Foraging rosehips

It is the first day of 2025 and whilst we are waiting for the sky to clear we are planning our calender for the coming year, looking forward to our walk.

Each and every time we step outside we are instantly enveloped in the countryside, a place where the colours are constantly changing.  Today's palette is reminiscent of tweed, beautifully varied greens next to mauve and burnt orange, mustard seeping through.

I am looking for rosehips as it is my last day to gather them.

The frost hit our countryside during Christmas and has left the rosehips bursting, their bright red and orange incongruous against the muted tones of winter.  They shine like jewels as the sun briefly emerges, natures own decorations.

It is important to share the harvest as the birds also feed, so I take just enough and leave plenty on the hedgerows.

Back home in the warm, still at our kitchen table while the apothercary is being renovated, I wash dry and divide the hips.  Some for syrup (a good way to store for future cooking projects), some to dehydrate for use in oils creams and salves, others suspended in alcohol for tinctures. Any spare going straight to the freezer.

Syrup

1kg rosehips

500g sugar

1.5 lts water

Tincture

30g dried rosehips

120ml 80 proof alcohol​

Infused Oil

1 cup dried rosehips

2 cups sweet almond oil

​I will be making these for friends and family in the coming days and sharing the recipes I use and the progress I make with you later.