Originally published October 12 2005
Rose hips are rich sources of vitamin C
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
In Backwoods Home Magazine, Gail Butler gives tips on how to incorporate the rose plant in your recipes and increase the amount of vitamin C in your diet.
Vitamin C-rich rose hips can be found in dried form in most health food stores, but why not gather your own?
You'll save money and you'll know where they came from and the conditions in which they grew.
Furthermore, you'll be adding to your own self-sufficiency by locating and gathering a nutrient-dense food source to nourish yourself and your family.
Growing along the main irrigation canal in the small farming community where I live are hedgerows of wild roses.
Known mostly for beauty in the garden and as a floral declaration of love, roses don't usually come to mind when we think of either food or nutrition.
Dry rose hips on an old cookie sheet for a couple of weeks until completely dry.
When ready to store, they should be darker than their fresh counterparts, hard, and semi-wrinkley.
In fact, it is difficult to find an area of the world or a temperature zone---barring parts of the Antarctic and the Sahara Desert---where wild roses don't grow.
We can also look to our own gardens.
Even the well-loved "hybrid tea" roses produce edible hips, although not as prolifically as their wild and semi-domesticated garden cousins.
Turned into jelly, syrup, and wine, they make delightful gifts.
To make a tea of dried hips, use only two teaspoons to one cup of boiling water and steep for 10 to 15 minutes.
Cool and strain the mixture, pressing the liquid off the hips gently with the back of a spoon, being careful not to break them open and release the seeds.
Strain off the rose hips and pour the liquid into a one-gallon glass jug (an old wine jug works great) and fit with a fermentation lock or balloon.
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