A few days ago I went on a walk with Jane and Magnus and gathered half a pot of rose hips from a bush I had observed a few weeks earlier. Roughly following Katey’s recipe, I washed the hips, removed the stalks and tips (yielding 100g of prepared fruit) and boiled them for a few minutes in a covering of water with half as much sugar.

That was strained through a folded piece of kitchen towel and left in the fridge. Today, I finished the job. I brought the liquid back to the boil, turned off the heat and then filtered it through another piece of kitchen paper into a sterilised jar while still hot. That has now cooled down and the lid button has popped down suggesting a vacuum has formed.

It should keep for a fair while until I start to use it. Rose hips are very high in vitamin C and other goodness, so it will be a good medicine to help keep our defences up against winter colds. On reflection, I really do not think it will last long at all once I get to using it!