Why Rosehips Are Worth the Prickles

Rosehips are one of the most generous wild harvests in Britain. Every hedgerow, park edge and scrubby lane seems to hold a bush or two of dog rose, and by September the branches are strung with fat, glossy hips, glowing vermilion against bare thorns. During the Second World War, when citrus was almost impossible to import, the Ministry of Food organised mass collections of rosehips and turned them into syrup for children and babies, precisely because they are so rich in vitamin C. You can do the same in your own kitchen, and the syrup you produce will outshine anything bought in a bottle.

The flavour is sweet, tart and faintly floral, a little like a cross between apple and cranberry with a hint of Turkish delight. It lifts porridge and yoghurt, dissolves beautifully in hot water with a spoonful of honey, and makes an excellent drizzle for ice cream, pancakes or rice pudding.

Finding and Picking Your Hips

The best hips come from Rosa canina, the dog rose, and Rosa arvensis, the field rose, both common across the UK. Sweet briar and the garden escapee Rosa rugosa (Japanese rose) also produce excellent, often larger hips, the latter looking almost like small tomatoes. Whatever you pick, make sure you are confident before you start.

• Rosehips have a distinctive little crown or tuft at the top where the flower once was, and a smooth, shiny, leathery skin.
• Avoid confusing them with woody nightshade berries, which are oval, dull and hang in loose sprays from a climbing plant, or with the scarlet berries of black bryony, which appear in long trailing strings.
• Pick from hedges well away from busy roads, where exhaust residue coats the fruit, and avoid anything growing beside sprayed farmland.
• Never pick from bushes you cannot identify with certainty, and always get permission before foraging on private or council-managed land.
• Leave plenty behind. Hips are winter food for blackbirds, redwings, fieldfares and small mammals, so take a share, not the lot.

Late August to October is prime time. Traditional advice says wait until after the first frost, but that softens the hips and reduces vitamin C, so I pick from late September onwards and simply choose hips that give slightly when squeezed. Firmer hips are usually free of maggots; any that feel hollow, or that have a tiny dark hole, go straight into the compost.

Preparing the Harvest

Tip your hips into a bowl of cold water and discard any that float, look mouldy or feel suspiciously light. Top and tail them with a small knife or scissors, removing the stalk and the dried crown. This is fiddly work and best done sitting down with the radio on.

Do not be tempted to rub the hairs off with your fingers. Inside a rosehip are fine, stiff hairs that were once used as itching powder, and they are thoroughly unpleasant on skin. Handle the fruit by the outside only, and keep children away from the processing bowl.

Making the Syrup

The following quantities give roughly 750ml of finished syrup.

• 500g prepared rosehips
• 1.2 litres water
• 400–500g granulated sugar
• Juice of half a lemon, or a teaspoon of citric acid

Roughly chop the hips in a food processor, or pulse them briefly, just enough to break them open. Bring the water to the boil in a large pan, tip in the chopped hips, and turn the heat straight down. Simmer gently for 10–15 minutes, no longer. Prolonged boiling destroys much of the vitamin C you are trying to capture, so keep it brief.

Take the pan off the heat and leave it to steep for 30 minutes. Strain through a double layer of muslin draped over a sieve set above a bowl, then gather the cloth and squeeze gently. Do not press hard or you will force hairs through.

Return the spent pulp to the pan with another 500ml of water, bring to the boil, simmer for five minutes and strain again. This second extraction captures the goodness left behind. Combine both lots of liquid, then simmer gently until reduced by about a third.

Now stir in the sugar and lemon juice and heat until completely dissolved, but do not boil hard. Skim off any scum, pour into sterilised bottles while hot, and seal immediately.

Bottling, Storing and Using

To sterilise, wash bottles and caps in hot soapy water, rinse, then stand them in an oven at 140°C for 15 minutes. Fill them hot and cap while hot. Stored in a cool, dark cupboard, the syrup keeps for up to a year; once opened, keep it in the fridge and use within a month or two.

A spoonful in hot water makes a bracing drink for a cold morning, and it is a soothing thing to sip when a sore throat is threatening. Stir it through Greek yoghurt, ripple it through porridge, spoon it over a baked apple or use it to sweeten a gin and tonic. Treated well, a morning among the thorns will flavour your winter.