Rosehip Syrup
A rosehip (also called a rose haw) is basically the seed pod or fruit left after a rose has flowered and at this time of year, hedgerows are often full of them. They're full of vitamin C and anti-oxidants (twenty times the amount of an orange weight for weight!), and are used to make all sort of things - beauty products, tea and this fab syrup historically made to stave off coughs and colds. The only thing is rosehips are a pain, often literally, to collect and prepare!
So I'm going to say this right now, only start making this syrup if you have several hours to kill and are super patient or really bored! It's tasty, roses belong to the apple family, and its lovely to forage through the hedgerows, collect your haws and to make this English autumn classic syrup but, honestly, its very time-consuming.
You've been warned!
PS. The syrup is wonderful in Prosecco and Champagne though.....
PPS. Collect the rosehips carefully. Ours are from dog rose that grows all through our hedges and they have large, sharp thorns. Not only am I usually scratched and poked by them but I once lost a pretty and expensive pearl earring after getting my hair tangled in them - double pain!
Recipe Information
Makes: 1 kilo of rosehips makes approximately 1 litre of syrup
Preparation: Ages!
Cooking Time: Varies
Difficulty: Not hard but a complete faff.
Freezer Friendly: Rosehips can be frozen and used later but the syrup is better stored in bottles.
Ingredients
1kg Washed and prepared rosehips
325g Caster sugar
1.25 litres Water
You can adjust the recipe by using the following formula:
1kg of prepared rosehips requires 1.25 litres of water
500ml of strained juice requires 325g of sugar
Be careful of doing large batches. It's tempting because of the labour involved but you need to strain the rose hip juice through muslin cloth twice in order to remove all of the tiny irritating hairs that come out of the rosehips. If you pile in too many you'll struggle to ensure the pulp doesn't go over into your bowl/pot. Having tried larger batches over the years I'd recommend only doing 1kg at a time, unless of course, you have multiple pots, sieves and muslin cloths.
Equipment:
Large bowl
Large saucepan
Sharp knife
Potato masher
Sieve
At least two clean muslin cloths that fit into your sieve and hang over the edge.
Enough bottles for the amount you're making. This year I only had a 2ltr kilner jar spare so that's what it all went in. Ordinarily, I'd bottle 1 litre of juice in two 500ml glass kilner bottles with old fashioned stoppers.
Method
Collect your kilo of rose hips carefully! They're thorny. You want nice bright red firm ones. Discard any that are soft or damaged.
Sterilise a bottle(s) suitable for the quantity you're making.
While you're bottle(s) are sterilising, prepare your rosehips by cutting off the fluffy bit on the end where the flower was and any remaining stem and foliage. Wash them well in cold water.
Rosehips make better syrup and cordial when they are chopped up. I'd recommend either putting them into a food processor in small batches or leaving them whole at this stage and then mashing them when they've softened mid-way through cooking. I do the later as my food processor has always been pretty pants at chopping them because they're really hard and bounce around a lot.
Put your rosehips into a large saucepan, add the water and bring to the boil. Turn down the heat and leave them to simmer for approximately 15 mins.
If you haven't chopped your rosehips, now is the time to mash them up and return them to the heat for another minute or so.
Grab your big bowl and place your sieve on top. Line your sieve with one of your muslin cloths and begin to decant your pulpy mixture in.
The juice is thick and will take absolutely forever (at least 30 mins) for it to seep slowly through the muslin. I do tend to squeeze mine a little to help it on its way but the reason you use muslin is to remove all of the hairs that are inside of the hips so take care not to squeeze it too hard as they'll all come through and the straining will have been pointless.
Once you've strained all of the pulp once, wash your sieve thoroughly and sieve it all over again using your other clean muslin cloth. Again, this will take awhile as the juice is still really thick though thankfully free of pulp by this time. Do not squeeze this time as you do need to catch all of those hairs. I sieve directly into my large clean saucepan, so that I can get it straight back onto the stove.
Add the sugar to the juice and stir thoroughly to make sure its all mixed.
Heat slowly so that the sugar completely dissolves and then bring to the boil for 3 mins.
Decant into sterilised containers.
Basket full of rosehips Rosehips before preparation A rosehip Basket of Rosehips with some prepared and being washed in a sink Rosehip pulp! Rosehip pulp being sieved a second time Rosehip juice and sugar being boiled Boiling rosehip syrup 
Rosehip syrup
Chaos Cottage Tips
🌹 Be careful collecting rosehips - the stems are really thorny and the best ones are nearly always the one that require ladders! Also, if the hedgerow and plant isn't yours, you probably need permission to forage it.
🍏 Roses are part of the apple family and while the syrup is sweet and fragrant but doesn't taste like apple.
❄️ You can collect your rosehips over several weeks and freeze them so that you have a big batch to do all on one day. I sometimes freeze some to make a little closer to Christmas and gift the bottles as part of Chaos Cottage hampers or for adding to Procesco and Champagne
Serving Suggestions
Rosehip syrup has been made and used for centuries, and it became particularly popular in World War II when food and drink was rationed. Its a pretty pinkish colour so great for desserts and party drinks. You can use it in a number of ways:
take a spoonful daily like medicine as a supplement - my mum does this
dilute it and use it like a cordial with still or sparkling water, or sparkling wine - simply adjust the strength to your taste
drizzle it over pancakes, porridge or ice cream and use it like maple syrup or honey 😊
Storage
The longer you keep it, the less vitamin C and anti-oxidant content there will be so it is better to make it in batches when you're likely to use it immediately. Rosehips will keep for a year in the freezer and the 'goodness' is preserved pretty well.
The bottled syrup should keep for 4 months in sealed and sterilised bottles but it does need to be refrigerated when opened.
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