Rosehips

[Tinkerbell]

I saw a lady gathering rosehips last week, whilst in the Lake District. What do folk use these for?

Tink

[Andy Warne]

Very high in vitamin C, can be made into a syrup and used to flavour ice-cream, puddings etc or diluted as a drink. They can also be made into tarts etc. According to Richard Mabey's excellent book "Food for Free".

Andy

[Tormentil]

We used to get Rose Hip syrup as kids, along with the dreaded cod liver oil and malt extract.

[canonman]

Rosehips have been used since medieval times for cooking. remember as kids we used them to make itching powder.
That gives my age away.
Mick

[jennyb]

When we were kids, we used to pick them and sell them to the corner shop. They were collected and sent off to make rose hip syrup (in the days of free rose hips syrup for kids, as Tormentil says).

If you think about it, for years after the war citrus fruit would have been in very short supply, so they made sure that us kids got the vitamin C from another source. tasted lovely!

Am I giving my age away too?

Jenny

[Jonny]

Rosehip soup is a popular winter dish in Sweden, I have a recipe if anyone wants it. Rosehips contain 4x more vitamin c than blackcurrant juice and 20 x more than oranges.
Leave some for the wildlife though..........

[henrya]

I think you can make Rosehip Vodka in the same way you make Sloe Gin.

henrya

[nightshade]

Wow Gin AND vitamin C

[life through a lens]

Originally Posted by canonman

Rosehips have been used since medieval times for cooking. remember as kids we used them to make itching powder.
That gives my age away.
Mick

I must be older than I thought then, I remember getting into trouble at school for using them as itching powder !!

Rosehip vodka sounds interesting though.

Olly

[Tormentil]

Boy did they irritate.

If you've never experienced it, drop a few seeds down the back of yer neck.

[Airehead]

1. I would love to dry rose hips to use them for infusions through the year - but I can't figure out how to get rid of the hairs which I think are dangerous (and how many people used to call them 'itchibacks'?)

2. Ref rose hip syrup and other preparations which are reputed to be high in vitamin C, it sticks in my mind that vitamin C is destroyed by boiling. So are we fooling ourselves? I am supposed to be some sort of chemist but I have never found a definitive answer to this. Perhaps someone knows?

[Adam Cheeseman]

Personally, I just eat them straight off the bush when they are bright red. Split them open, rake out all the seeds, and eat the flesh. Better than blackberries.

Cheers,

Adam

[Gill Catton]

A recent River cottage programme made the syrup (or it may have been a sort of cordial) and put it into a punch which everyone seemed to like, that might have been the stimulus

[ron1863]

Originally Posted by canonman

Rosehips have been used since medieval times for cooking. remember as kids we used them to make itching powder.
That gives my age away.
Mick

Good God, you brought back memories. We also used them as itching powder. They were very effective. My mother made rose hip syrup.

[badgerwatcher]

I used to make rose hip syrup, the kids loved it.

[Jacky]

Yes, you destroy half the vitamen C by cooking the rosehips, but seeing as they're so high in the stuff and we get rather a lot of vitamens out of other foods these days (if you eat a healthy diet) that it's not really a problem.
Of course, making a syrup doesn't involve cooking them, prick them 5 times and put a layer over a layer of sugar and alternate layers. The sugar draws out the juices which, in turn, liquefy the sugar.

[Carl]

Originally Posted by Tinkerbell

I saw a lady gathering rosehips last week, whilst in the Lake District. What do folk use these for?

Tink

Check this link out;
Rose hip - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Seajay]

Originally Posted by Carl

Check this link out;
Rose hip - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In the 1950's, as a schoolchild in Berwick-upon-Tweed, each year we would be paid a few old pennies a bag for rose-hips collected from the Tweed valley. A representative from where I can't remember, something to do with the Government after WW2 I think, used to call at the schools, weigh your collection and pay you! That was for rosehip syrup.
We used to go on nature walks then too, as part of the school curriculum, beach combing, bird watching along the river, the whole class. It was great and one of the things that got me interested in nature. A pity it was'nt done now though I suppose children have more to learn now.

[Underwood]

Hello, first post.

are there any particular roses that i should be on the look out for, or avoided?

[Lance Morgan]

Hello and welcome
Wild Roses are better than cultivated type though ramblers produce rose hips.

[Susie]

Originally Posted by Seajay

In the 1950's, as a schoolchild in Berwick-upon-Tweed, each year we would be paid a few old pennies a bag for rose-hips collected from the Tweed valley. A representative from where I can't remember, something to do with the Government after WW2 I think, used to call at the schools, weigh your collection and pay you! That was for rosehip syrup.
We used to go on nature walks then too, as part of the school curriculum, beach combing, bird watching along the river, the whole class. It was great and one of the things that got me interested in nature. A pity it was'nt done now though I suppose children have more to learn now.

During the war my dad was evacuated to a boarding school in Somerset called Mooseheart and they had to go out and pick rose hips to be made into rosehip syrup too.

This will probably seem like a stupid question but what do rosehips taste like? Do they taste the same as rose petals - I am assuming they do?

[Seajay]

Originally Posted by Susie

During the war my dad was evacuated to a boarding school in Somerset called Mooseheart and they had to go out and pick rose hips to be made into rosehip syrup too.

This will probably seem like a stupid question but what do rosehips taste like? Do they taste the same as rose petals - I am assuming they do?

So they had your Dad and his schoolchums doing it it Somerset too did they, and I thought Lord Shaftesbury brought out his Act banning children from slave labour a hundred years earlier! Seriously, it does illustrate how desperate we were after WW2 nutrition wise. However, thinking back we enjoyed the picking expeditions!

I have never ever, ever, ever eaten rose hips (put them down girl's backs though ) or rose petals. In Lincolnshire we find growing lettuce and eating those far more productive!

[Rosetinted]

This may be a vain attempt, but I have just read through the various posts related to rosehips and saw an offer from 'Jonny' for Swedish rosehip soup. I haven't had this since I was a child and would dearly love the recipe, so that I can make it for my family. Although Jonny's offer was made last August and the last post on here was March I'm going to ask anyway - "Please can I have the recipe?"

[Ipso Facto]

It's good to see this thread as it pre-dates my membership of WAB.

I used to make rose hip wine but in the middle of the night, during one very hot summer (does anyone remember those? ), bottles started exploding in the wardrobe. I wasn't the most popular bunny in the warren and after that particular event rosehip wine was banned!!

[naturelover]

Originally Posted by Tormentil

We used to get Rose Hip syrup as kids, along with the dreaded cod liver oil and malt extract.

those were the days my friend i remember all three.