Rose Hip Syrup

 The best cold remedy EVER.. Rosehip Syrup! 

On my recent quest to eat locally and seasonally, I mentioned previously that I really wanted to make Rosehip Syrup just like my grandmother made for my Dad and my Aunt. 

Above is a picture of my boys (a good few weeks ago) harvesting all the ripe Rose-hips. We found a number of Rosehip bushes in the hedges surrounding our fields. We found out rather quickly too that you need to wear gloves when you harvest the fruit as the Rosehips have little 'hairs' on them that act like itching powder. 

Once we had collected what we hoped was 1 kg in weight, we took them in to the kitchen. 

Here is a copy of the recipe we followed. 

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Ingredients

1kg Rosehips

3 litres of water

500g sugar

Bring to the boil 2 litres of water.

Chop rosehips in food processor until mashed up, then add to boiling water.

Bring water back to the boil, then remove from heat and allow to steep for 20 minutes.

Pour rosehips and liquid into a scalded jelly bag and allow the juice to drip through. Gently squeeze the jelly bag to extract as much liquid as possible. Be careful not to rip the bag.

Add rosehip pulp back to a saucepan containing 1 litre of water and bring back to the boil. Then remove from heat and allow the contents to steep for another 20 minutes before straining through the jelly bag as in Step 3.

Add sugar to the strained rosehip liquid and dissolve, allow to simmer for five minutes, then pour into hot, sterilised bottles.

Store in the fridge and add to hot water with a slice of ginger for a great cold remedy, dilute in cold water for a great kids drink ,or pour over pancakes or waffles..even chocolate cake for a fragrant sauce or topping!

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It was surprisingly quick and easy to make. 

My only problem was, what to do with the pulp? We ended up throwing it away which seems like such a waste. I need to find a purpose for it for next year. 

I've used the syrup as a hot drink, cold drink and even poured it on my porridge so far. 

Around this time of year, I'm always the first to get a cold in our house. This year I'm the only one who hasn't suffered a cold (yet!) and I'm the only one really drinking the Rosehip Syrup... Oh well, more for me.