Fall is here, though it’s still quite hot, and probably will be for the next few weeks. Puttering in the garden today, I decided to harvest the Thai Roselle flowers – I’ve written about them here and here.  I’ve been somewhat surprised at the abundance of flowers, given their somewhat sluggish start.  The plants are beautiful, and I harvested perhaps six cups of flowers.

I peeled away the fleshy sepals and calyces, rinsed them, and set aside the fruits, some of which had already mostly dried out – I’ll dry the rest and save the seeds for next year.  I made a syrup by boiling 2 cups of roselle in 2 cups of water for about 8 minutes, then adding 1/3 of a cup of agave nectar.  The resulting syrup is thick – there seems to be a great deal of pectin in roselle.  1 or 2 tablespoons in a tall glass of ice and soda water (courtesy of the Sodastream) makes a subtly sweet/sour, fruity, beautifully red refreshing drink.

I may dry the rest of the roselle, or perhaps turn it all into syrup and freeze it.  I definitely plan to plant this plant again. Though it’s a perennial, I’m almost certain it won’t overwinter in the ground, so I’ll pot up one or two and see if I can overwinter them in the greenhouse.  If the transplants don’t survive, I’ve got tons of seeds to plant in the spring.