Wild Rose Jelly
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Did you know the wild roses that grow in your woods are edible? The wild rose petals can be made into a lovely pink jelly you can keep in your pantry all year long. Need a splash of summer and warm June days?? Grab a jar of wild rose jelly!
The other day I brought weeds to the table in the form of Dandelion Jelly and now today I’m bringing wildflowers, Wild Rose Jelly made from Alaskan Wild Roses. But the good thing about this jelly is you can use any kind of wild rose as long as it hasn’t been treated with chemicals. In fact, there are a LOT of flowers you can eat, check out my post on edible flowers to get an idea of what else you can grow and eat!
We have lovely wild prickly roses on our property, so thick I sometimes feel like they are a weed themselves, but we love them for the 10 days or so that they bloom. They smell great, look gorgeous and the bees love them. And when I’m inspired enough I make Wild Rose Jelly.
Wild Rose Jelly
I took my boys for a walk and we easily collected the two cups of petals we needed for the jelly in under half an hour. I made sure we didn’t strip any bushes bare and that we picked the petals only from fully opened flowers. This gives the plants enough flowers to set rose hips, and none of them get stressed from over-harvesting.
The most tedious part of the whole operation is snipping off the small white base at the bottom of each petal. It goes easily enough with a pair of kitchen shears especially if you can sit outside in the sun doing it.
After the bitter white tip is snipped off the rose petals get soaked in water for about 6 hours. Once they’ve soaked the water is strained off and you can make wild rose jelly.
Wild Rose Jelly:
- this is two-step recipe of the soaking petals and then making the jelly later
- You will need Pomona Pectin for this recipe. You can find it in your local grocery store in the health food aisles.
2 cups rose petals, white part snipped off
2 cups boiling water
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
2 teaspoons calcium water-from Pomona Pectin package
2/3 cup of sugar
2 teaspoons Pomona Pectin powder
place petals in a large non reactive mixing bowl
boil water and pour two full cups over the petals
cover and let the petals steep for at least two hours, I let mine steep 6 hours
drain through cheesecloth or a couple of coffee filters in a strainer
while the juice is draining set up your canning pot for a boiling water bath (directions there!), wash jars and fill with hot water and wash lid and rings well and keep hot in a small pan
you should have close to two cups of juice, add a water to get to two cups if needed
pour into a medium size heavy bottom pot
add the lemon juice and calcium water
bring to a boil stirring occasionally
mix the sugar and powdered pectin together
when the juice is boiling and can’t be stirred down add the sugar/pectin mixture
stir to make sure the pectin gets completely dissolved
cook and stir for 30 seconds
remove from heat, skim any foam and pour into hot jars
wipe the rim, place a hot lid and a clean ring on the jar and carefully hand tighten(the jar is hot be careful)
process for 5 minutes in a boiling water bath or put in the fridge for immediate use
I suppose it is worth saying that you should pick roses where you know they have not been sprayed with any nasty chemicals. Don’t pick your neighbor’s roses. Don’t pick all the roses from one bush, that’s just being a jerk. And do make sure the roses you’re going to ingest are SAFE for human consumption.
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Very interesting. I've made wild rose hip jam, but never with just the petals. To me, they don't have much flavor, but your jame is certainly pretty.
Good way to cover your butt. My same friend made with my roses one year…I gotta get me some of that pectin.
How elegant! I think I've just found another addition to this year's Holiday gift baskets. I don't have any wild roses around here, but I do have a bag of culinary dried rosebuds. do you think they would work for this? I made a caramel with some a while back and it was wonderful.
How awesome! This is so interesting and sounds delicious! Thanks so much for linking it up at The Motivation Station's Show & Tell 🙂
We make every year about 300 10 oz jars of Rose jelly .
You have to use a very aromatic wild rose
like Rosa rugosa when you can find the double(triple) flowers then it picks much faster.
We have here lots of these roses near a railway track.
When sunny weather we pick them all, every 2 days for 3 months.
We make first a syrup and filter the petals (about 150 g/ liter
Then for the jelly we add these petals to have more body in the jelly.Last sunday I sold the last 20 jars at a local fair 3€/ jar together with 20 dandelion jelly
Terroir/Leo Daman van Hove, Belgium
What is your recipe? Kentucky girl!
Thanks to you.this looks like a heavenly recipe. How many jars does this make? It is such a pretty color.
Could you bring rose petals up to heat in Instant pot and then let “keep warm” for six hours?
How about Fireweed Jelly?
You know I’m not sure about the Instant Pot–I can give it whirl next spring when the roses bloom
I’m wondering why you specify to snip off the white base of the flower petal.
it can be a little bitter and can make your jelly taste off
I’m wondering what the calcium water is in your recipe. Never heard of that. Thank you for posting. I have multiple rugosa bushes and wild roses in my yard, so I’m eager to try this. I’ve always used the hips. But never the petals.
You can skip it if you’re using regular pectin. The calcium water is part of the Pomona Pectin package and ensures a jell every single time.