Rose Hips

This is our first harvest of rose hips. Rose hips are the resulting fruit following the successful pollination of rose flowers. Just as with many fruits, you can do all sorts of cool stuff with them! Jams/jellies, syrups and wine can all be made from rose hips, but my favorite is rose hip tea.

Rose hips have an extremely high concentration of Vitamin C and also contain powerful antioxidants, making them a great candidate for herbal teas and remedies. During World War II, British citizens were encouraged to harvest wild rose hips when German U Boats made citrus fruits hard to obtain.

Often mixed with hibiscus, the resulting tea is tart and delicious! They ripen beginning in late summer and throughout the fall. We probably should have waited until the first frost to harvest them, hopefully the plants won't burst to life right before the frosty weather starts, but we couldn't take it any longer... we had to have some of that delicious tea!