Rose and rose hip recipes

[Carolinamandolina]

I make rose hip conserve by putting mashed rosehips in a half jar of honey. Today I was making flapjacks and I added some of it to the flapjack mix ...very nice :)

[emmalouise]

I've got a question about how to know when the rosehips are ready to be picked. On a roadside near our allotment, there's a huge row of rose bushes (which had very strongly scented purple flowers earlier in the year), which is already covered in dark red hips - this seems a bit early to me. Most of the hips are oval, but some are round like cherry tomatoes. Most of them are very hard, but a few are squashy. Clearly I'm not going to pick them as they belong to the council, but my two-year-old is fascinated by them and she might just grab a few on the way past... ;)

I've read that it's best to pick them after the first frost, but I reckon they'll all be gone well before then - could I just put them in the freezer overnight to give them a little scare?

[Hedgehogpie]

The roses you describe are rosa rugosa and their hips are ready earlier in the year than the wild dog roses. The hips look like this:



You'll know they're ripe because they go very very squashy - in fact they're best picked whilst still a bit firm as it makes them easier to process (top/tail/de-seed) otherwise you'll be covered in a sticky red mess in no time, as I invariably am! They are lovely though because they're so big, just use them identically to the dog rose hips that you'd gather later in the year. I highly recommend making syrup to pour over plain yogurt, it's delicious!

I will say that I don't wait for the frosts to harvest dog rose hips though*, as soon as they have a really good colour they're useable. If you leave them too long they can develop a fermented flavour and again get too squashy to process easily which is a pain as they're a lot smaller and fiddlier than the rosa rugosa hips.

*Sloes are about the only things where I might use this rule as they need all the time to ripen that they can get.

[emmalouise]

Thanks, that's really helpful. I was just puzzled because when they were in flower, as far as I could see they all looked the same. I'll give them a go with some of your recipes!

[Hedgehogpie]

They tend to get planted because they make a very effective and nicely scented barrier or hedge (very prickly, so watch your fingers!). The birds adore them when they get overripe so you will find the skins of many hips picked clean of their seeds and flesh as the autumn progresses.

I usually keep the seed I've removed during processing to sprinkle around local hedges (discreet guerilla gardening of sorts!).