I keep finding some beard, but probably missed them. I have thoroughly cleared rivers before and come back months later to find more. I brewed them into a tea and the flavor was rich and rosy.I never made the connection that the teas don't act as medicine unless used via the medical menu, that is good to know.ĪFAIK cat tails eventually respawn. Fast-forward 3 years to last week: I found them in a jar in the back of the cupboard, and they were still red and intact, hard as rocks. They languished in the back of the car for the rest of our road trip, then I dried them. One question: you make it clear that it’s best to freeze the lot before using, and so I assume that if I want to dry them, I first freeze, then thaw, and then put them in the dehydrator? Does this make a significant difference in just the taste or also the nutritional content? I’m from the States, and on a hike in Montana once in September (before frost), I picked several quarts of huge beautiful Nootka rose hips. Your method will make my harvest much more versatile. My only solution had been to give up on making anything except tea from whole dried hips - after infusing, I strain and press the pulp gently through muslin. And thank you for this ingenious method for separating out the little hairs. I’ve always just guessed about how far from roads to pick my herbs and fruits now I’ll have real data for that. This is a wonderful article, including Robin Harford’s links to roadside pollution considerations.
Most are paid access, but you get the abstract for free, so draw your own conclusions. There are a number of studies relating to pollution and picking road side fruits and leaves etc. And making wines from these fruits has been pretty much established that it’s really not a good idea to do so.Īlthough lead is no longer in our petrol, you still have to think about diesel fumes etc.
There is no need to go to the trouble of removing the seeds (unless you have more time on your hands than you know what to do with). Tip the dried rose hips into a jar or airtight container, and consume at will. I find it fascinating that they all easily fall through leaving you with some scrummy dried rose hips. Tip the contents into a metal sieve, and just shake to remove all those pesky hairs that can be irritating to some people. Grind away until the contents look like below… you don’t want to grind the rose hips too small other wise in the next step they will simply fall through the sieve along with all the hairs… which kind of defeats the object of sieving (Step 8)! Step 8 This year I borrowed my neighbours small one and it worked very well. When the rose hips have dried, this is what they look like. But this is “wild stuff”, so times may vary depending on the quality of the hips, how many you’re drying etc. This made absolutely no difference, other than pleasure-ably wasting time ? Step 4įor convenience and because the weather has not exactly been that sunny this year (2008), I used a food dehydrator.ĭehydration took about 5-6 hours for this particular batch. Normally I dry them whole, but this year I decided to test splitting 50% of the batch in half before drying. Then top and tail them by removing the stalk and the little pointy bit where the flower was. Step 2Īfter washing your rose hips, dry them in the sun on newspaper. Pick as many rose hips as you think you need to last you until next year. Delicately sweet, this is one of my favourites, and I consume it daily throughout the Dark Months.įor rose hip tea, simply put 1-2 teaspoons of dried rose hips in a tea pot, let it sit for 15-20 minutes, then strain into a cup. Rose Hip Tea ( Rosa canina) is so refreshing and packed with vitamins and minerals.