Rose Jam, the easy freezer version

I'm famous for my Rose Petal Jam. Ok I'm not, I'm famous for my sarcasm and bitchiness, but the Jam is really good, and our property is SURROUNDED by rose bushes, filled with amazing wild roses that REEK of awesome, so I took the liberty of making this tutorial on how to re-create my Rose Petal FREEZER (easy) Jam.

I figure I'll wear my son on my back to keep him from getting all rose-thorn-poked

First you need rose petals, I like to use leather gardening gloves as to not hack up my hands while rooting through the bush to get the roses. It's somewhat gratifying to go through a beautiful bush and snip the heads of the roses, not sure why.

Note: the egg in the picture is my multi tasking, I had a late layer in the day and I took her egg. This was my first bounty, I stupidly washed these, and put them in the freezer which turned them into a yucky mess, so I had to RE-go out and collect more

Second you have to take the petals off, it's rewarding because they smell good and you still get to wear your leather gloves.

Third, WASH THEM, wash them wash them WASH THEM in cool water. BUGS live in roses, beetles even, I had to rescue these adorable little beetles from a watery grave, and once I thought I got all the bugs out, I submerged the petals for an hour and then washed them again, as to evict all inhabitants from my future Jam.

Spin the water off in a salad spinner, again, smells great.

You should have collected about 4 cups of petals, if not, go get some more, I'll wait.

now wash those ones too.

Spin them.

Ok you have four cups? I'd say get eight because four cups wet is really only two, if you want to, use fresh strawberries, that's what I did for half of the batch, 

Good, let's move on.

I'm using this stuff, it makes Jam making a breeze and if you're making jam for vegans, they'll be happy you considered their needy needs. The gelling agent is actually an extract from sea weed. I'm making jam for my husband and daughter, they're not vegans.

Rip up the leaves to sizes that aren't going to gag you when you eat them, the petals are very thin and tear easily, they also bruise easily so tearing is a better option than chopping, but that's merely my opinion

Add about a tablespoon of Lemon Juice, and enough water JUST to let it mimic the wetness that fresh fruit would have, I'm guessing I used about 3 tablespoons

Then add 1.5 cups of sugar, I like to reduce the sugar and I ran out of granulated sugar, so I used a cup of granulated, and a quarter cup of icing sugar.

 Mix that up and let it sit for fifteen minutes. Go facebook or something, (yes I'm using that as a verb)  set a timer, the internet steals your time and your soul.
I spent my fifteen texting my pregnant friend a few towns over, so my soul remains intact. 

If you're adding fruit, I add it separately and don't let the sugar sit on top of it, I kind of feel like it's sweet enough, and that seems to hold true, so finely chop your fruit and add it to the mix after the 15 minutes is up. I heard a quote the other day, "facebook is like looking in the fridge, you keep going back, checking it, and still nothing has changed, there's nothing there"

Ok, now slowly add the powdered jelly mix to the mixture and stir that for five minutes, not to worry, you wont get carpal tunnel syndrome.

Looks delicious already! 

SURPRISE! you're done! Let that sit for five minutes, then put them into jars! I'm being lazy this time around so I used the plastic freezer jars and they are AWESOME because once you use the jam, you can fill them full of nuts and raisins and throw them in a diaper bag without worry of spillage, yes, I've become THAT person.

 *groan*

  

The top is strawberry rose, the bottom is just rose, both equally delicious in different ways, I wish sugar didn't hate my guts, I should try a splenda version and watch people flame me for using splenda.

My husband had some just now, he says it's "actually QUITE delicious" but he wishes I'd torn the petals up more.