Rosella Jam (again)

(The first Batch)

I'm quickly typing this while some more Rosellas bubble away on the stove! This is my third and final Batch. Enough's enough!
I'm talking about Rosella jam and if you've never tasted it man you're missing something special! The plant Rosellas come from grows in the tropics so it's quite likely if you live in a temporate climate you've never heard of this jam.


(Rosella calixes. Jam aficionado behind, Ubud Botanic Gardens)

While in Bali we visited the botanic gardens in Ubud. I noticed there were some familiar Hibiscus bushes scattered through the garden. They were Hibiscus Sabdariffa (Rosella bushes). Back at reception on our way out I stopped to talk to the lady at the counter who had a basket full of very large Rosella calixes. On the counter were bags of Rosella tea and when she opened the door to the fridge it was full of jam jars.


(Jam)


(Tea)

Inevitably we got talking about rosella jam and I came away with a jar of some very delicious jam made right there at the Ubud botanic gardens. Great products!


(Complete fruits)

A couple of weeks after getting back to Darwin I headed out to a spot where I can usually find Rosellas at this time of year (Between the end of April and early June). There were heaps there but picking Rosellas takes a fair bit of time so I only took one shopping bag full. This was enough for me to cook up 6 jars of jam, twice the number I made last year!


(First Batch of jam)

The jam turned out fantastically! I don't like to cook it too long and use as little sugar as possible. Fortunately I had enough pectin for it to set just right.

After this great success I went back out there and picked another bag full which I soon converted into another 5 jars worth. This time I used less sugar and cooked for only 10-15 minutes. The result was thinner and much more tart but great on toast!

This is the most I've ever made and I've been distributing the jam to friends all over the place. Finally I went back out one more time and collected another bag full which converted down to 1kg of calixes. They are bubbling away on the stove right now and I can smell them cooking. I thought I'd blog about them while they cook as a means of distracting myself so I don't interupt the process before time. I just want to give them a bit more time than the last batch.

I expect after having cooked this batch I would have created about 4 litres of jam! That's so cool.
If you've never tasted it you've gotta try it. I suppose the closest flavour that matches it might be rhubarb. It has the same tartyness and is red but doesn't quite match the special flavour.

Get some if you can. It's awesome!

Arafura 07

Crowd at the stadium

The Arafura Games opening ceremony on Saturday night was fantastic. On Saturday afternoon we met up with a friend and her daughter, gathered some food a rug and a couple of chairs and headed off to the Marrara Sports Stadium along with just about everybody else who lives in Darwin. We arrived at the grounds at about 5:30 to join the huge cues of people eager see the ceremony and welcome the athletes. I thought we would be standing there for ages but the gate keepers did such a great job we all filed through in no time.
There was a great deal of excitement amongst the athletes many of whom have never been outside their own country before. We all cheered as they made their way around the stadium and the sound of plastic clappers filled the air. The atmosphere was very friendly, the only trouble the police seemed to have was stopping kids from running too far out onto the field and mingling with the athletes during the ceremony. Performers included Yuliana Pascoe, Jessica Mauboy and NEO. I can't wait to see Yuliana gain National recognition for her talent; she is an awesome performer! When NEO came out in their flamboyant jumpsuits I expected the crowd to go wild..... but...... they didn't! WHat is wrong with these people? This is possibly the greatest band Darwin has ever produced and all they raised was a muffled applause. I had to sit down quietly when I realized I was the only one jumping up and down Roaring YEHHHHH NEO.... YEHHHHHhhh..... Oh? Ok. no one else is really into them. I think Sam was a little embarrassed.
The highlight was an acrobat floating around the stadium on a huge floating ball. I think it was called a Heliosphere, but the kids called it the fairy. You can imagine the rest of the weekend "Where is the fairy? I want to see the fairy!" It was awesome!


Papua New Guinea

The only real disappointment was the crap that the NT news decided to print on the front page that day! It is the opening ceremony of the Arafura games, one of, if not the biggest event on Darwin's calender, and international event drawing people from a broad range of cultural and ethnic backgrounds. For many this is their first experience of another country and for even more their first experience of a Western country and what does our news paper print on it's front page? Half a page of colour images of beer, and yet another story about how much Territorians drink! There is no point trying to hide the fact from our visitors they are visiting a heathen country. Our dominant cultural icon appears to be a polar bear who promotes the consumption of rum! As I drove the family home from the wharf via Mitchel St past The Deck bar, I reflected on how one might explain to a visitor that a bunch of semi naked bikini girls prancing around in high heals is not perverted headonism but more a cultural expression of equality.... I still haven't figured out how that might be done amid the common chorus of "Get yer geer orf!" Oh well maybe one day they will understand.

Jam


Pots-o-fruit becoming jam
I made the Rosella Jam. :)

Rosella Season

Today I was bombarded with messages I'd left to myself at about this time last year. The message was simple and direct. It's Rosella season! Get them early before it's too late!!

A small tree frog on a rosella bush

Well it wasn't exactly this time last year as I recall. It was late May or early June and I'd just made my first batch of Rosella Jam! Oh the lovely tart flavour of lightly cooked Rosella Jam with not too much sugar and just enough natural pectin to hold the lot together. As I recall it was a huge success and a total fluke that the jam turned out so well. If only I'd collected the Rosellas just a couple of weeks earlier, I would have had enough to make more than three small jars!
I think they must all ripen within a couple of weeks of each other and should be picked straight away, last time I picked too late. This time it will be different!
So the message is on the wall and the computer screen, the mobile phone, my diary, well I think I left messages everywhere actually. So this Saturday is Rosella picking day! No what ifs, no buts no sleep-ins! The girls are coming with me and we will collect the rosellas! and I will make the jam and it will be good! So let it be written; so let it be done!

Bread and Jam

This morning I got up and made myself toast with some of that special jam. I believe the jam has a little something special in it and all my worries just melted away, so did my sore throat which I've been carrying for nearly a month now!

Rosella Jam

Rosella Jam
Originally uploaded by davidfntau.

The jam! Since Judith, from work, brought in a jar of delicious Rosella jam I have been obsessing about self-sufficient food production, gleaning, preserving and harvesting from wild stock! This sent me on a quest to find the wild fruit for jam.
Unfortunately I don't have time to go into what Rosellas (Hibiscus sabdariffa) are and can't offer any pictures because I didn't take my camera but they are a wild (introduced) bush that produces a mass of fruits for a short period during the dry season each year. I managed to get a shopping bag full but was a bit late in the season so missed the really good fruit.
So last night I set out to make the jam and with Sam's help we had 3 decent jars of the most delightful red tarty fruit spread within an hour. Samantha calculated the amount of water needed to boil the fruit and I followed her instructions (more or less....well less actualy). Of course this jam is by no means a self sufficient product we did have to use quite a bit of (evil) sugar but it was cheep and creative and I got to re-use some jars that would otherwise have gone straight to the recycle bin (the recycle bit is doubtful).
Mission accomplished!