When are rose hips harvested and how to dry them correctly?

Rose hip – a medicinal plant that has long been used to treat various diseases. Its composition contains many useful substances; not a single medicinal berry can compare with their quantity. In addition, other parts of the plant are endowed with unique properties. Therefore, people are interested in when rose hips are harvested.

Content:

• When to start collecting rose hips
• How does rose hips dry?
• How to store rose hips
• How to use prepared raw materials

When to start collecting rose hips

It is recommended to harvest rose hips on sunny and dry days. It is worth collecting fruits, leaves and other parts from bushes that grow far from roads where many cars, enterprises, farms, chemical warehouses, and garbage places pass. The plant is endowed with beneficial properties. The following parts of rose hips are used for medicinal purposes:

• Fruit
• Foliage
• Flowers and petals
• Rhizome

You should start picking fruits from mid-August until the first frosts appear. It is recommended to harvest hard berries that are not yet ripe. Such fruits do not require too careful handling. You can pick rose hips with or without pedicels. It is worth making sure that among the berries there are no fruits that are rotten, damaged, or blackened.

Rosehip foliage can be collected all summer. It is torn off by hand or using scissors. The leaves should not have petioles.In addition, you should avoid foliage that has been damaged by pests or diseases; it should be free of yellowing and darkening.

When rose hips are decorated with inflorescences, people begin to harvest the petals and flowers of the plant. This happens in June. Inflorescences are picked by hand or cut with a knife. The prepared material must be placed in a container carefully so that the petals do not wrinkle. After this, the flowers need to be dried.

Useful The roots of the plant are also considered. They are collected in the spring. March or April is ideal for this. This procedure is also carried out in October or November, when fruiting ends. Tap roots or thin roots are used to treat ailments. One shoot is separated from the bush, dug up and the roots that are located on the side of the central trunk are cut off. The raw materials must be washed and dried well.

How does rose hips dry?

After collecting rose hips, it must be dried. To do this, remove the stalks from the berries. All fruits are placed in an oven or oven, which is heated to 90 degrees. During drying, it is necessary to monitor the rose hips and stir them periodically so that the fruits do not burn. The oven or oven door should be opened slightly to allow excess moisture to escape. Air humidity during drying should not exceed 14%. All fruits should be dry and have an orange or red tint.

Before using foliage, petals or rhizomes, it is also necessary to dry them. Before this procedure, the roots should be chopped into small pieces. The raw materials are laid out in a small layer in the shade, the place should be well ventilated.

For this purpose they use balconies, attics, verandas. During the drying process, it is necessary to periodically stir the raw material so that it does not cake.If the foliage and petals are well dried, they crumble easily in your hands, and the rhizome breaks, producing a characteristic crack. During drying, air humidity should not exceed 13%. Otherwise, the raw materials will not be able to dry well enough.

How to store rose hips

After drying the fruits, it is necessary to prepare for storage. The berries are rubbed in your hands so that the sepals fall off. After that, they are poured into a wooden box, cardboard box or fabric bag. They should remain in this state for several days, so the moisture will equalize. Next, you can begin preparing for permanent storage.

The berries are placed in glass jars. They do not need to be covered with a lid; it is better to cover them with gauze to allow air to circulate. This will protect the raw materials from mold. This method involves storing rhizomes, foliage and flowers. The container with raw materials is placed in a dry, dark place. There should be no products nearby that emit strong odors. Rose hips can be preserved in this way for 3 years.

How to use prepared raw materials

Prepared berries are used as a healthy drink. To begin with, the fruits are washed and then chopped in a meat grinder; you can also cut them with a knife. Experts say that if the berries are used in their entirety, they will release less vitamins.

Chopped rose hips are poured with boiling water, boiled and left for half an hour to infuse. To improve the taste of the drink and its medicinal properties, sugar, honey and other herbs are added to it. Rosehip goes well with mint and lemon balm. They drink the strained infusion so that parts of the berries do not irritate the intestines and stomach.

The following drinks and dishes are also prepared from rose hips:

• Kissel
• Tea with the addition of rowan and oregano
• Leaf tea
• Compote
• Punch
• Morse
• Jam
• Jelly, etc.

All these drinks and dishes have beneficial properties and nourish the body. vitamins and useful substances. They are recommended to be used for colds, as they remove bacteria and strengthen the immune system. So, rosehip is a unique plant that nature has endowed with a lot of useful properties. But first you need to properly collect and prepare the raw materials.

Video about how to be treated with rose hips: