Rosehip Syrup Recipe

First, find your rosehips!  I found my best hips across the fields, but go foraging in the hedgerows and footpaths and try your local parks. Follow the forager's code and remember to leave some for the birds and not to deplete the whole bush.

Do wear gloves as they have sharp thorns (I forgot this and still bear the scars).

Rosehip Syrup Recipe

Ingredients

1k or 2 and 3/4 pints rosehips
600g or 5oz white granulated sugar
Water

Equipment
Food processor or mincer
Jam pan or large pan
Jelly bag or muslin
Bowl and jug
Funnel, ladle, large wooden spoon or silicon spatula
Bottles

Wash and top and tail the hips. Chop them in your blender or a mincer to release the goodness.

Bring 750 ml or 1 and 1/4 pints water to the boil in the jam pan.  When it reaches boiling point, add the hips and stir. Bring it back to the boil.  Then remove pan from the heat and leave for 15 minutes.

Strain the contents through a jelly bag.  You can use an upturned stool, with muslin tied to the legs and a bowl below: this works just as well.  After straining, put the liquid aside.  I used a larger quantity of rosehips (in the following picture) so your muslin will not look so full as this!

Rinse out your jam pan and add 750ml or 1 and 1/4 pints of cold fresh water.  Bring to the boil again. Add the hips for a second time and return to boiling point.  Leave to cool for 10 minutes. Put the hips through a clean muslin and strain the liquid.  Leave overnight if you have time.

Sterilise your bottles.  Glass bottles can be heated in the oven or boiled. See Jamie Oliver's You Tube Video: How to Sterilise Jars  for a step by step guide.  If using plastic bottles, wash in hot, soapy water and finish with a hot rinse.  This works for me!

Pour the rosehip liquid into the jam pan and boil, reducing it to approximately 900ml or 1 and 1/4 pints. Add 600g sugar and boil for another 5 minutes. Pour into sterilised bottles and seal straightaway.

Use syrup on ice-cream, dilute as a drink or drizzle on rice-pudding or semolina...Rosehip syrup keeps for about 3 months in a cool dark place. Once open, keep bottles in the fridge and use within a week.

Enjoy :)

 Useful Links
River Cottage Rosehip Syrup Recipe - contains less sugar than most.
Rosehips: Benefits and Information - by Herb Wisdom.
The Benefits of Rosehips to your Health - by the Nutrition Expert.
Rosehip Recipes - Want more than syrup?  Then this is the place for you!
Try Drying and Storing Rosehips to make Make Rosehip Tea.
An earlier blog post on Foraging in Fields and Hedgerows!