rose hip questions

me_and_me_monkeys

all around where i live i can see loads of rosehips and i really want to try doing something with them. Is there ary particular type of rose that i need to pick or does it not matter? also when is the best time to pickmany thanks

tiff

Its best to pick them after the first frost, or you can pick them now and freeze before you use them. The idea is they taste better after they have "bletted". You can use any rosehips, obviously the larger ones are easier to handle but the smaller wild ones are sweeter and have more vitamin C. You have to make sure you remove the seeds.

Lots of info in the foraging forum on www.downsizer.net

MoJo

This is true of Sloes too. It's better to freeze them before using them.

Sarahsaver

When my mum was little she says she used to pick them for my Nanna to make rosehip syrup, for the vitamin C, this was during the war.

Debt_Free_Chick

MoJo wrote: »

This is true of Sloes too. It's better to freeze them before using them.

Oooooooh - you've opened a right can of worms, now

Apparently, the old country advice about leaving sloes until after the first frost is that this is when they are likely to have fully ripened "on the vine". It's meant to indicate that the berries need to be left until late Oct/early Nov to give them time to ripen. The frost action is not the point - it's the timing. Having said that, if you leave sloes that long around here, there'll be none left :rotfl:

The same is, I believe, true of rose hips - they won't be ripe. Of course, you can still pick and use both now, but you are likely to get a less intense flavour.

I have used both methods and found no real difference, though. Having said that, one of the benefits of freezing sloes is that, once thawed, there's no need to !!!!! them, as you'll find the skins have split. That's one less tedious job to do then

moanymoany

The sloes on my local tree are already shrivelling.

MoJo

Debt_Free_Chick wrote: »

Oooooooh - you've opened a right can of worms, now

Apparently, the old country advice about leaving sloes until after the first frost is that this is when they are likely to have fully ripened "on the vine". It's meant to indicate that the berries need to be left until late Oct/early Nov to give them time to ripen. The frost action is not the point - it's the timing. Having said that, if you leave sloes that long around here, there'll be none left :rotfl:

The same is, I believe, true of rose hips - they won't be ripe. Of course, you can still pick and use both now, but you are likely to get a less intense flavour.

I have used both methods and found no real difference, though. Having said that, one of the benefits of freezing sloes is that, once thawed, there's no need to !!!!! them, as you'll find the skins have split. That's one less tedious job to do then

Don'y know about The Old Country, I just do what my mum taught me. Pick 'em when they're ripe, overnight in the freezer then use them. No idea where she got it from (can't have been her mum because that's way back when God was a boy ) but I suspect it was to split them as you say

Sarahsaver

An article I read said that rosehips are good for the joints, after the results of a study in Germany.