I remember having Hagebutter Mark (Rosehip jam) as a child, and I remember my Mum telling me that when she was pregnant it was one of the things that she 'craved'!
So, off to collect a bag of rosehips - just the perfect time for harvesting as they are bright red and the calyx dried.
First job was to carefully 'top and tail' the hips, a job that gave me neck ache.
Then for each 1lb of hips add a cup of water and bring to the boil and boil gently until the hips are soft.
Then the hips have to be boringly pushed through a sieve to obtain the smooth hip puree and the pips are discarded.
In my picture it looks a bit like tomato paste .... anyway the stuff in the sieve was thrown away on the compost heap.
Now the sugar is added. To each pint of puree add 1 lb of granulated sugar. Slowly bring the temperature up to boiling (so the sugar doesn't burn) and the colour will darken and the jam thicken. I think I boiled it for about 12 minutes.
Finally pot and label in hot, sterilised motley bunch of jars!
And I created a childhood memory. Beautiful.
