Wild things in February: Rose Hips
Every summer in Southern California, the roses give way to buds, and the green rose hips start to appear. By late September, they are bright red, tiny little things, beckoning the eye when everything around is a blaze of yellow and orange. Everywhere else in the country, rose hips are a few of the only wild things remaining long into the winter. Here, spring has already started, and the roses are already pushing their way up, getting ready to flower again. Luckily, in almost every garden I see, there are still rosehips. And even more luckily, I dried a whole bunch last year. Why lucky? Well you see, my friend Butter and I are going to start a monthly wild food thingy. We’ll discuss a different plant each month, and come up with some different recipes for it. You can try it too– and if you write about it we’ll link to you when we put all of the recipes in one place. And, if you haven’t guessed by now, February is going to be the rose hip.
The rosehip is one of the strongest sources of vitamin C in the world. So much so that they have been used medicinally for centuries. They’re also rich in vitamins E, K, B (1, 2, and 3). According to herbalist Kiva Rose, there’s not much point in you drinking fancy foreign rooibos or green tea for the anti-oxidants; rosehips have even more than both of those plants, AND they probably grow somewhere near your back yard!
The most common preparation for the rose hip is a simple rose hip syrup– prepared with sugar. It’s been used for centuries for people who are coming down with the flu, because of it’s high vitamin and mineral content. It’s that high nutritive content that makes it so useful in other situations, for example in exhaustion, malnutrition, and general deficiency. In situations like that however, I’d be much more likely to use it in elixir or infusion form than sugar syrup.
Rosehips have a tart, slightly fragrant taste, though most species are usually quite delicate tasting too.
Here is a recipe for a rosehip simple syrup:
1 cup rose hips (either dry or fresh)
2 cup water
1 cup sugar
Bring the rose hips and water to a boil, and simmer for 20 minutes or so. Remove from the heat, and mash up the rose hips, to get as much of the goodness out into the water as possible. Add the sugar, and bring to the boil again, simmer, and make sure all the sugar is dissolved, then strain through a sieve and bottle.
It should keep in the fridge for up to a year.
Hi Beks! I am so excited about your new wild thing challenge! I was telling butter that I will share the roundup on my thoughts on friday link love post at a moderate life to get the word out and hopefully get more people involved! I LOVE rose hips and last fall I found a whole stand of beach roses as we call them here with the huge succulent rose hips that you can eat like little apples! I was amazed to find out that they were actually related to apples. Thanks so much for sharing this on the hearth and soul hop! Hugs! Alex
Aw Alex, thank you!! I think I remember you making rosehip syrup last year, right? And we had big fat rosehips like that in the UK… in California they’re TINY!
xoxo
Beautiful photos, I love rose hips, thanks for the inspiration, to make some yummy rose hip foods…
Hi Hella, thanks for stopping by! Be sure to email us a rosehip recipe
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PPS. The pictures are Butters– I forgot to take my camera out when we had rosehips. And I could *try* to pretend that we had snow, but I don’t think I could say it without giggling
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I never knew it was so easy! I’ll definitely let my mom know about this. She loves rose hips in her tea.
Gosh Candi, yes. It’s super easy. Now she can gather and use her own!
What an interesting post, and what gorgeous photographs! Everyone in England talks about how rose hips were used ‘during the war’ but I’ve not really seen them used anymore. It’s nice to know how as they really are a nutritional powerhouse.
Yeah, I think I’d always thought of them as a somewhat archaic food source until I started learning about them. One of the things I like about this kind of wild and traditional foods renaissance is that it turns things like ‘cool’ and ‘old fashioned’ on their heads.
What a lovely photo of that rose hip at the top! For me they would be fancy, foreign however. I do have one straggly bush, no roses. They are the hardest things for me to grow for some reason. And, certainly none wild here. I do make a nice tea from native red hibiscus though.
Where are you Claudia? Hibiscus make a fantastic, and vitamin rich tea too
. And lovely in syrups, and pies, and on meats and… *drool*.
I am very excited about having this information. I have a rose garden full of these lovely little buds. Thank you so much for sharing this post. Hope you are staying warm!
Hey Hey Miz H! I’m so glad you have a garden full of them– now you can play around and send us some fab recipes!!!
I’ve heard of rosehip syrup but never made any. Do you take it neat, either in a glass or by the spoonful? Or do you dilute it with water (hot or cold)?
I’m also taking part in the Hearth & Soul hop and that’s how I found your blog
I’d do it by the spoonful if I was taking it medicinally. Thanks for stopping by Aurelia!
Love, love the wild things roundup! You ladies are gonna be even more famous with this foraging twist!
Thanks so much for sharing at the hearth and soul hop.
Yep, we won’t stop until complete world domination is ours
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Thanks for stopping by Jason!!
Great to find you via the Hearth and Soul Hop. There are a lot of those rose hips here in my area. I would love to make some tea with them. I see them everyday but never cross my mind to use them for tea or syrup. I will sure come back to see what else you will post in your quest for wild food. Looking forward to it.
Oh Mely, yes. You can dry them really easily– just chop them up and spread them out over a piece of paper in a cool dark place until they’re dry, then store in a jar of some kind.