At summer's end, delicate shrub roses are laden with apple-like berries that are called rose hips.
The Prickly Wild Rose is the Provincial flower of Alberta, where I happened to be during the month of September. Seeing all those ripe rose hips growing wild in the fields of Fort McMurray, gave me the inspiration for this recipe.
The rose hip is not just a cute little fruit from the rose plant, but is high in Vitamin C (I read it has 60 times the vitamin C than an orange), and has calcium, iron, magneseum, phosphorus, potassium, some zinc and vitamins A, E and K. That is a lot of nutrition in a little wild berry.
Jam is usually associated with lots of sugar and fruit thickeners, but here we will use organic raw honey rich in antioxidants and antibacterial properties to compliment the tartness of rose hips. To thicken the jam, the Chia seed expands in liquids and is full of nutrients. Chia seeds are a source of omega-3 fatty acids, fiber, antioxidants, iron, calcium and protein. To compliment the mild subtle flavour of the rose hips, some ground fennel with its anise-flavoured spice is blended in which is also known for aiding in digestion.
The ingredients used to make my Wild Rose Chia Jam are:
- around 795 grams ( 1.75 lb) fresh picked rose hips, stems and leaves removed
- 5 tsp pure organic lemon juice (not concentrated)
- 4 tbsp raw organic unpasteurized honey
- 14 tbsp organic chia seeds
- 1 tsp ground fennel seed
Begin by hand-picking ripe rose hips from shrub roses. Then the stems and leaves will need to be removed.
Rinse the rose hips in cool fresh water and weigh how much you picked to estimate the rest of the ingredients needed. In this photo I picked 795 grams of rose hips.
Transfer the rose hips into a stainless steel pot and cover with 2 cups of filtered water. Bring to a boil.
Boil until the rose hips become soft and the water is nearly boiled away.
Mash the cooked rose hips with a potato masher, Then add another 2 cups of boiling water.
Stir in the 2 cups boiled water and remove the pot from the heat.
Place the jam jars and lids you are going to use, in a large pot and cover them with water. Bring the pot to boil and then keep boiling for 10 minutes. Turn off the stove and let the jars sit in the hot water until you are ready to use them.
Transfer the cooked and mashed rose hips into a sieve set over a bowl. Mash the rose hips until nothing is left but skins and seeds in the sieve.
Once the rose hips have bin pressed into the sieve as much as you can, discard the seeds and skins.
In the bowl, you will be left with a rosy coloured liquid. To the rose hip liquids, add the remaining ingredients - the lemon juice, honey, ground fennel and chia seeds.
Lift the hot jam jars out of the boiled water pot with a sterile tongs and transfer the rose hip jam mixture into the jars. Avoid touching the inside of the jars or lids with your hands.
Transfer the jam mixture into jars, and tighten the lids. When the jars cool, they will form a vacuum seal.
From 795 grams of rose hips that I gathered, it resulted in 4 X 250ml jars of jam. If you pick around 1,500 grams (3.5 lbs) of rose hips, then double the recipe and you should get 8 jars of jam.
This organic and delicious jam is a superfood that will be a benefit to your body and not just a sweet treat on your waffles!
I calculated 1 tbsp of the recipe to be 36 delicious and healthy calories. Here it is being enjoyed on an organic multigrain rice cracker.
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