How to make rose hip Jam

Wash the hips well and drain, cut the end and tail off, remove any leaves, otherwise the green tail and leaves might give it a bitter taste. Now, cover with water, double the amount of water to the quantity of rose hips. Set to boil until they become mushy.

Whilst you are waiting for it to boil, get your recycled jars and lids cleaned with soapy water, rinse really well and put on a tray with the opening facing up ready to be sterilised, more on that later as we get closer to the fin time.

Check the hips by picking one and let it cool the attempt to squish it between your fingers if it breaks and has a mushy texture( not the pips, they will continue to stay hard :) ), then they are ready.

Once all blended you can start straining it, first get rid of the pips through a strain, now you need to get the muslin bag, cloth or sieve and start straining several time, washing the muslin and sieve in between. I have done it 6 time to be sure that there is little or no hairs, they can irritate the mouth and digestive tract if ingested.

When it gets to the right viscosity you are ready to add the sugar, and the lemon juice( its a must if you want the colour to stay vivid, otherwise you will get a red brown colour) stirring continuously until the sugar has melted and the colour has changed to a deep red. From here is just like an other jam recipe. At this point you need to get the jars and lids in the oven to sterilise, preheat the oven to 140 degrees Celsius and put in the oven for about 20 min, try to time it with the jam.

Continue to boil on medium heat, stirring every couple of minutes of so until the composition reached the texture of thick cream, it should take you about 30 min from boiling point, time is indicative only. You can always test on a cold plate, when it is cooled down on the plate it should have a slight movement, you don't want it so hard because when it cools down completely it will be hard to spread. I prefer mine more a thick sauce viscosity so I took it off the heat a few minutes sooner.

Get your jars out of the oven whilst nice and hot and start pouring the jam up to the neck (where the lid twists). Holding the jar with a tea towel, tighten the lids on the jars, this is very important as the steam will create a strong bond and the jam will last until next autumn or longer.

Cover up with a few towels or a fleece like me to allow that jam to cool down slowly, after at least 12 hr you are read to label and store it. of course don't forget to save some on the side to be eaten on the day, as you will feel like you deserve it after all work! I made pancakes, all can say is yum yum!