Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Beach Roses in the Kitchem


Once again my friend, Lauren, and I set out on a cooking adventure. We had no problem finding enough rose hips for our recipe and were happy that a bush was conveniently located right outside our favorite coffee shop. Pretty much anywhere you are in a beach community you’ll be able to find Beach Rose bushes. Be careful when harvesting- the bushes are covered in thorns, especially close to the fruits you’re picking.

We decided that we prefer jam to jelly and were pleased to find an easy and incisive jam recipe on SimpleRecipes.com. About 2/3 the way down the webpage you’ll stumble across the Rose Hip Jam recipe we used.

The hardest thing to tackle with this recipe was prepping the rose hips. Inside the rose hips are a bunch of small hairs that need to be removed. These hairs are so tiny they slip into your finger pores and make your hands itch terribly. I’m not even going to say that gloves are recommended- they are necessary!

Once again we tweaked the recipe a bit (this time due to lack of certain equipment). We didn’t have a grater so the pieces of fruit in our jam are meatier than the recipe intended. I don’t feel this is a loss; our jam just has a chunkier texture. Also, we didn’t have cheesecloth to hold the apples in, so we added them to the mix. If anything this made the jam thicker and sweeter.

The recipe wasn’t difficult and we made out with a few jars of decent jam. Jam keeps for a long time if stored properly, so I’d recommend making a large batch and saving it for last minute birthday presents or hostess gifts. If any of you are as forgetful as I am, last minute gifts are essential to have around.

I really like our jam and am proud that our first time jam making was such a success!

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