Forage for Rose Hips

Rosehips are an excellent source of vitamin C and antioxidants. You can forage them from domesticated rosebushes and can easily find them in the wild. Learn to recognize rosehips, know when they are ready to be harvested, and prune your rosebushes so you will have a good supply of them. Once you’ve foraged your rosehips, you can enjoy them in tea, or make them into jelly, syrup, and wine.

Steps

Finding Rosehips

1. Look for round red or orange berries on rosebushes. Recognize them by their shape and by the little feathery wisps that grow from their bottoms. Also identify them by their size. Look for berries that are anywhere from ¼″ (6.35 mm) to 1¼” (31.75 mm).
2. Look on your rosebushes. Uncut rose stems will form rosehips. Don’t remove all flowers when you prune your rosebushes. Leave some flowers in place so they can form rosehips after they mature.
3. Forage for them in the wild. Roses that grow in the wild also form rosehips. Forage for rosehips on rosebushes in the woods. You can also find wild roses growing on the side of the road in some areas. And look for the very large and juicy rosehips from Rosa rugosa or rock roses along coastlines and near water, even along irrigation ditches.

Timing Your Foraging

1. Start foraging in late summer. Look for rosehips after roses bloom in July. You can find them beginning in August. Continue foraging for them through the winter.
   • Locate rosebushes when they are in bloom, and plan to return at least four weeks later to begin harvesting your rosehips.
2. Wait until after the first frost. Harvest rosehips after the first frost of the season passes. Plan to forage them in late fall. You can harvest them earlier, but they will have less juice and be more bitter.
   • Make sure the rosehips are soft to the touch when you harvest them after the frost.
   • Recognize ripened rosebushes by the fact they are easy to pull off of the bush.
3. Don’t forage for them too late. Don’t wait too long for rosehips to mature, or they will begin to shrivel. Don’t use older, shrivelled rosehips -- they will not process well. Be careful that they aren’t too soft either -- very soft rosehips are also over ripened. Identify these over ripened rosehips by the fact they will fall apart easily when you touch them.

Harvesting Rosehips

1. Protect yourself from thorns. Wear gloves to protect your hands from rosebush thorns. Wearing gloves will also make the harvesting go faster. Try leather gloves or gardening gloves for the best protection. Also wear long sleeves.
   • Wear long pants to protect your legs from nettles, thorns, and even poison ivy or poison oak when foraging wild rosehips.
2. Grab them by the handful. Harvest rosehips from pulling them directly from the rosebush. Grab entire clumps of ripened rosehips at once. Remember that ripened rosehips will pull away from the stem very easily.
3. Remove the hairs inside the seeds after harvesting. Before you use your rosehips, remove the tiny hairs surrounding the seeds. Watch out for those hairs, because they cause itching and can irritate the throat. The best way to remove them is to strain the hairs out while cooking rosehip syrups or jellies.

Sources and Citations

See also

• Choose the Right Roses for Your Garden
• Harvest Roses
• Deadhead Roses
• Grow Black Roses
• Prune Rose Bushes
• Keep Roses Fresh
• Graft Roses
• Plant Roses
• Grow Roses in Containers
• Propagate Roses

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