Why have I never picked Rosehips before?

Blinko

Just read the link given by Camilla7. Good grief! It is a faff.

You can use a blender to lightly chop the rosehips if you prefer.

Fleurpepper

Blinko

So is there an easy way of separating the horrible, hairy seeds from the good stuff? It all sounds rather a faff to me...

No need for jelly and cordial.

Ah! I'm guessing that's because they're sieved at some stage?

In 1950 my son was given free rose hip syrup instead of orange juice at the clinic. Was also given Virol.
I cannot understand why these days people don’t bother to gather and use wild foods.

When I make rose hip syrup I cut off the calyx (top) and the stalk (all 400 of them - I count or I’d get bored 😂) then I cover with water, boil, strain, sieve, three times. The remaining liquid is boiled with sugar to make syrup. The sieved out seeds are thrown away.

BTW rose hips are very good for horses who tend to really like them.

Blinko

So is there an easy way of separating the horrible, hairy seeds from the good stuff? It all sounds rather a faff to me...

No need for jelly and cordial.

I read this thread earlier this afternoon before I took myself out for a walk. Rose hips have never been on my radar before, though I’m an enthusiastic forager. Today, they seemed to leap out from every hedgerow! Maybe next year I will add them to the foraging list, with the elderberries for cordial, and sloes for gin (though sloes are conspicuous by their absence this year!)m and of course blackberries.

There are very many health benefits to drinking rose hips tea!

Rosehips only develop when the roses are not deadheaded. I always deadhead mine as soon as the flowers begin to droop or drop their petals. My late mum taught me not just to cut off the heads, but also to cut down the stem to just above the next cluster of FIVE leaves (not 3). Not sure why this encourages new flowers, but it works! My roses are still flowering quite well, if slowing down. I'm on the Surrey / Hants border, but most of the roses are in my front (Northeast facing) garden.

Loved Delrosa Rosehip Syrup

Sweetcakes I agree! Especially mushrooms which can be very dangerous, even fatal.
Try blackberries, even I can't go wrong. The season has ended now though. But we pick them then wash and open freeze them before freezing in tubs for Blackberry and Apple Crumble throughout the year.

Lesley60

It sounds like slave labour to me, the farmer was onto a good thing choosing school kids and paying them peanuts

It wasn't slave labour. Whole families went to pick potatoes. It must have been backbreaking work but the farmers were not wealthy. The community pulled together to survive.

We weren't from the village and my mum thought herself much better than the people whose families had lived there for generation. I may have mentioned before that Hyacinth Bucket was based on my mum!!

Just read the link given by Camilla7. Good grief! It is a faff.

So is there an easy way of separating the horrible, hairy seeds from the good stuff? It all sounds rather a faff to me...

They are huge and so plentyful this year. Foraging has to be done with respect for wildlife. I pick what I can easily reach and leave the birds all the rest. Will pick after a couple of sharp frosts.

My late husband and I used to pick rosehips in the 70s to make wine. Lovely it was too. We did the same with sloes and elderberries, all of which were plentiful where we lived at the time. Happy days.

I've never picked rosehips but Mum gave us the syrup every winter. I loved it .

I would love to forage but must admit a little scared of picking the wrong things!

Lesley60

It sounds like slave labour to me, the farmer was onto a good thing choosing school kids and paying them peanuts

The rosehips were picked for the Ministry of Food.

Regarding the potatoes - I think it was probably the last post-WW2 fling of the 'working together' that characterised a lot of rural England. Certainly before my time, my family would turn out to help in the fields and be glad of the money. Farmers in our neck of the woods were not very wealthy.

Not exactly the same, but when I was a child, soft fruit was picked by the 'mums'. In season, a bus came round to the school gates and picked them up, then dropped them off to pick up the kids at the end of the school day. Some of them needed the money badly, but for many of the families that was their 'holiday money'. Stopped when those pesky women decided to get proper well paid jobs!

Also great with a small camerbert cheese. About £1 from Lidl. Pop it in microwave for 30/40 seconds and it makes a delightful tea time treat when served with rose hip syrup. Also great with redcurrants or, my favourite, onions.
Slice onions and soften in microwave before frying them( in pan or air fryer. It cuts frying time )

I too was encouraged to pick rosehips when I was at primary school. My Mum made jelly with them too. Delish ious

Camilla7, thank you for the post and sharing the recipe. It prompted me to go out picking rosehips yesterday afternoon and apples this morning (in the glorious sunshine), and the pan of fruit is simmering gently on the hob now. Smells lovely already. ☺

Rosehips were of great value when I was young. Used to fill the empty National Dried Milk tins (baby milk), take them to school or the Co-op for collection to be made into a syrup for vitamins.

Rose hips contain lycopene, beta carotene and vitamin C. Very good for you! (Perhaps the sugar used to make the jams and syrups is not so good...)

It sounds like slave labour to me, the farmer was onto a good thing choosing school kids and paying them peanuts

Please, please remember the birds and animals who depend on rose hips and all the other ‘foraged’ foods from the country.

I know that Gransnetters wouldn’t take too much but so many foragers take everything,


The hips are eaten by fruit-eating birds such as Thrushes, Blackbirds, Redwing, Feildfare and Waxwings, which then disperse the seeds in their droppings. Some birds, particularly Finches, also eat the seeds.11 Nov 2009
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Rose Hips - Wildlife questions - The RSPB Community