Hips of the Eglantine Rose, Lady Penzance

The Lady Penzance shown at right is one of four Eglantine crosses dating back to the late 1800s, all of which have sizable hips, and four of which we grow here on DragonGoose Farm. The other three Penzance roses are 'Anne of Geierstein', 'Green Mantle', and 'Meg Merrilies', all in varying shades of red and deep pink. I don't use pesticide on our roses, specifically because I like to use the hips for rose hip jelly (recipe below), syrup, and tea . These four varieties of the Penzance roses make up the long arching center row in a perennial bed in the north part of the garden, alas out of sight of the study, and out of sight altogether unless I hike northward in the snow.

Flowering Kale

Another surprise was the flowering kale plants (one of which is shown at left) that we planted in the brick herb garden this past spring. The planter openings in the bricks are overlooked by our glassed-in Little Library but not visible from the study windows.  The door into the little library is closed in this very cold weather.

So this colorful "Christmas Tree" was totally unexpected. In fact I was sure the purple leaves in the middle of the kale plants would be withered and gone the way of everything else out there by this time. This is good to know, and gives us some easily placed color that we can enjoy during the snowy winters – at least until January when there is usually a foot and a half of snow surrounding the place, and would more or less cover up the plant which about a foot and half tall itself.



Rosa glutinosa

And now we come to Melanie's Pine Scented Rose (Rosa glutinosa). This is a species  rose which grows to about four feet high and wide, described first in 1806. Vintage Gardens which offers a wide selection of antique roses, some three thousand varieties, both ready to plant and for custom rooting, describes it as a mossy, sticky rose with quite fragrant single, cerise flowers and, as you can see, large, colorful hips. The canes, leaves, and hips are pungently scented with the an oil secreted by all parts of the plant that gives off an intense fragrance of pine and sandalwood.

Melanie ordered this rose in1996 from ForestFarms  (which no longer offers it), though Vintage Garden will custom root it for anyone interested in owning it.  Melanie tells me that this small rose has been extremely happy here and has self-seeded into her nearby pots and flowerbeds. She's kept a number of these seedlings because she loves the hips in the fall and winter. It also tends to sucker into nearby roses, so it needs some policing to keep it within bounds..

This rose, along with the row of alba roses along the western edge of our walk which have hips the size of smallish crab apples, I've always noticed, especially in the case of this Pine-Scented Rose, since the big crop of hips start forming in late summer. This photo was taken in late October.

Shadow

Melanie's (spayed) outside cat, Shadow, looks in this photo about as unhappy with our early winter as I was when this snow started pouring down. Melanie said the little cat was following her all around as she hunted for suitable color to photograph, complaining the whole time. Perhaps she expected Melanie to make the snow go away? Or, more likely, she expected to be picked up and carried!

Shadow is among a fair-sized crew of spayed and neutered cats that appear from time to time from goodness knows where. They form our Special Ops for rooting out mice and voles in the garden and, especially important, the orchard. They're well worth the vet care we give them, repaying us with orchard and flower beds un-ravaged, the apple tree trunks and rose canes and shrub stems un-girdled.

Recipe

Rose Hip Jelly

I've found this recipe at  Simply Recipes, a site filled with recipes of all kinds, many including colored photographs with step by step instructions. I've made rose hip jelly before, but was unsuccessful in making the stuff jell (cut my losses and called it rose hip syrup), mainly because I'd never found a recipe written expressly for use with commercial pectin. However, this site had one, and I'm copying it here verbatim. However, you might prefer linking to it directly (link above) since it includes great photographs accompanying the instructions. At another site, Frugal Cuisine, are instructions for making rose hip tea.

Method

Rose hip Jelly Method

1 Rinse the rose hips thoroughly. Cut off the scraggly ends and discard.

2 Place rose hips in a large pot. Add 1 1/2 quarts of water. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to simmer. Cover and cook for 1 hour (or longer), until rose hips are soft and mashable.

3 Use a potato masher to mash up the rose hips into a rough purée. Set up a jelly bag, or a large very fine mesh strainer, or 4 layers of cheesecloth over a bowl or large pot. Transfer the rose hip mixture into the jelly bag/strainer/cheesecloth. Let strain into the bowl for at least an hour. Squeeze the jelly bag or cheesecloth to get more remaining juice out.

4 Measure the juice. You will need 3 cups of juice for this recipe, so if you have less than 3 cups, add more water to the mixture (you can also add some boiling water to the jelly bag if you still have it set up, allowing more liquid to drain out).

5 Prepare canning jars. You'll need 5 to 6 half-pint canning jars and lids. Sterilize the jars by either running them through the dishwasher, right before canning, or placing them on a rack in a large pot of water that you bring to a boil for 10 minutes, or by placing them in a 200°F oven for 10 minutes. To sterilize the lids, bring a kettle of a couple cups of water to a boil. Place lids in a shallow bowl and pour the boiling water over them.

6 Place 3 cups of the rose hip juice in a large, wide pot. Add the lemon juice and pectin. Bring to a boil, dissolving all of the pectin. Add the sugar. Once the sugar has dissolved, add the butter. Bring to a hard boil (one that you can not reduce by stirring). The mixture will bubble up considerably. Boil for exactly one minute. Then remove from heat and pour off into prepared canning jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace from the rim.

7 If any jelly falls on the rim as your pour it into the jars, wipe the rim with a damp paper towel. Place sterilized lids on jars and rings to secure. To ensure a good seal, and to guard against mold, you can process the jars in a water bath for 10 minutes (bacteria is already killed by the sugar). To process, place the jars on a rack in a large, tall stock pot. Cover with an inch of water and bring to a rolling boil for 10 minutes. Then turn off the heat, remove the jars from the water, and let cool. As the jars cool you should hear a popping sound as the lids seal. The lids should seal; if not, store in the refrigerator.

Makes 5 8-ounce jars.

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