I have large white rose standards (a rose bush grafted onto a trunk to give a certain formal look that roses don't generally have) planted in a large built in container at the entrance to our home, and since I am generally very diligent about trimming off spent blooms, I almost never see rose hips in my garden. This year however, I decided to experiment with getting more height by not trimming the spent blooms (plus it was a very wet winter, and who wants to go out and trim rose bushes?) and so today when I at long last went out to give my large container garden some attention I decided to harvest all the orange rose hips that had grown, as I knew they were good for something, but not what exactly! So I kept them on their stems to photograph them, and then started learning about all the uses of rose hips, and boy was I happy that I learned something new as a product of my possible laziness or container garden neglect! Speaking of learning something new, my daughter just got some new school books in the mail, and upon taking a look at the college Chemistry course she said, "I think I might need a tutor for this one." Fortunately, I just discovered that there is an amazing sight of online tutors called tutorhunt.com which is a great resource for so many students of all ages, with all the credentials of the tutors listed, as well as their hourly wages.
Okay, lets learn more about rose hips!
Of course I was aware of rose hip tea and maybe even rose hip jam, but that was the extent of my knowledge other than a vague knowledge that they were good for something, and worth saving! Take note of the following amazing information:
- Rose hips are known for having a large quantity of vitamin C, even up to 20 times the amount in an orange, though of course you'd never eat the weight of an orange in rose hips.
- In addition, they also contain bioflavonoids which are essential for the proper absorption of the immune boosting vitamin C.
- Rose hips are good for overall health in other ways, such as increasing the effectiveness of all other vitamins.
Okay, sold, but then I learned that:
- drying the rose hips reduces most of their vitamin C content, meaning dehydrating for tea, or making powder isn't really the way to go
- so they are best used fresh (though wondering if I can freeze them, likely yes) though not heated at too high temps as that also destroys some of the vitamin content, yikes, meaning that using them to make jam or jelly is also not the best healthwise, in any case
So then I concluded that the very best use for my home grown rose hips was to simply make tea, (or eat them raw, no thanks) which next time I will make in the following way:
- Steep four to eight rose hips in a cup of boiling water for 10 to 15 minutes. Don't use aluminum pans or utensils that could discolor the hips; aluminum also affects vitamin C absorption from rose hips. Stainless steel is fine. Dilute this condensed tea to your liking.
And to use the rose hips you cut them open and remove the seeds (which I'm saving to see if I can get them to germinate) and the little hairy stuff and wash. Got it?
Foraging right outside my front door is so very fun, now wondering if there is anyplace around town where they may not have sprayed the roses and so the rose hips would be organic? Of course there are wild roses in many areas of the world, so maybe set to find those, if that applies to you!
