USE ROSE HIPS

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 51, Issue 3105, 13 April 1942, Page 2

USE ROSE HIPS

JAMS, JELLIES AND SYRUP

RICH IN VITAMIN C MORE VALUABLE THAN ORANGE “No more oranges for a month or two’’ —that is the tehoir of an official pronouncement from Wellington, published to-day. But there lis a substitute, containing four times the amount of vitamin C that oranges posses's, and it is growing wild bn the hills and in the valleys around Paeroa. That substitute is rose hips. You can make excellent jams, jellies, syrups, etc., from rose hips.—and very tasty and nutritious they’ are, too, especially for Baby! Many’ recipes have been published in New Zealand' publications for similar foods, but it must be remembered that they’ are almost invariably culled from English journals, and that the English roses are not quite the same as ours. The New Zealand Department of Nutrition Research has tested many methods and ideas, and here is a resume of their conclusions: — Hips of wild or briar rose should be gathered when reddening, as they are then richest in vitamin C. When fully ripe, they r lose some of the, vitamin C content. Recipe For Bose Hip Syrup Method. —Remove the stalks and heavy' calyx at the- end of the berry. Put 51b of berries in a saucepan and cover them with three pints of boiling water. Bring to. the boil and keep boiling until they’ have, softened (about three-quarters of an hour). Mash them into a thick'mcss and dilute with two pints of boiling water. Bring to the boil once more, taking care not to burn them —stir all the time. Leave till cold enough to handle, then squeeze through a jellybag, collecting the mucilaginous liquor that comes through. Do not wash /he bag yet. Return the residue of the berries to the pan, add two pints of boiling water, boil for from five to 10 minutes and strain once- again. Later another straining can be given, the liquor c’oming from the fourth straining still being richer in vitamin C than oranges, are.

. With squeezing, allow the liquor from the- first three strainings to drip. A total of about two quarts should be collected. Boil, and. add) threequarters of a pound of sugar for every pint of fluid. Boil the syrup for about three minutes. Bottle in sterilised bottles and use sterilised corks.

The syrup has about four times the quantity of vitamin C which is contained! in orange juice. Two'teaspoons are thus sufficient for a baby’s daily ration.