When to harvest rose hips: how to store them

Everyone is excellent rosehip in the role of a garden plant. He and very beautifully blooms, and has a wonderful spreading bush shape, and in addition gives extremely useful, rich in vitamin C fruits.

But you need to collect and store these fruits correctly, if you want to maximize their benefits. OBOZ.UA will tell you how to do it.

When to collect rose hips

The period of ripening of the fruits of the plant is from late July to October. Ripe rosehip has a bright red or orange color. Quality fruits are hard and firm to the touch. Damaged ones are better not to use for food. Collect rose hips can be collected before the onset of frost, but you need to dry immediately - do not postpone this process.

Drying in the oven

In order for rose hips not to spoil during the winter, they should be dried after collection. Start by picking the fruits and throw out the spoiled and damaged ones. Place the rest in a single layer on a baking tray and send to the oven, heated to 40-60 degrees - do not close the door completely. The drying process will take about 7-8 hours. Sometimes the tray will need to shake gently, and turn the fruit.

Still hot dried rose hips are poured into cloth bags or cardboard boxes and properly closed. It should lie like this for 2-3 days, so that the residual moisture comes out of the fruit. After that, they are cleaned from sepals and put in storage.

How to properly store dried rose hips

The best way to do this is to use breathable containers. Ideally - cloth bags. You can also use glass jars, but they need to be covered with a cloth. The best choice in this case will be gauze. Stacked in containers, the fruits are placed in a dark and cool place. They do not lose their qualities for two years.

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