Make Rose Hip Extract for Tea or for Jelly Making

This is a very old family recipe, going back to Kansas pioneer days. They picked rose hips from wild roses and made this extract. The extract was then used to make rose hip jelly or to make a tea as well.

Rose hips (photo by Virginia Allain)

Instructions

Things You’ll Need:

• 1 cup rose hips
• 1 1/2 cups boiling water
• stone crock

1. Pick the rose hips. These are the round bulb that forms where a rose bloomed.
2. Remove the blossom ends, the stems, and the leaves.
3. Wash quickly to avoid any loss of quality. If unable to prepare right away, chill them to prevent enzyme action.
4. Bring the water to a boil in a pot, then add the rose hips.
5. Cover and simmer for fifteen minutes.
6. Put the rose hips and the liquid into the stone jar. Cover and let it steep for 24 hours.
7. The next day, strain out the rose hips, then save the juice.

 

History of the Recipe

This recipe is from Mary Collins Black, (of Black Jack, Kansas) granddaughter of the earliest doctor there, Moses O’Neil. Dr. O’Neil’s wife, Eleanor (called Ellen) O’Neil was a sister to our great-grandmother, Elizabeth Jane (Rosebaugh) Kennedy. Elizabeth was the wife of David Greacen Kennedy, my husband’s great-grandfather.

Rose Hips Card – Available from Zazzle

The recipe was first published on the eHow site in 2008 by Gail Lee Martin. Here’s a comment about it from there:

JackLTrades said, on 10/27/2008 – “I made this as a kid on the farm in South Dakota. Also catnip and nettle tea. We had plenty of stuff growing all over. I had forgotten how much I loved making tea on an open campfire.”