Remember all those lovely antique and wild roses that bloomed all summer? 🌹
If you are lucky enough to have passed by them again once their blooms have faded you might have found an abundance of Rose Hips. 🥀
Most modern cultivated roses don’t grow rose hips – so you may not see them in your garden. (This picture is from a wild rose bush in the Wasatch mountains that was just teaming with brilliant red berries!)
Not particularly good to eat, rose hips are generally chopped and made into teas tea🍵and extracts for internal use or chopped and extracted into oils for external use. (we’ll talk about these again for skin health!)
A cup contains over 500 mg of vitamin C plus A, B-3, D, E, bioflavonoids, tannins & zinc. ☄️
If you’re lucky enough to find a bush loaded with them – make sure it hasn’t been sprayed with pesticides and keep in mind that they sweeten after the first frost but can begin to brown and soften quickly if they get too cold or too wet – so plan accordingly. Ripe Rose Hips will twist right off the bush but a pair of clippers can save delicate fingers.
Place chopped rose hips in 2 cups of hot water, cover and simmer for 30 minutes, strain and sweeten to taste.
Not in the mood to harvest your own? Not to worry, some of our families favorite liquid options are below for when we need a fast absorbing dose for someone coming down with a cold 🤧 (and the rest of us trying to avoid it!)😷
https://amzn.to/2CsgjjQ Emergen-C
https://amzn.to/2RYvXsB Raw Garden Natural
https://amzn.to/2NNc3NW Dynamic Health
More info at the Vitamin C blog post here