If you have a greenhouse or polytunnel you can dry them inside and leave them in overnight. If they’re not completely dry, take the hips inside overnight and put them out again the next day. The sun can dry smaller hips or pieces of hips in as little as a day. If the weather is warm and dry you can first clean the hips and spread them on waxed paper or screens. There are two ways of air-drying rose hips. When completely dry, rose hips are dark in colour and very hard Air drying Rose Hips Don’t worry though, you can filter them out either before or after the drying process. Both the fruit and the seeds are edible but you shouldn’t eat rose hips whole because they have irritating hairs inside. Jellies, syrups, teas, wine and even cosmetics. Rose-hip tea is rich in natural Vitamin Cīlessed with a delicate fruity taste and rich in vitamins A, B and C, Rose-hips can be used to make all kinds of things. To my knowledge, all rose hips are edible, though some varieties have better flavour than others. They’re also delicious dried and made into vitamin c rich tea.Įvery rose left uncut will eventually produce a hip but some will appear in the summer and others later in the autumn depending on species. In autumn they swell into a beautiful red ‘hip’ that look stunning on the bush.

With most people intent on collecting juicy blackberries, the bright red but rock hard rose hip is often overlooked. Rose hips are the fruit of the rose bush and in the summer are found as a swollen green part of the stem just underneath the flower. It’s that time of year again and the hedgerows are heaving with fruit. Tips on picking rose hips, three ways to dry them, and instructions on how to brew them into pot of tea. How to forage, dry and use rose hips for tea.

Long dark rose hip tea