It’s rose hip picking season! This month we are sharing a recipe from the cookbook: A Taste of Texel [De Smaak van Texel] form Annette van Ruitenburg. You can make the jelly from rose hips you pick yourself. It goes well with rye bread and ewe’s cheese from Texel.

Rose hip jelly

Pick the hips from the wild roses in a quiet area, not near a busy road and not from too close to the ground. Please note that you may not pick rose hips in the dunes. Please pick them instead from public gardens or, of course, from your own garden. Be careful not to overpick. Wild-growing fruit, including rose hips, provide an important source of winter food for birds.

Ingredients

• 1 kilogram rose hips, dog rose hips, or sweet briar rose hips
• 450 ml water
• 500 grams sugar with pectin (‘geleisuiker’)

Method

Wash the rose hips and simmer them on low heat until they are very tender. Puree the rose hips by putting them through a fine food mill if you want seedless jelly. This takes quite a bit of effort because rose hips always have lots of seeds. Add half a kilo of sugar for each kilo of puree. If you like your jam a little less sweet, use ‘geleisuiker speciaal’. Mix the sugar through the puree and heat the mixture until it thickens. Put the jam in sterilised jars and seal them shut.

Serve the jam on rye bread with ewe’s cheese from Texel, which you can find at either Kaasboerderij Wezenspyk or Schapenbedrijf De Waddel. Another excellent serving tip: toast the rye bread and serve it with semi-matured ewe’s cheese, pumpkin seeds, and rose hip jelly.

Enjoy your meal!

More Texel recipes