a pan with lemon juice.  Add the calcium water and stir well.  Measure out the honey into a separate bowl and mix in the pectin powder. Bring the juice to a boil, add pectin-honey and stir vigorously 1-2 minutes.  Return to a boil and remove from heat.  Fill jars to 1/2" of top.  Screw on lid and put filled jars in boiling water to cover and boil for 5 minutes.  Remove from water and let cool.  Lasts about 3 weeks once opened.