Last year, I wrote about roselle (aka Florida cranberry or Jamaican sorrel) & subsequently shared a couple of things I made using my harvest (here + here).

This September I showed you my roselle forest realized. What I didn’t share of that dream is the fact that, though I’ll use it for many things, I ultimately grew so much roselle this season so I could make one thing: roselle jam.

Multiple steps were necessary to realize this dream. I started by saving roselle seeds from last year’s harvest, then successively planted them this year at just the right time for them to be sizable enough to succumb to their innate flowering & fruiting trigger: shortened day length.

Seemingly overnight, the towering plants went from leafy stalks to being absolutely covered in flowers & quickly bowed under the weight of multiple fruits🤤

Nearly 9 months from seeding, I was ready to harvest the abundant fruits🤲🏾

It didn’t take long before I’d halfway filled a 5 gallon bucket with aesthetic fruit.

The fruit possesses a large central seed pod which I manually separated from each calyx/fruit using a paring knife (as seen in the video below).

Naturally, I set the seed pods aside for next year’s crop. Then it was finally time to make the jam😋. I reserved (read: sacrificed😝) several seed pods for jam making as the seed pods naturally contain pectin; which is necessary to give my jam the desired thickness.

The seed pods were pierced, then boiled in water for approximately half an hour until soft. Once softened, I removed the seed pods from the water.

After giving the calyxes/fruit a good rinse, I added them to the pot containing the seed pod water. This was brought back to a boil for ~30 minutes until thickened. I turned the pan heat down & added the same volume of sugar as the volume of roselle; stirring regularly. Once the sugar dissolved & the jam was my desired thickness, I decanted the jam into jars & placed it in the fridge.

I wasted no time baking homemade sweet potato biscuits in order to fully realize this season’s roselle dream.

It was everything I knew it would be & entirely worth the wait & work.

Before long it will be time to sow roselle for next year’s harvest. I better start dreaming of what to make of all of next year’s roselle😏