[doganjo]

The garden I have inherited has a lot of old roses which were sadly neglected by the previous owners and had grown lots of suckers.  These produced pretty white flowers in the summer and now there are loads of orangy red hips.  Can these be used for rose hip syrup/jelly etc or are they poisonous? And if they are OK when do I harvest them - and anyone got any good recipes?
I'm probably over wary after reading about the family poisoned by eating what they thought were mushrooms.
Annie

[Fluffywelshsheep]

hiya annie
The white flowers would be the flowers from the original stock the rose where grafted on to say sometime like a dog wood i would imagine but am sure other can correct me if am wrong.

[doganjo]

They were single blooms like the old type of rose.  So would the rose hips be OK to use?
Annie

[Fluffywelshsheep]

I would imagine they would be fine, I don't know of any roses that are poinous personaly

[doganjo]

I found a garden website and all rose hips are ok to use just some are not so palatable and some have more seeds than others.  I'll have a go anyway and let you all know what it turns out like here's the link to that website if anyone wants it http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/
Annie

[Rosalie]

The garden I have inherited has a lot of old roses which were sadly neglected by the previous owners and had grown lots of suckers.  These produced pretty white flowers in the summer and now there are loads of orangy red hips.  Can these be used for rose hip syrup/jelly etc or are they poisonous? And if they are OK when do I harvest them - and anyone got any good recipes?
I'm probably over wary after reading about the family poisoned by eating what they thought were mushrooms.
Annie

Hi Annie

We use the rose hips to make mead a great drink, not been able to make it for a while since we moved to spain not had access to the right kind of rosehips

Rosalie

[doganjo]

Hi Rosalie
Mead sounds a good idea - can you give me a recipe please?  What kind of rose hips does it need,  I may not have the right type.
Annie

[Rosalie]

Hi Annie

Will dig it out for you and post it tomorrow about 1pm spanish time, the rose hips you have got will be fine.

Rosalie

[Rosalie]

Hi Annie

Sorry for the delay internet only came back on 1 hour ago.  I'm writing this from a book so I'll add bits in as to what we used Sweet Melomel (Rosehip Mead)

Use 4 pound of rosehips, boil them in a gallon of water for 5 or 10 minutes. When cool mash them with your hands or a piece of hardwood, we used a wooden spoon.

Next strain through butter muslin a bit of clean net curtain is ok to use.
To this add 4pounds of honey, 15g citric acid and yeast nutrient you can get theses from your chemist stir until the honey is dissolved. When lukewarm add yeast and ferment.

You should use a sherry yeast, put in your fermenting container use an empty air-lock again from your chemist plug the end with cotton wool so that you do  not get vinegar fly. Don't fill to the top as it as to have room to ferment.

Put in a warm place to ferment  when it stops fermenting put in a cool place siphon of into a clean container leave till Feb then bottle, the longer you leave it the stronger it will be. We drank ours about whit and it was fantastic.

Not as hard as it sounds good luck and enjoy

Rosalie