Rose Hips Jelly

I made this rose hip jelly from this video for the first time last night. (can you say SUPER easy?) I am not sure why I haven't made it sooner. I have used them a bunch in tea but never jelly before now so I'm excited to try something new! Also excited to go find some wild at some point.

Rose hips are the "berry" left behind after roses die. It is best to wild harvest them after the first frost.

To make the jelly all you have to do is basically reconstitute dried rose hips (or use fresh if you are so lucky to have a source), mash it up and add honey to taste! I think I will add just a bit of cinnamon to mine. mmmm! oh so good, I just love the tangy tartness! Oh and if you use fresh hips I think you need to strain out the seeds. You may want to double check on that.

Rose hips contain a very high concentration of vitamin C. So eating a scoop (or three) of this a day is actually immune boosting and will help you keep colds and other winter sickies away. Rose hips actually contain more vitamin C than citrus I have read!

They also are said to be anti-inflammatory in nature. Which is said to help some folks with stiffness and joint pain if you have osteo arthritis (like me). In any case I am willing to try it out over the winter and see if it helps me, so I will report back how this is working for me at some point in the future! I have some issues with my feet and knees that tend to flare up in the winter time due to the cold. So we'll see how it works out for me.

You can purchase rose hips in bulk from your local co-op or health food store or from Mountain Rose Herbs online.