Healthy Biosphere Today: Wild Rose Hip Tea (Rosa Canina)

Dog Rose Hips March 31, 2014

Long, cold winters take their toll on your energy and healthy immune system. Rose hip tea, high in natural and pleasant tasting vitamin C, is a powerful antioxidant.  Instead of taking a manufactured supplement, try this easily absorbable refreshment from nature. 

Tea made from dog rose hips  has a mild, pleasant orange flavor derived from the deep reddish-orange, semi transparent skin.

Dog rose hips are elongated and naturally shiny. They tend to hang in clusters of five on the bush, and hang until early Spring.
The hips contain many seeds and have tiny hairs inside that are best strained out of the rose hip tea. Fresh dog rose hips can be washed, sliced open to remove the seeds and rinsed to remove the small hairs inside the hip.  The result is a tangy sweet natural fruit leather, also suitable for baking.
Many  boosting concoctions can be derived from rose hips including immune syrup, jelly, and rose hip soup to name a few.

For colder climates, these rose hips can provide more vitamin c per serving than an orange, and were used as a vitamin C supplement during WWII.  Frost improves flavor. Mormon pioneers recorded that the Northwestern Shoshone consumed rose flowers, hips and also made rose hip teas.  (Source:
http://www.historytogo.utah.gov/people/ethnic_cultures/the_history_of_utahs_american_indians/chapter2.html)


Dried Wild Rose Hips

The Dog Rose grows tall and creates a natural barrier and wild life sanctuary.  The blooms are old rose style and either white or light pink in color.  Dog Rose can be a welcome addition to your permaculture garden!

For preppers, vitamin C has a very positive effect for eradicating radiation from the body.
Harvard Medical School indicated: "Our experiment showed that vitamin C can prevent damage from radiation...it somehow keeps the radiation from killing the cells."
Try some wild rose hips today, you may find it's your favorite new cup of tea to fight off the winter blues, safely and gently boost the immune system, and naturally replenish antioxidants.





Impenetrable Wild Dog Rose Hedge
Salem, Utah
 March 31. 2014