Harvest haul

Earlier in the year, I noticed a dog rose had established itself quite by chance between ours and next door's garden. Today, I happened to notice that it was already full of swollen rose hips and we are not yet in Autumn. The rose bushes around the garden are still, thankfully, full of bloom ...

Rose hips

For many years rose hips have been gathered and used to make rose hip syrup which is full of vitamin C. In recent times, however, many studies have been carried out that may indicate that they are useful for arthritis sufferers as they are anti-inflammatory. How times change, years ago they would have been used in a fairly natural state whereas sadly nowadays as with many other 'natural' supplements and tonics they have been made available in solid tablet form.

Little extra note: rose hips are created from the base of a rose flower that has been fertilised ... the base swells up with seeds. Rose hips are also called haws they have been treasured over the generations for their healing properties. There are many members of the rose family but one which has also been used in medicine over the years is Hawthorn also known as May. The leaves and haws used to be collected and eaten. In more recent times medicines have been produced containing hawthorn extracts to help alleviate certain heart conditions ... but please seek medical advice if you may be tempted to ingest any natural remedy!