Kitchen Garden Forum

I noticed in my latest Kitchen Garden that there's an article on making Rose Hip Syrup. I've always been tempted to try it but the only place where I know of rosehips growing in profusion is a large shruppery on public land adjacent to various footpaths. Are the public allowed to pick them or does this constitute theft? And does the same law apply if you pick rowan berries, damsons etc from trees on public land, i.e. in parks, etc? One argument could be that as a Council Tax payer, one has indirectly contributed to their upkeep but I'm not sure whether the magistrates would take a similar view.

Primrose, sorry this is not a reply to your query but it has a bearing on it. We have a long rose hedge with lots of rosehips (particularly this year) and I tried the recipe from the Kitchen Garden magazine. i followed the recipe to a T but I can't say I was impressed by the result, it smelt strange and tasted odd so, I am afraid, it ended up down the sink. Perhaps we had the wrong sort of hips?!

More in line with your question: we pick elderflowers every year from the side of a canal footpath right in the country (no car pollution there!). Presumably they belong to British Waterways but their resident employee has never challenged us.

Hi Primrose

Provided the rosehips, elderberries, blackberries etc are not growing on private land, I would go ahead and pick them. If you are challenged, apologise and stop, but I doubt anyone would want to take you to court over a bag of unwanted fruit.

If however you end up in the nick, do try and get word out and we'll have a KG subscription mailed to your new address

Hi Primrose

According to the Theft Act 1968 you cannot "steal" wild fruit if it's for your own use:

'A person who picks mushrooms growing wild on any land, or who
picks flowers, fruit or foliage from a plant growing wild on any land,
does not (although not in possession of the land) steal what he picks,
unless he does it for reward or for sale or other commercial purpose.
For the purposes of this subsection "mushroom" includes any fungus,
and "plant" includes any shrub or tree' (Theft Act s.4(3)

And there was me hoping we could all meet up whilst visiting Primrose, oh well never mind.

Thanks for all your comments. I was tempted to have another try because like Monika, years ago I tried to make Rose Hip Syrup from some gathered rose hips. Actually I think they might have been rose haws, i.e. the really big single stem ones you get from some roses. (Not sure if a Hip is the small one and a Haw is the big one - does anybody know?). Anyway my effort too was very disappointing and ended up being thrown Similarly some years ago I bought back home a huge bag of raw olives from Portugal, picked from the farmhouse where we were staying. I tried to follow the instructions of the farmer, whose English was very poor, on how to brine them, but ended up with a soggy black mush which also ended up on the compost heap. A similar effor to pickle walnuts also ended up in failure. So preserving what you've foraged isn't always the success it's made out to be.

Not sure if a Hip is the small one and a Haw is the big one - does anybody know?

All roses have hips. Haws come from hawthorn.
[From Old English haga]

You'll just have to stick with Runner Bean Chutney - bit late I suppose but it must be a super food.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8328377.stm

2lb runners – sided and very finely sliced
1½ lb onions finely chopped
1 pint vinegar – find a white is best
½ pint pickling vinegar
1½ tablespoons turmeric
1½ tablespoons cornflour
1 teaspoon dry mustard
2lb sugar – demerara is best but works just as well with ordinary

Cook beans in salt water until tender – drain.
Boil onions in ½ pint of vinegar until soft (about 20mins)
Add the beans and rest of vinegar (reserving a little for mixing cornflour) and boil for 15 mins
Add sugar and al other ingredients
Boil for 10 mins.
Pot and seal and leave for at least a month before eating.

If I'm caught you can all come and visit me in my cell anyway! Knowing my capacity for speaking out about some rant or other, I'm bound to end up there some time anyway knowing how the 'thought police' operate these days. Come to think of it, some of you might be joining me as bedfellows. Squeeze up there for your share of the grey blanket with the bed bugs

Sounds like you are using Rosa Rugosa rather than Rosa Canina but I don't see why that should make any difference.

I made rose hip wine many years ago. Totally undrinkable but the cleanest toilet in Warwickshire; better than any other cleaning product I've ever tried

Seem to recall that during WW11 children were paid 3d per pound [one and a half p ] to pick rose hips for the war effort. Can only recall doing it once.

Shallot Man - You're right. As a very small child during WW2 (yes, that ages me !!) I remember going out with my mother to collect rose hips. I think it happened every autumn. We collected quite a lot and they were taken to our parish church hall which was a collecting point for them. I believe they were then taken to a central point somewhere for Rose Hip syrup to be made as this was a valuable source of Vitamin C for young children when imported fruit like oranges had ceased because so many convoys had been destroyed. I seem to remember my mother getting an allocation of either Rose Hip Syrup or orange concentrate for us, which was always given as a "reward" after we'd had that horrid teaspoon of Cod Liver Oil. (No convenient little gelatine covered capsules in those days!).