Wild Rosehip Syrup

A satisfying sweet treat from a wintery forage.

Some things are worth getting cold fingers for ~ picking rosehips on a wintery morning might just be one of them. Coming home, getting cosy and brewing up a heart warming syrup that can be enjoyed for a few cold months makes it all worth while.

Mother nature knows how to provide. When it gets dark and chilly and the wild roses have disappeared, rosehips come out to offer us high levels of vitamin C and E to help fight off winter colds.

During the 18th century, it was found that rosehips could provide enough vitamin C to help prevent scurvy. Big boxes of rosehips were taken aboard ships for the sailors to use as supplements during long months at sea.

This simple recipe is a slight adaption from the River Cottage one and made some delicious sloe berry syrup too.

Wild Rosehip Syrup

Ingredients:

A container of foraged rosehips
325g – 975g sugar
Handful of dried rose petals (optional)

+ a couple of clean preserving bottles or kilner jars & a really fine mesh sieve

Recipe:

Use a blender to pulse the rosehips and roughly chop them in batches.
Put the rosehips (and rose petals if you are using them) in large a saucepan and cover with 1.25 litres of water.
Bring the water to a boil, then simmer for 30 minutes.
Strain the mixture through the sieve, let the pulp sit for around 30 minutes so all the liquid strains through.
Sieve the mixture a second time into another container (the 2nd sieving helps to make sure the little hairs from the rosehips are definitely caught).
Rinse out the large saucepan and measure the rosehip juice into it.
For every 500ml of liquid add 325g of sugar.
Heat the liquid slowly whilst stirring and all the sugar has dissolved, then bring to the boil and let it boil for 3 minutes (there might be some foam on the top which can be skimmed off).
Decant the syrup into the prepared bottles / kilner jar and seal once cool enough to touch.
Label your bottle once cooled.
Enjoy for up to 4 months and keep in the fridge once opened.