Rose petal jelly, made…

Rose petal jelly, made with William Shakespeare roses. How much more romantic can you get? I feel like I should have been reciting his sonnets while stirring the boiling jelly. Three cups of roses made three half-pints of jelly (with a bit leftover for us to nibble); so easy and so lovely, I think I may do another batch next weekend. There are half a dozen flower buds on the bush, so hopefully they'll all be nicely open by then. Now I just need some pretty labels for them...

"...Nor did I wonder at the lily's white,
Nor praise the deep vermilion in the rose;
They were but sweet, but figures of delight,
Drawn after you, you pattern of all those."

David Austin's William Shakespeare rose, a prolific repeat bloomer with a lovely scent.

Boil for a bit to drain the rose essence in to the water.

A few minutes later, the petals have gone all translucent.

Okay, this is just me being silly -- I put a bit in a tinted purple glass, just so I could take this photo, against the anaglypta.

Drained the petals, added sugar, and then put it in the fridge last night, because I didn't have lemons! I'm not sure if the color was this dark last night? This morning, I added the juice of two fresh lemons and a single drop of rose essence.

Bring it up to a boil!

The faceted jelly glasses are just adorable.

All done -- now they're sitting on the counter, waiting to see if they've sealed properly (the top will pop if they do).