These are the prolific harvest (at different times) from a single and thriving roselle plant of mine. The other 3 plants which I planted around the same time are not producing even quarter as many roselles as this thriving plant did. The pictures of the harvest below comprised about 75% of the total amount of roselles from this single plant. For this cultivar (there is one other cultivar which is dark maroon and is more fleshy and with curvy long tip petals), please wear a glove when harvesting as there are tiny fury thorns at the base which can get under your skin and annoy you. I was too lazy to make these into jam, which could yield me a few small glass jars, so I basically used all of these for juice. I'm so glad that everyone in my family of 20 plus people got to enjoy my roselles.
To make roselle juice, peel the petals or calyx. These are what we're going to use.
Below are the seed pods after peeling off the petals. To collect seeds, choose brownish pods and leave them to dry completely.
When fully dried, the pods will easily pop open, giving you many roselle seeds to plant.
Last but not least, to make roselle juice, use a handful of the petals/calyx and boil them in a pot of water for 10-15 minutes. Estimate is one cup of petals to 3-4 cups of water. Add white or brown sugar at your desired amount. Without sugar, it is sour. With sugar it should be sweet sour, just like any berry drink. So do not add too much sugar. Let it cool down and refrigerate. Serve with ice cubes. The soft petals are nice to be eaten. Roselle juice is known to be high in Vitamin C, really delicious and is a great thirst quencher!
Happy gardening!
Feel like drinking this again~! Yum-O! Homegrown are always the best!
ReplyDeleteThank you. This was very informative.
ReplyDeleteHi! I happened to cross your blog while looking up on Tabebuia Roseas and saw that you plant lotuses! How's your lotus surviving? I've some in my garden but they do not grow that well. Do you change the soil often or anything else like that?
ReplyDeleteNo garden updates? :)
ReplyDeleteYou don't have to take off the "leaves" from the seed pods, as you can just put the whole thing in and boil it. its what islanders have been doing for many years. Also, the color is too light meaning you are either not using enough, using too much water or not boiling it long enough. If done properly it turns a dark red, even under ice and its thick like juice. The pulp should be almost pink from squeezing our all the goodness. Should be boiled for 30 minutes, left overnight, then reboiled for 10. Strain then squeeze out any remaining goodness. Doing it this way allows maximum flacor and nutrients. Don't worry about heat, as many good things have to be extracted with heat. Heat is your friend with this one.
ReplyDeleteDo you have to dry the leaves fruit first or can they be boiled whilst there fresh as when I'm in gambia the locals use dried and I have never seen this done with fresh ones any help would be greatly appreciated thanks
ReplyDeleteawesome thank you for sharing :)
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