Instructions

• Wash the rose petals well, and trim off any white ends you come across. Drain the petals and place into a 4 qt, or larger, pot. Cover with fresh, cold water, add 1½ tablespoons lemon juice, bring to a boil, and then simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• When the water is red, and the petals have faded to a pale magenta, drain the petals, reserving 4 cups of the rosewater. Set the petals aside.
• In the same pan, combine 2 c reserved rosewater (from what you just drained and set aside), ½ c water, 1 c sugar and the remaining 1.5 tablespoons Meyer lemon juice. Boil 10 minutes, making sure sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and stir in reserved petals. Let macerate 2 hours and then drain, reserving this rose syrup. At this point, you can dispose of the petals.
• If you’re planning to can this jelly, get your canning pot set up- water boiling, jars out, etc.
• In a (separate) large pot, add another 1 c reserved rosewater, 1 c water, the diced lemon, diced apple, and the cheesecloth purse (if using; see note 2 below). Turn the heat to high. When boiling, add the currants, and the rose syrup you made earlier. Boil 10 minutes, remove cheesecloth purse, and add 1½ c sugar.
• Let the mixture cook until the sugar dissolves and a nice boil returns. Remove from heat and carefully strain through a fine-mesh sieve, ultimately returning the liquid to your pot. Put all solids into a foodmill set with the finest disk, place the mill over the pot holding the liquid, and crank until all additional juice is pressed out. Discard solids.
• Return this strained “jelly” to a boil, and whisk in about 1/4 of your sugar-pectin mixture. You might get a few small clots which you can strain out. At this point, you can do the freezer-plate test, or you can just go for it (the freezer-plate test is kind of hit or miss in my opinion). Ladle into jars and process in the boiling water bath for 10 minutes.