The Cottage Smallholder

Photo: Jars of rosehip tea

“Those two rose bushes beside the back door are totally out of control and need cutting back.” Danny remarked back in June.
I couldn’t oblige as I was planning to make tea. The bushes got more and more flamboyant until they were given a harvesting haircut at the weekend.

There are lots of roses growing in the cottage garden so we have a profusion of hips for preserving in the Autumn. I usually make rosehip and apple jelly and sometimes rosehip syrup but this year I’d discovered the huge benefits of drinking rosehip tea.

This would be less figure challenging than all that sugar and also preserve most of the vitamins and nutrients that are contained in the rosehips. Apparently they are packed with vitamin C A, B, E and K. Drinking the tea is said to help build the body’s immune system and combat colds and fevers. This tea also is believed to relieve mild arthritic pain and flush out the kidneys and urinary tract.

I mentioned on our forum that I’d found a great site for foragers – Eat Weeds and I used Robin’s method for drying and preparing the rosehips for tea. I was tickled to see that he has the same food dehydrator as me. He has a nifty method for removing the little hairs from the hips – they are a bit of a nightmare and are ultra itchy. Perhaps this could be a new sideline – selling itching powder to the children in the village?

I packed the dehydrator with rosehips and ended up with just these two jars so I’ll be foraging in the garden for more today. Tonight I’ll try my first pot, two heaped teaspoons infused for 15 minutes sweetened with a little honey. It’s supposed to be most effective taken at bedtime.