If you've had a frost or two, it's time to get out and start gathering rose hips! There's some great info here about rose hips, and their uses.
Last year I picked about 4 or 5 cups of rose hips and made rose hip syrop. Sweet and tangy! Great on pancakes! It's high in vitamin C, full of antioxidants, and has it's own natural anti-inflamatory properties. And free! Gotta love free.
Be careful before you raid the neighbour's, or the city garden's rose bushes though. Who knows what kind of chemicals they may be sprayed with? Better ask first.
I get my rose hips right here in my own backyard. Wild roses bloom all summer long in the bush, so I try to make a mental note of where there are big bunches of them. Then I head out in the fall and pick off the rose hips.
So far this year I've only got a half a jar picked. But soon I will have enough for another batch of syrop.
Rose Hip Syrop
4 cups rose hips
2 cups water
1 cup sugar
Wash rose hips. Remove stems. Boil with water for 20 minutes in a covered saucepan. Strain juice into pot. Add sugar. Stir well. Boil five minutes.
More rose hip recipes here!
My friend said something about cutting open the hips. ??? She is dead, so I cannot ask her. Not all roses have hips, obviously, because I have rows of roses along the retaining wall and ones on the back fence that I cannot kill. The thorns catch me and others and are nearly lethal...and loooong. Thanks for that information. Now, I will go to the sites and read.
ReplyDeletewe have lots of wild roses along our driveway just waiting for frost. you can bet we are gonna make some of this yummy syrop!
ReplyDeletei'll probably just drink it ;-)
PP- that is so weird. I thought all roses grew hips if you didn't cut the flowers off. Cutting the seed pods out depends on what you're going to do with them afterward. You definitely don't want that in your food.
ReplyDeleteJambaloney- Good to 'see' you out and about! Hope you're feeling better soon! You guys haven't got frost yet? Wow. We usually have snow by now, but Mother Nature's being kind to us this year.
I'm glad that PP reminded me about rose hips which was thanks to your blog:) I have not visited here before but I like what I see so far.
ReplyDeleteHi Linda! I was over snooping around your blog yesterday too, lol. Nice to 'meet' you.
ReplyDelete