My access to fresh, free roses and rose petals is a privilege I openly acknowledge and do not take for granted. I am a lucky human in many ways and the roses rambling wild in the fallow garden and riparian zone are one of those ways. Recently I foraged petals (with a crow supervisor of course) and made rose petal jam. I’ve made rose petal jelly in the past, but this is a different beast. The rose petals stay in this jam, you do not make a rose water and then drain off the petals, and they become kind of jelly like and translucent.
I used a variety of petals for this jam, about four different kinds and only a handful were a deep pink, most of petals were a very light pink but the jam became a vibrant, deep pink once I added the lemon juice to my solution. It is magical to watch the transformation take place. I was taste testing this jam while I was making it and, let me tell you, the flavour is also magical.
I used this recipe, but I had liquid Certo, so I used half of a Certo gel pack.
Yum!