Rosehip syrup

Foraging diaries # 17: Rosehip

Rosehips are the seed pods of the wild rose (Rosa canina). Leaving the roses to dry on the plant, their petals to shed, encourages the growth of the rosehip. 

We have a wild rose in our garden and I took no flowers from it this year. It was so loaded with rosehips that it tilted and it was leaning on the ground. 

I kept an eye on the rosehips, as they plumped and then turned from orange to red. I got distracted for 1 week and they started going off. I quickly got my garden shears and cut them all out. I then spent an hour selecting which ones were good enough to be used and ended up with the exact quantity Darina Allen's recipe asked for: 900g.

We've diluted the syrup with some water and it makes quite a delicious drink. It tastes nothing like roses which was a relief as I think the taste of roses a bit sickening.

Serves: almost 2000ml syrup + 1000ml juice for the next recipe

Ingredients:

• 900g rosehips
• 2600ml water
• 1kg sugar
• 50g citric acid

Method:

1. Chop the rosehips. It's quite laborious and boring work. The inside of the rosehips have  seeds and tiny needle-like hairs which can prick the fingers so you may need gloves.
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Bring 1800ml of water to the boil and add the rosehips to the water. Bring it back to the boil again.
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. As soon as the boiling point is reached, remove from the heat and allow to infuse for 15min.
4. Strain through a sieve-lined muslin. Reserve the juice.
   
   
   
5. Put the pulp back into the saucepan, add another 600-1000ml of water and bring to the boil. I added enough to cover the pulp: 800ml.
6. Remove from the heat, let it infuse for 15min and strain as before. Some of the needle-like hairs manage to get through the muslin and the sieve but you can't tell when you drink so worry not. I did not press the pulp to have a clear syrup and to avoid any more of those hairs getting into the drained juice.

This is where I deviated from the recipe. Darina wanted to reduce the juice obtained (2350ml) to 850ml by heating it in a pan and then add the sugar to make the syrup. Wait a minute! My calculator is telling me I would be loosing 1500ml of a wonderfully smelling and tasting juice. As far as I'm concerned, that is the definition of 'waste'. Ain't happening in my kitchen!!!

So I divided the juice in 2 batches: 1350ml to make syrup and 1000ml to make jelly (see next recipe), and carried on as a standard syrup recipe:

1. Add 450g of sugar per 600ml of juice, then add it to the juice with the citric acid. So I added 1kg sugar to 1350ml of juice.
2. Bring back to the boil for about 10min.
3. Pour into sterilised bottles.
4. Store in a cool, dry place.