Syrup made from the hips contains a large amount of vitamin C. The hips are ripe at the end of the summer. The hip is not a real fruit but a swelling of that part of the stem that holds the flower; the true fruits, the hairy objects containing one seed, reside inside the hip.

Ingredients

• Rosa canina hips
• Water
• Sugar

Preparation

• weight the hips
• open and remove seeds and hairy parts
• wash the hips
• boil the water (2x water weight)
• put the hips in the boiling water, let simmer for 5 minutes
• remove from fire, leave them to stand, covered, for 15 minutes
• strain the liquid
• add the sugar (0.5x liquid volume, ie add half cup of sugar for each cup of liquid)
• heat again to dissolve the sugar

Take a spoonful a day to keep colds at bay.

Keep the syrup in the fridge, or freeze it into cubes to use when needed.