Rose Petal Jelly

Growing so many roses gives me a chance to make one of my most favorite jellies, Rose Petal Jelly. First and foremost you must not use insecticides or anything on your rosebushes. Second, you must choose blossoms that are healthy. Cut enough petals to fill about 2 cups worth. 

Rinse those petals off!

Pour 4 cups of the distilled water into a 4 - 6 qt pot.

Place the washed petals in the pot with the water and slow boil them
until water level is about half. It doesn't take too long, so stir and watch.

Strain out 2 cups of the rose petal water.
Add 1/4 cup lemon juice.
Discard used rose petals, and clean your pot
or use another one. I cleaned the same pot :-)

Add 4 cups of sugar to the pot.
Add the rose petal water / lemon juice mixture.
Stir the mixture and turn on to medium heat.

Stir to dissolve the sugar. You need to watch this carefully.
Stir until it starts to boil.
Have your liquid Certo all ready opened and ready to pour.
Once the mixture starts to boil, add the liquid Certo.
Stir until it boils for a good minute.
Then you are ready to can your Rose Petal Jelly.

Steps in processing jams & jellies

http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/publications/uga/uga_steps_proc_j_j.pdf

For more info on canning jellies and jams, go to:

http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/can7_jam_jelly.html

There's nothing like rose petal jelly on homemade herbed bread.
I made rosemary bread which we enjoyed with the rose petal jelly
while we watched the Blackhawks game last night. Go Blackhawks!

Rose Petal Jelly

2 cups, fresh cut, rinsed rose petals

4 cups distilled water

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 packet liquid Certo

4-5 half pint canning jars (sterilized) with lids

Make the rose petal juice:

Add the rose petals and the 4 cups of distilled water to a 4-6 quart pot. 

Boil down to about half the water - 2 cups.

Strain out the rose petals and collect 2 cups of the rose water.

Add 1/4 cup of lemon juice to the rose petal water.

Make the jelly:

Add the rose water / lemon juice mixture into a clean 4-6 quart pot.

Add 4 cups of sugar, and stir.

Turn on medium heat, stirring and watching until the mixture comes to a boil.

Have the packet of liquid Certo ready to pour. Cut the top off of packet and have it sitting open propped up in a cup or glass.

When the mixture boils, pour in the liquid Certo.

Stir constantly until the mixture boils for a good minute.

Turn off the heat. 

You are ready to can your Rose Petal Jelly.

Enjoy!

Pepper update

As I still bemoan the fact that I started seeds late this spring, with my seedlings being planted when they were only 7 weeks old, I'm hoping that my plants will start to grow taller soon. In the past, I've grown my seeds indoors for at least 12 weeks. So at this time, while my pepper plants look great, they are on the very short end to what I'm used to seeing. They've been planted in the ground for 30 days now, and many starting to blossom. While, I'm sure that the slowness of growth is because of the strange cold weather we have had this spring, I'm hoping the heat we've had lately will start to make our peppers shoot up in height. I'm used to seeing 3-4' jalapeno bushes!

Cubanelle peppers. According to analytics, people come to this blog by searching mostly for information on cubanelle peppers. We're growing 16 plants this year in two different garden spots. Ten of them in our usual pepper patch against the back of our house. And six others out in the tomato garden which has much more sunlight exposure. I'm conducting my own experiment to see which grow better. Always fun to experiment!

Habanero peppers. Something new for our garden. We're growing two of these this year because my husband wanted to try them out. Not my type of pepper. I like heat, but not that much. The husband and our son like the hot stuff, so we're trying it. So far, very short, but as you can see, there are some blossom buds starting to come in. 

Giant jalapeno. We grew these from seed last year for the first time. Fantastic jalapenos! These are the ones you see at the grocery store that are 3-5" long. They are thick-walled and perfect for stuffing and grilling. Our giant jalapenos are growing pretty well so far. They are taller than the cubanelle peppers and have many buds ready to blossom.

Giant jalapeno.

Poblano peppers. We love our smoky tasting poblano peppers. Last year, we were disappointed for the first time at the plant yield. Maybe it's because we had five of them? But we only got maybe four poblano peppers altogether. This year we are back down to only two plants with more room to grow. Hopefully we will see more results this year!

Cilantro. OK, it's not a pepper plant, but it sure is growing crazy!
Time to cut some of that to be used with dinner tonight.

Happy Growing!!