Berries on wild roses

[Bobp]

Does anyone know anything about wild roses? I found (drove by) some old fence lines with about 2 miles of old huge wild roses growing along them...I have noticed the summer blossoms for years.... the interesting thing that caught my eye was they had millions of bright oarnge/red berries... now i normally brush hog them down when they pop up on my place... but i pulled over and grabbed a handfull of berries and they were "sweetish"... not bitter.. they seemed like they would make decent wine??
Any ideas??

 

[cpfan]

They're called rose hips. Lots of recipes around for rose hip wine.

Steve

 

[arcticsid]

Hi Bob, this is my signature wine. I have never used the hips, but I do like Gladys Knight and her pips! LOL

I use the petals. They are only available here for the first 3 weeks in June. This is a tried and true recipe, I am thinking about trying it next year with a little more petals then this recipe calls for, but for now I only have enough left in the freezer to make two more batches.

http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6925

They tell me that rose hip wine is outrageous, but I am to lazy to pick enough to try, but, I am hoping to one of these days. Hell, its not that easy to pick that many petals but I have. Maybe next year I can afford to hire some kids to do it for me. After I show them my secret technique of course!!! LOL.

This is an older recipe. I promise to update it real soon. But I have this one down. It's wonderful. When I get the updated recipe up, I promise to let you know.

 

[Bobp]

I had assumed they were "Hips" at first... but when I looked up pics of rose hips they didn't look like the ones i found... so i thought i'd ask... after seeing your response i dug a bit deeper, and found them under my states listing...
the good thing is they are plentiful... when i said millions... there really had to be it was un real.... from a distance the bushes look red.. i believ i'll load up the kids (we have 5) this weekend and go see if the birds left any??? When we picked rasberries this summer the kids said i was treating them like migrant workers...LOL but they sure don't mind eating what we make..lol

 

[lloyd]

I like the rose hip flavor. My Aunt used to make a rose hip jelly that was really good but there were some drawbacks, she had to meticulously remove the inner seeds which are surrounded by a fine prickly fuzz or spine. this is why I have never tried to make wine out if the hips. I have often wondered if I could ferment the whole hip in a mesh bag in the wort. I know that as they break down they will release some of the fine irritating spines into the wort. but maybe they could all be removed through racking and a final filtering before the wine was racked. I would like to hear how anyone that has made rose hip wine deals with all the seeds and the fine irritating spines.

 

[lloyd]

I meant to say before the wine was bottled after the last racking.

 

[saramc]

I recently made a batch of HER (hibiscus elderberry rosehip) wine using dried whole rosehips. I steeped them in twice the amount of boiling water for 20 minutes, allowed everything to cool to room temp and then added to straining bag. I have been using dried rosehips for YEARS and have never had to deal with any spines. Just gently press the rosehip in the straining bag. I also eat them fresh, whole and have no issues. I dry "rosa rugosa".

Sara