What are the benefits of rose hips?
Rose hips contain organic acids, tannins, carotene, B vitamins, and large amounts of ascorbic acid. It also contains flavonoids, pectins, tocopherols, iron salts, phosphorus, manganese, calcium, magnesium.
Rose hips are used to prevent vitamin deficiency, to treat atherosclerosis, acute diseases of the liver, intestines, hemorrhoids, and nephritis. Oil is obtained from the seeds of the plant; it contains saturated fatty acids, tocopherols and carotenoids. It is used externally for bedsores, stomatitis, and dermatoses. Infusions and decoctions from the fruits of the plant have soothing, anti-inflammatory, and antimicrobial properties.
How to brew fresh rose hips
If the housewife has fresh rose hips at her disposal, she needs to take advantage of this and prepare a valuable vitamin infusion. If you also have a currant leaf, great! It will not only give the rose hips an amazing aroma, but will also enhance the benefits. Before brewing the berries, you need to cut them and select the middle - seeds and fibers. Place the resulting raw material in a thermos, add a few blackcurrant leaves and pour cooled boiling water at the rate of 1 tbsp. l. for one glass of boiling water. Infusion time is from 4 to 5 hours. All that remains is to pour the miracle drink into cups, add honey, a slice of lemon and enjoy the healthy infusion.
Harvesting rose hips
Berries begin to be picked in September-October. By autumn, they have already accumulated a sufficient amount of useful substances, vitamin C. Collection time varies, depending on climatic conditions, collection can begin in August. But the collection must be completed before frost, frost will destroy the vitamins.
The fruits should have a bright red color and be soft to the touch. To dry, they must be collected while still hard, slightly unripe, when the skin is shiny and glossy. When drying, it is better to harvest fruits with sepals, which preserves beneficial substances. The collected fruits must be processed immediately; they can be stored indoors for no more than three days, otherwise they will be unsuitable for harvesting.
Preparing rose hips correctly
The bush is never left without berries, but rose hips bring particularly abundant harvests every 3-5 years.
The fruits should be collected before the first frost, when they acquire an orange or scarlet color (depending on the variety).
Harvesting usually occurs in September or October.
In unripe or overripe berries, the amount of vitamins decreases sharply.
For drying, be sure to cut off the fruits along with the sepals. It is advisable to process them immediately after harvesting. In any case, no later than 2, maximum 3 days after collection, otherwise valuable components will be destroyed.
How to dry rose hips
In order to be able to use rose hips throughout the year, you should prepare it following certain rules. After harvesting, the fruits are sorted and damaged ones are removed. You should not wash the fruits, so as not to add even more moisture to them. You can dry rose hips for the winter using a convection oven, a special dryer, in a ventilated area or in the oven. Do not dry fruits in the open sun. Ultraviolet light can destroy beneficial microelements and vitamins in this healing plant.
You may be interested in: Yellow tea from Egypt: enjoy your tea
Drying rose hips indoors
Drying rose hips without using electrical means is the easiest and most popular way. It is necessary to sort through the berries, remove damaged, wrinkled, and overripe ones. Spread them on a flat surface in a thin layer. They will dry in a well-ventilated, warm room for about 2 weeks. They need to be stirred periodically so that they dry evenly to prevent mold from appearing.
Dry in the oven
You can use a regular oven. The fruits are placed on a baking sheet, scattered in a thin layer. The oven is preheated to 50°C. The baking sheet is placed in the oven, after a while the temperature is increased to 60°C. In order for the moisture released from the berries to evaporate better, it is necessary to leave the oven ajar.
You shouldn’t forget about the fruits; you need to stir them periodically to prevent burning, and drying should occur evenly. The rose hips will dry in the oven for about eight hours. If the correct temperature conditions are observed, the berries will not change their color, they will just wrinkle a little. When you press on them, they should not wrinkle, but spring back. If overdried, the rosehip will crumble and break.
You cannot dry rose hips in a microwave oven. The temperature there is too high, the berries inside will remain raw and dry on top. They cannot be stored for a long time. But in an air fryer or a special dryer you can dry the fruits quite quickly, since the required temperature and time are set there.
After the rosehip has dried, it is still hot and placed in hermetically sealed boxes for a couple of days. It is necessary that they receive natural humidity, having “sweated” a fair amount.
How to brew rosehip correctly
To extract the maximum beneficial properties from dry or frozen rose hips, you need to brew them.
For this, you can use a thermos, a multicooker, or traditionally a container of water and a gas or electric stove. Take 10-15 berries per 500 grams of water. If you insist the drink in a thermos, you need to wait about 7 hours. It must be strained before use. When the drink has cooled to 40-50 degrees, it can be sweetened with honey (at higher temperatures the beneficial properties of honey are significantly reduced) or sugar to taste. If desired, you can add lemon to the drink to give it a citrus flavor. Drink rose hip decoction throughout the day, in small portions.
If you brew rose hips in the usual way, on the stove, then you need 100 grams of berries for 1 liter of water.
After boiling, everything is boiled for half an hour. It is advisable to pre-chop the fruits. Before use, the decoction is filtered several times. The highest concentration of beneficial substances will be in rosehip decoction prepared in a water bath.
To do this, 50 grams of fruits are crushed and poured with 1 glass of boiling water. Everything needs to be simmered for 15 minutes, then cooled and drained.
To prepare rosehip decoction in a slow cooker, take 2 liters of water per 100 grams of berries. If desired, add 2-3 slices of lemon. The device is set to “quenching” mode for 1-2 hours. The richness of the drink depends on the preparation time. After cooking, the broth should be left with the lid closed until it has cooled completely. It is strained before use.
How to brew rosehip in a thermos correctly, video:
How to store dried rose hips
Dried rose hips should be stored in tin or glass jars. Airtight lids are not needed as the fruit may become moldy. It is better to cover the jars with a cloth or gauze folded in several layers. It is not recommended to store fruits in plastic bags.
You may be interested in: Tea from cherry twigs, benefits and harm to the body
Fabric bags and cardboard boxes are suitable for storage. Only they must be clean and dry, without foreign odors. You need to put a layer of waxed paper on the bottom. Pour dried raw materials onto it. For storage you should choose a dark place. During long-term storage, it is necessary to review stocks from time to time so that moisture does not get into the rose hips and mold does not appear. The fruits retain their healing properties for up to two years.
How and for how long to store dry rose hips
It has been noticed that some varieties of rose hips are most useful in dried form: the concentration of vitamin C in them is simply record-breaking. Among these varieties: “Vitaminny”, “Vorontsovsky”, “Besshipny” and “Russian”.
Owners of dachas and residents of country farms usually dry the berries by scattering them on litter.
There are different opinions regarding the choice of place for drying, and opposite ones.
Some gardeners believe that it is better to dry rose hips in dry, shaded places under a canopy, for example, in an attic (this process usually lasts 2-3 weeks).
Their opponents prefer to keep the berries in the sun with a slight draft. At night they are carefully covered or taken indoors. This manipulation takes several days until the fruit is completely dry.
It is worth remembering that vitamin C does not like intense ultraviolet radiation and tends to be destroyed in the sun .
With both methods of drying, the berries should be stirred and turned over from time to time.
There is not much variety in ways to store rose hips at home. Until spring, the fruits are stored well in paper bags, cardboard boxes, and bags made of natural fabric that has the ability to “breathe” (for example, linen).
In a city apartment, rose hips are usually dried in an oven:
- the fruits are laid out on a baking sheet in a low, even layer;
- simmer in the oven (+ 90... 100°C) for a quarter of an hour;
- then they dry for several days at a minimum temperature for 10-12 hours a day.
If you have an electric dryer, the process becomes much easier.
You can do this: after intensive (+ 100°C) drying, set the temperature to + 75°C and dry for 7-8 hours. During the heat treatment process, shake and turn the berries periodically.
There is also an opinion that drying should begin at a minimum temperature (+45 ° C), gradually increasing it to 75 ° C.
Choose a method that is convenient for you, but in any case, keep the oven door ajar: let the resulting moisture evaporate.
Important!
When squeezing, the skin of a well-dried rosehip does not wrinkle, but springs back, and a crunching sound can be heard inside.
After drying, the fruits are ground in hands, the sepals are removed, and kept at room temperature for 1-2 days.
It is convenient to store berries in paper or specially sewn fabric bags, cardboard boxes, the bottom of which should be covered with paraffin paper.
Advice
Do not place containers that are not tightly closed next to foods that have rich aromas: rose hips are very susceptible to foreign odors and are easily saturated with them.
It is also appropriate to use glass jars as storage containers, but they do not need to be hermetically sealed. Cover the jars with plastic lids, making small holes in them with a hot awl, or tie the neck with gauze folded in 3 layers.
How long can dried rose hips be stored if all these recommendations are followed? In a dry, dark room, dried rose hips can be stored for up to two years without losing their beneficial qualities. The optimal temperature for storing it is about 0 °C.
In a city apartment for storage, choose the coolest place where the sun's rays do not penetrate.
Note to housewives
- Rose hips that have black spots are not recommended for consumption.
- The quality of berries can be determined by their smell. The aroma should be sweet and sour, the taste of high-quality rose hips should be sour, pleasant to the taste.
- At room temperature, fresh rose hips can be stored for no more than three days.
- Frozen fruits should not be re-frozen after defrosting.
- Transportation of frozen rose hips is possible, but only in hard packaging of 20 kilograms.
- Some people make butter, jam, and syrup from rose hips. This is a labor-intensive process that is not accessible to everyone, but it can be regarded as another way to store a valuable plant.
Without a doubt, each storage method is good in its own way. After all, the main thing is to preserve the maximum amount of vitamins in rose hips and obtain high-quality raw materials for preparing a healing drink.
How to freeze rose hips
The most accessible and uncomplicated way to freeze berries is in their whole form:
- Remove leaves and stems from the fruit. Then rinse well and dry on a towel.
- Place on a wooden board in 1 layer and place in the freezer for a couple of hours.
- Place in small plastic containers or bags for long-term freezing.
- It is recommended to label frozen rose hips so that the product can then be used only during the expiration date.
- The temperature in the freezer should be between -16 - - 18 °C.
If you want to freeze berries in halves, then immediately before freezing the fruits should be cut in half and cleared of seeds. Subsequent actions are no different from the previous ones.
Rose hips in winter will be very tasty and healthy if prepared in the form of puree. To do this you will need:
- Wash the berries, cut in half, remove the seeds.
- Transfer to a deep container, fill with clean water, let stand for several days (to soften).
- Using a blender or sieve, transform the prepared mass into a homogeneous puree.
- Place in ice cube trays and place in the freezer for a couple of hours.
- Remove the frozen rose hips, put them into bags, and send them back to the freezer for long-term storage.
Important! Freezing whole berries has some advantages: the juiciness of the product and its original shape are preserved.
