After a morning walk in the parc national du Bic, the rain started. My gardening companion continued working outside, creating a wonderful
Diervilla patch below the bird feeders, in spite of the drizzle.
I made a second round of Montreal bagels this morning, this time whole wheat, and with a firmer dough, again risen overnight. Much more satisfactory in shape and handling, although the whole-wheat flour and sesame seeds (from Bulk Barn) neither of which I'd tried before, weren't as fresh as I'd like. I won't be buying flour or sesame seeds there again, although dried fruit of various sorts is a great buy.
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| ready to boil |
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| ready to eat |
And my second home-crafting project was making rose-hip jam, from wild-foraged rose hips (
Rosa rugosa) and windfall apples, for pectin. I normally make no-sugar jam, but I used cane sugar this evening, thinking that the rose hips might be exceptionally tart.
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| it's fiddly work removing rose hips |
I'm not sure that I'll be collecting a lot more rose hips, unless they turn out to be incredibly delicious. It's a time-consuming job to remove the seeds....
You amaze me, Lisa, with your ability to make special treats. I never considered making rose hip jelly but now that you've put the idea in my head, I may have to try it out. Any tips about removing the seeds?
ReplyDeleteWell, sometimes I think I get myself into unnecessary projects! But, the giant rose hips on some of the Rosa rugosa shrubs here (they seem to be close to straight species, planted as ornamentals and gone feral many years ago) -- they were interesting to me as they turned red. On a whim, I took a bite of one and it was delicious; so, googling rose hip jam had me experimenting. It turns out that only some of them were particularly tasty (possibly because of ripeness), but there also seems to be a diversity of Rosa spp here, too, which vary in the size of the hips.
DeleteI used a small round measuring spoon to scoop out the seeds, then rinsed the rest out. It was not hard, just time-consuming! If you want to make jelly, apparently you don't need to seed them. Or if you have a food mill, you can cook the whole hips then grind them (equally tedious, in my opinion.)
Very helpful instructions, Lisa. Thanks. I make crabapple jelly without seeding the apples, only straining them after cooking.
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