Making Rosehip Syrup for Cold Winter Days

By Wild Food Walks: What to Look for Each Season
Comments 35
19 Aug 2026

Making Rosehip Syrup for Cold Winter Days

There is a particular pleasure in filling a pan with something you gathered yourself on a cold, bright afternoon, and rosehip syrup is one of the finest examples. The hips of the dog rose hang in the hedgerows right through the winter, scarlet and slightly wrinkled, and they are packed with vitamin C — so much so that during the Second World War, when citrus fruit was almost impossible to come by, rosehip syrup was made on an industrial scale and given out to British children by the spoonful.

It is still worth making. The syrup has a tart, fruity flavour somewhere between cranberry and crab apple, with a faint floral note behind it. A spoonful stirred into hot water makes a warming drink that soothes a raw throat; poured over porridge or yoghurt it lifts a dull January breakfast into something you look forward to.

When and Where to Gather

Rosehips are at their best from late August, when they turn deep red, right through to the first hard frosts of December. Many foragers insist on waiting for a frost, which softens the fruit and sweetens the flavour a little, but you need not be strict about it — hips picked in October make excellent syrup. What matters more is that they are fully coloured and just beginning to give when you squeeze them. Avoid green or hard hips, which are bitter.

The common dog rose (Rosa canina) is the usual source, though almost any wild rose will do, including field rose and the various hedgerow hybrids. Look for oval, glossy scarlet hips with a small dried tuft or black dot at the base — that is the remnant of the flower. The leaves of a dog rose have five to seven serrated leaflets, and the stems carry distinctive curved thorns.

Pick from hedgerows, scrub, old railway cuttings and field edges, away from busy roads and anywhere that may have been sprayed.
Take only what you need, and leave plenty on each bush — fieldfares, redwings and blackbirds depend on hips as winter food.
Get the landowner's permission if you are not on a public right of way, and never uproot a wild plant.
A pair of gardening gloves is sensible. Rose thorns are unforgiving and the hips themselves are not the only prickly thing in the hedge.

Preparing Your Haul

Tip your hips into a bowl of cold water and swill them about; any leaves, insects and debris will float off. Drain them well. The traditional job of "topping and tailing" — pulling off the stalk at one end and the dried sepal at the other — takes a while, so put the radio on. You do not need to be perfect about it, but the stalk ends can taste woody.

Inside each hip is a mass of fine, pale hairs around the seeds, and these are a genuine irritant — the old-fashioned itching powder of school playgrounds. You cannot remove them at this stage, so handle the fruit with that in mind and never rub your eyes. Freezing the prepared hips overnight is worth doing: it bursts the cell walls, so far more juice comes out during extraction.

The Hot Infusion Method

Boiling rosehips hard for a long time destroys much of the vitamin C you are chasing, so this method uses a gentle, repeated infusion instead. It extracts colour and flavour beautifully while being kind to the goodness inside.

1kg prepared rosehips
About 1.5 litres water, in two lots
400–500g granulated sugar per 600ml of strained juice
Juice of one lemon, or a teaspoon of citric acid, per 600ml

Chop the hips roughly, or pulse them briefly in a food processor — a few short bursts only, since over-blending releases the hairs. Put them in a large saucepan, cover with 1 litre of cold water, and bring slowly to about 90°C. You want a faint tremble on the surface, not a rolling boil. Hold it there for ten minutes, then take the pan off the heat, cover it with a lid and leave it to infuse for half an hour.

Strain through a double layer of muslin or a jelly bag set over a bowl. Resist the urge to squeeze the pulp: pressing pushes hairs through the cloth and makes the syrup gritty. When it has dripped through, return the pulp to the pan with the remaining 500ml water, bring it gently up again, infuse for fifteen minutes and strain as before. Combine the two lots of liquid.

Sweetening, Bottling and Keeping

Measure the juice. You should have somewhere between 900ml and 1.2 litres. Pour it into a clean pan, add the lemon juice or citric acid, and warm it gently — do not reduce it hard, as this costs you vitamins. Stir in the sugar at the rate above until completely dissolved, then bring the syrup to about 85°C for two minutes, skimming off any foam.

Pour into sterilised bottles or small jars while still hot, filling them right to the top, and seal immediately. A syrup made at this sugar level will keep for up to a year in a cool, dark cupboard. Once opened, store it in the fridge and use it within a month or two. If you prefer a thinner, lower-sugar cordial, halve the sugar and keep it chilled, using it within a fortnight.

Using It Through the Winter

A spoonful in a mug of hot water with a slice of lemon is the classic winter remedy, and honey can be added if you like. Beyond that, drizzle it over porridge, rice pudding, pancakes or vanilla ice cream. Stir it into a plain yoghurt with a handful of toasted oats, or use it to loosen a crumble. It also makes a fine base for a hot toddy and a rather good addition to a gin and tonic in place of a sugary tonic.

Label your bottles with the date, and make a batch or two extra — a jar of your own rosehip syrup, handed to a friend with a cold in February, is one of the nicest things you can give away.

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5 Comments

Robert Sonny says Jul 21, 2024 at 10:00am

I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system
Reply
- John Abraham says Jul 21, 2024 at 10:00am
  
  I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system
  Reply
  - Robert Sonnysays Jul 21, 2024 at 10:00am
    
    I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system
    Reply
Robert Sonny says Jul 21, 2024 at 10:00am

I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system
Reply

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