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Rose hips have a fragrant and floral flavor that is sweet and slightly tart, and they’re delicious in all manner of rose hip recipes. They can be readily used in tinctures, teas, sauces, syrups, and other baked goods.
After the beautiful blooms of spring and summer roses fade, you can find yourself with a second bounty on their stems: rose hips. Rose hips are the small berry-sized balls that reside after roses fade, and many never notice them as people tend to prune these blossom stems after the roses wither to foster more flowers.
If you allow these spent stems to remain, however, you’ll get rose hips on many rose varieties. Rose hips, which are actually the fruit or seed pods of the rose plant, are often red or orange in coloring although some varieties can be purple or almost black as on the Burnet rose.
Rose hips can complement a variety of recipes, be they dried, juiced or made into jams and jellies.
(If you’re not sure you have rose hips, this guide will help you identify rose hips to harvest.)
Choosing the Best Rose Hip
Rose hips ripen in the late summer or fall but are often recommended to be left on the branch until the first light frost has fallen (a hard frost will freeze the hips) to optimize sweetness.
Some varieties of rose produce larger rose hips than others. Rosa rugosa and Rosa canina are two varieties known for producing rose hips.
Rose hips should be picked when they are firm and well-colored. Pick only the plump rose hips, the mushy and dried remnants will be eaten by birds. Ripe hips should pull easily from rose canes, and they can also be snipped with scissors.
Be sure to mind rose thorns whilst picking your rose hips.
Rose Hip Recipes
Just like rose petals, rose hips are edible. Roses belong to the same family as apples and crabapples, and their fruit resembles them slightly. Rose hips taste a bit tart like a crabapple, but with a pleasing sweetness and subtle floral notes.
If you are gathering your own rose hips, be sure to collect them from a plant that is free of pesticides and contaminants, as roses treated with pesticides should not be used for growing rose hips unless the pesticide is labeled for use on edibles. If possible, selecting rose hips from plants with no pesticides at all is optimal (and pesticides can be detrimental to bird populations).
Once picked, you’ll want to trim the rose hips of their stems and flower ends. You’ll then need to slice the rose hip in half (use scissors if a knife feels too large) and remove the seeds. The seeds are surrounded by fine hairs that are itchy and irritating to the throat and digestive tract, which is where rose hips get their old reputation as natural itching powder.
Those hairs have to come out one way or the other, and there are two ways to do it. Deseed by hand for anything eaten whole, such as jam, fruit leather, dried hips, and fresh recipes. For anything strained, including jelly, juice, syrup, and wine, you can leave the seeds in and strain the cooked fruit through a fine mesh sieve lined with muslin or cheesecloth instead. Strain twice to be sure.
After removing the seeds, give the rose hips a gentle wash in a colander to rinse. Now they are ready to be used fresh or preserved through your chosen means.
Rose Hip Breakfast Recipes
Add some excitement to your standard breakfast fare with the addition of rose hip syrup. Pour over pancakes, waffles or oatmeal for fabulous results. Just three ingredients are needed: rose hips, water and honey.
Add rose hips to muffins for a tasty warm treat to be enjoyed all week. Looking for something more nutritious? Try adding dried rose hips to muesli, a Swiss-style breakfast dish made from rolled oats, nuts, seeds and dried fruit.
Rose Hip Savory Main Courses
Rose hips can make a palatable addition to savory dishes as well in the form of sauces and glazes. Rose hip ketchup goes well with roast meats and sausages. Additionally, a rose hip sauce can be made to pair with gamey duck or venison. Sauces can be crafted from both rose hip jam and rose hip puree to accompany these protein dishes.
Similarly, a rose hip glaze can be made using rose hip jelly or syrup for meats such as pork. Looking for some lighter fare? Try a rose hip pasta sauce for a tomato-like pasta dish to serve with linguine and mushrooms.
- Rose Hip Ketchup
- Creamy Rose Hip Dressing
- Venison Entrecôte with Rose Hip Sauce
- Saddle of Venison with Rose Hip Sauce
- Lamb Burgers in Rose Hip Sauce
- Citrus-Glazed Pork Roast with Rose Hip Jelly
- Rose Hip Soup
- Rose Hip Pasta Sauce
Rose Hip Drink Recipes
Due to the high antioxidant and vitamin C content, many enjoy adding rose hips to an herbal tea for winter immunity support. Dried rose hips can be used to make iced tea or tea lattes as well.
A rose hip syrup can be made by boiling, straining and sweetening the liquid. This can then be added to cocktails and other drinks. For an even stronger beverage, rose hip gin is another option to be enjoyed with tonic water or to make a delightful rose hip gimlet.
- Herbal Immunity Tea (rose hips are the lead ingredient)
- Rose Hip Iced Tea
- Rose Hip Chamomile Tea Latte
- How to Make Rose Hip Syrup
- Rose Hip Tea & Thyme Cocktail
- Rose Hip Whiskey Smash
- Rose Hip, Orange & Ginger Gin
Rose Hip Snack Recipes
For snackable sensations, try implementing dried rose hips in your next granola recipe. Sprinkle atop yogurt or ice cream, or bake into rose hip granola bars. Rose hip fruit leather is yet another great choice for a bundle of rose hips, whether fresh or frozen. Sweeten with honey or combine with other fruits like apples or hawthorn for a chewy pectin-rich leather.
Berry-laden popsicles can be made with fresh raspberries and rose hip tea for a refreshing treat on a summer day for both little ones and adults. For a chewier nibble, consider making pretty rose hip marshmallows, a homemade treat you won’t find anywhere on supermarket shelves.
- Homemade Rose Hip Granola (from dried rose hips)
- Making Rose Hip Fruit Leather
- Rose Hip & Hawthorn Fruit Leather
- Red Berry Rose Hip Iced Tea Popsicles
- Vitamin C Hibiscus Rose Hip Marshmallows
Rose Hip Dessert Recipes
Rose hips can be added to a variety of desserts for a pleasing, subtle floral flavor. Rose hip jam can be added to tarts and tortes. Try combining with notes of walnut, orange or lemon for exciting flavors. Strawberries are another fruit that pairs well with rose hips. Consider a strawberry and rose hip ice cream or frozen yogurt for a chilly treat on warm days.
For an afternoon indulgence, try baking an orange and rosehip tea loaf complete with rose hip icing. Ready to take your dessert-making up a notch? Try a silky, chilled panna cotta with a sweetened rose hip sauce.
- Linzer-style Rose Hip Torte
- Rose Hip Lemon Tart
- Strawberry Granola Rose Hip Ice Cream
- Strawberry Rose Hip Frozen Yogurt
- Orange Rose Hip Teacake
- Almond Shortbread Rose Hip Cookies (vegan-friendly)
- Panna Cotta with Rose Hip Coulis
Cultured & Fermented Rose Hip
Some additional recipes include rose hip kombucha and fermented soda. Try combining with other flavors like hibiscus and hawthorn for splendid beverages to quench your thirst.
Rose hip wine is another option for those willing to wait. Rose hip mead or honey wine will take a little less time, and makes a lovely gift to bring to dinners. Love floral flavor? Consider making a fragrant rose petal wine or mead next summer as well. You can pick just the petals, leaving the base of the rose to ensure fall and winter rose hips for the coming season.
- Fermented Rose Hip Soda
- Hibiscus & Rose Hip Kombucha
- Rose Hip Wine (and Mead)
- Spiced Hawthorn and Rose Hip Mead
Preserving Rose Hips
There are years where the roses bloom like mad, leaving you with a wealth of rose hips that venture going to waste if left unpicked. In these situations, preservation is the easiest route to take, freeing up the present moment for other needs, yet saving the precious fruit for future uses.
There are two preferred ways to preserve rose hips: drying or juicing. You can dehydrate rose hips through the use of an oven or a dehydrator. The Spruce recommends spreading rose hips on baking trays and drying them in an oven (or dehydrator) set to 110° F until the hips are dry and brittle. Once entirely dry, these can then be stored in airtight jars. A few additional recipes and tips for dehydrating rose hips are provided below.
The fruit can also be juiced and then frozen, or cooked down into a syrup. Do note that rose hip syrup is not a tested water bath canning recipe, so bottle it into sterilized jars, store it somewhere cool and dark for up to six months, and refrigerate once opened. Freezing the juice or the finished syrup is the safest option for longer storage. Jams and jellies are another delectable option to spread on toast or biscuits, used in a variety of desserts and other recipes or simply given as a homespun gift.
Rose Hip Preserves
Drying Rose Hips
- How To Dry Rose Hips for Tea and Other Uses
- Radiant Rose Hips: How to Harvest, Dry and Use Rose Hips
Rose Hip FAQs
Rose hips are one of those wild fruits that people walk past for years before they realize they’re edible, so the questions tend to start right at the beginning.
Here are the ones that come up most often about picking, prepping, and keeping rose hips.
Yes. The flesh of the rose hip is perfectly edible and is one of the richest natural sources of vitamin C. The one thing to handle carefully is the fine hairs surrounding the seeds inside, which are a mechanical irritant to the throat and digestive tract and have a long folk reputation as natural itching powder. They are not poisonous, but they do need to be removed, either by deseeding the hips by hand or by straining the cooked fruit through cloth. Only pick from roses that have not been treated with pesticides.
It depends entirely on what you are making, and there are two valid routes. For anything where the fruit is eaten whole, such as jam, fruit leather, dried hips for tea, or fresh recipes, you do need to halve the hips and scrape the seeds and hairs out by hand. For anything that gets strained at the end, including jelly, juice, syrup, and wine, you can leave the seeds in and let the straining do the work. In that case use a fine mesh sieve lined with muslin or cheesecloth rather than a plain sieve, and strain twice, because a bare sieve is not fine enough to catch the hairs.
Rose hips ripen through late summer and fall, and most foragers wait until after the first light frost, which softens the flesh and brings out the sweetness. Do not wait for a hard freeze, which turns the hips to mush. Pick the ones that are firm, plump, and well colored, and leave anything shriveled or soft for the birds. A ripe hip should pull away from the cane with very little effort, and if you have to tug at it, give it another week.
Botanically yes, every rose produces hips and all of them are edible, but two things narrow the field in practice. Many modern hybrid roses are bred for repeat blooming and set small, sparse hips that are barely worth the effort, while Rosa rugosa and Rosa canina produce large, meaty hips in quantity. More importantly, ornamental and florist roses are very often treated with pesticides that are not labeled for food crops, so only harvest from plants you know have gone untreated.
Rose hip syrup is not a tested water bath canning recipe, so it should not be treated as a shelf stable canned good the way a jam or jelly would be. Bottle the finished syrup into sterilized jars or bottles, keep it somewhere cool and dark, and plan to use it within about six months. Once a bottle is opened it belongs in the refrigerator, where it will keep for a few weeks. For anything longer than a season, freeze the strained juice or the finished syrup in small portions or ice cube trays.
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