Gathering Rosehips

notes from autumn:

As I’ve been gathering rosehips for the Four Shrubs face oil I’ve been collecting data and learning lots. 

I make note of what species I’ve harvested and the location.

I weigh what I’ve collected, then set the batch to air dry (I’ll explain this in an upcoming post)

Once the batch has dried I’ll weight it again, and then after it’s been processed to make ready for infusing I’ll weight it once more.

Throughout the process of picking, weighing, drying, I am constantly sorting:

As I’m picking I’m looking out for a number of different things that indicate a healthy hip (glossy & even coloration, no marks or black spots, no animal or insect damage, not mushy or waterlogged)

As the hips are drying there’ll be some that show signs of fungal, insect, or environmental damage and these I’ll remove. 

I’ve noticed that some species are more prone to disease than others and the growing location & habitat also plays a part in this.

Once the hips are dried I go through each individual one to remove the sepals that might still be attached and check again for discolouration. 

It’s a very meticulous process from start to finish and I’m perhaps a little crazy when it comes to quality control (I’ll spend hours cutting open dried rosehips inspecting the inside as well as the out!)

I’m gradually learning which rosehip species and their growing habitats provide a higher quality and more consistent yield, and keeping a log of all this information I’ve gathered will save me a lot of time and energy. 

(Sadly my logbook skills aren’t quite on par with my quality control, I’m a loose scraps of paper kind of girl)