Rose Hip and Lemon Tea Blend
1/2 cup dried rosehips
3 teaspoons dried lemon peel
This tea is naturally rich in vitamin C. In a bowl crush seeds and pulp of dried rose hips and add the dried lemon peel. Mix together well.
Place blended tea into your container and label with instructions if giving as a gift. Use 1 teaspoon per cup of boiling water and allow to infuse about 8 minutes. Sweeten with honey, if desired, or add a thin slice of lemon.
The rose hip and rose haw, is the pomaceous fruit of the rose plant, that typically is red-to-orange, but might be dark purple-to-black in some species. Contrary to the fairly common myth rosehips are not poisonous.
Particularly high in Vitamin C, with about 1700–2000 mg per 100 g in the dried product, one of the richest plant sources.
Roses are propagated from hips by removing the seeds from the aril (the outer coating) and sowing just beneath the surface of the soil. Placed in a cold frame or a greenhouse, the seeds take at least three months to germinate.
In World War II, the people of England gathered wild-grown rose hips and made a Vitamin C syrup for children. This was because German submarines were sinking many commercial ships: citrus fruits from the tropics were very difficult to import.
