An Herbal Medicine Recipe from Nora Harrington
ROSEHIP SYRUP
Rosehips are one of Bainbridge’s most abundant wild medicines. They're rich in anti-oxidants, astringent (meaning they draw excess water from the tissues and from the colon), and they make a delicious syrup for the winter months.
To make the syrup:
- Sterilize a couple of bottles by washing thoroughly in hot soapy water, rinsing well, then putting them on a tray in a low oven to dry out and heat up.
- Roughly chop the rosehips in a food processor in batches, then transfer to a large saucepan and add 1.25 litres water.
- Bring to the boil, then turn the heat down and simmer for around 15 minutes.
- Strain through a double layer of muslin, letting the pulp sit for a good half hour so that all the juice passes through.
- Wash out the muslin, or cut a fresh piece, fold to double it and pass the strained juice through it again.
- Pour the Rosehip tea into a measuring cup, and write that amount down.
- Then, pour the tea into a large saucepan and bring to a simmer.
- Turn off the heat, and pour in honey until you have a 1:1 ratio of honey to rosehip tea.
- Once honey is dissolved, decant immediately into the prepared bottles and seal.
- Label when the bottles have cooled completely.
- Use within 4 months and be sure to store in the refrigerator.
Use your syrup on pancakes, yogurt, in tea, in cocktails or homemade sodas. You can always add spices like cardamom, cinnamon, rosemary or ginger to the last 5 minutes of tea for a spicy twist. You can also add a little brandy at the end to lengthen the shelf life.
The Medicine Chest is an island grown business whose mission is to restore herbal knowledge as common knowledge, and to educate our community members in the art of keeping an herbal medicine chest.
We help people integrate herbal medicine into their lives in a number of ways. First, we curate seasonal "medicine chests"--packages of herbal remedies that help our customers build up their medicine collection season by season. Second, we make zines--little booklets, chock full of folk wisdom and information about how to use the remedies in our packages. And finally, we teach classes on wildcrafting and medicine making.
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