Pre-boil the water in a large saucepan.
If you’re using a food processor, pulse the hips until each one has at least one cut in it, then immediately add the hips to the pan of water.
If using a knife, cut each hip in half, immediately throwing the two halves into the pan of water.
If cutting by hand, be aware of the irritating little hairs that are inside each hip - make sure not to wipe your eyes or wipe your hands on your clothes as you’re processing them.
When all the hips are in the pan, bring to a boil then reduce to an active simmer and cook for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, line a second pan with a sieve that is lined with a piece of clean muslin cloth (see the article above for other ideas of tightly woven fabrics you could use instead if you don’t have any muslin).
After 15 minutes of simmering, carefully pour the rosehip mash into the lined sieve.
Allow the juice to slowly drip through. To extract the maximum juice possible, when the hips have cooled enough to handle, pick up the edges of the muslin and firmly squeeze as much juice through as possible.
Discard the boiled hips to the compost pile.
To be extra sure that you removed all the little hairs from the juice, wash up the sieve and first saucepan thoroughly, then run the juice through a second clean piece of muslin. This will catch any last stragglers!
Now you have a pan of rosehip juice, we need to add sugar to turn it into a syrup.
Add the sugar to the pan and set over a low heat. Stir well whilst bringing up to a boil. Continue stirring until the sugar has completely dissolved.
Boil gently for 5 minutes.
Next, remove the pan from the heat and very carefully pour the hot syrup into the sterilised bottles using the sterilised funnel.
Allow the syrup to cool before popping the (sterilised!) lids onto the bottles and storing in the fridge.
If everything was spotlessly clean, these should stay mould free in the fridge for several months. Pour away any that appear to grow flulf or mould.
Please enjoy my recipe! Jane | hedgecombers.com