Roselle Syrup and Roselle Jam

This morning, my maid and I harvested a marvelous amount of roselle calyxes from our pair of roselle plants.

This is the second batch of roselle shrubs that we have planted. And they are a lot larger than our first roselle plants. This pair looks like they will continue to grow and live despite having given their bounty of deep red fruit. Whereas our first batch of roselle plants were single-season shrubs that died after they produced fruit.

My rottweiler busied herself sniffing around and occasionally seeking a pat while we were cutting off the fruit.

We then separated the calyxes from the little hard seed in the centre of the fruit. We plan to dry the seeds and keep them as our seed stock.

My maid (who taught me all about the roselle) then washed the calyxes and put them all into a large pot. She filled just enough water to cover the calyxes. We don't exactly have a specific recipe for roselle syrup or roselle jam, but whatever we do by approximation works!

The calyxes are boiled till they are soft, and lifted out of the deep red liquid. Add sugar to taste.

Then we used a potato masher to mash the softened calyxes to make the jam. Voila!

It feels great to have a bountiful harvest from my own garden to be made into delightful treats for the family to enjoy. Hope you will try your hand in growing roselle too. It is very easy to do in Malaysia, with enough sunshine and rainfall.