Rose Hips

Rose Hips

    While most people know the petals of roses can be eaten (well minus the bitter white part towards the bottom), I've found that an incredible amount of people don't know about rose hips, which is really where the plant shines. The rose hip is the bulge behind the rose flower itself. Once the petals of the rose whither and fall off the rose hip matures into a seed pod which is the 'fruit' I'll be discussing in this article.

    While starting off as the aforementioned green bulge behind the rose, it will later ripen to a red (sometimes orangeish red) fruit that looks similar to a miniature apple, which I suppose makes since as the 2 are distant cousins. This usually happens in mid to late summer and while edible at this point, it's best after the first few nights where it hits freezing temperatures as that's when the fruit becomes more sweet.
    Rose hips will stay on the plant for some time, in some variations of rose and in some locations, you can find them all the way into winter still on the branch/vine and though by that point they will be partially dried and a bit wrinkly, somewhat like a raisin, they are still edible and an excellent food source.

    The taste will vary depending on what variety of rose it is and the time of year you gather it, but I find it to be somewhere between tomatoish and bruised appleish (closer to bruised apple after the first freeze). This may not sound like a great mix, but honestly it's not bad and when it's sweet half decent. Made as a tea or jam with sugar added, it's actually pretty good.

    Rose hips are amazingly high in vitamin C, but also high in beta carotene and has a good amount of vitamins A and E, not to mention sugars (more so after the first freeze), fiber and even some carbs. It's said that 3 or 4 rose hips have the same amount of vitamin C as an orange, which makes them an invaluable find for long term survival.

    Identifying rose hips is fairly easy as most are already familiar with rose bushes. Though it should be noted that wild rose is more like a vine, still the thorned branch mixed with the fairly unique looking hips makes these hard to misidentify. There are some berries that might be mistaken, but they are rounder, don't have the area that petals have fallen off (or sometimes still dried and hanging) and the taste is almost alway unpalatable and tastes nothing like rose hips, so when you find your first confirmed rose bush, take a little taste and crush a fruit to get used to the smell.

Notice the serrated leaves.

    When harvesting make sure the bulbs are not too squishy (you'll get used to the normal consistency after squeezing a couple).

    To process; cut off both ends (the segment that connected to the stem and the piece the used to connect to the flower), then cut the bulb in half. The inside will be full of seeds and tiny hairs, scrape these out well. The seeds can be kept for planting more rose plants later, but the hairs are a fine stiff rod that acts almost like fiberglass (though it will breakdown in a day or so) and causes irritation in your mouth and throat if swallowed. While not toxic, it isn't pleasant, so if you're eating them raw make sure to get all the hairs out.

Fun fact; The hairs surrounding rose seeds are 

main ingredient of itching powder.     

    The skin of the hip can be eaten raw or cooked with other things. During prefreeze times the tomatoish flavor stands out more and mixes well with lots of foods. It can also be dried and used as a tea or milled into a flour. Both of these will last you months, though do note that drying destroys much of the vitamin C and if you boil the dried rose hip you can destroy it all out right, so give the water a few seconds to cool after the water comes to a boil before adding you rose hip tea.

    Rose hips were also traditionally used as a medicine for stomach ailments and urinary track an kidney disorders. I always get antsy when I talk about medical stuff and plants, so if you're interested in the medical uses of rose hips, check out WebMD's evaluation.