I took this picture of a rose bush a couple of days ago and it took me back to being a fresh-faced schoolboy (a few years ago!) when we were paid to collect rosehips.

The pay was 3d per tin, a very large square catering tin, which took ages to fill!

The rosehips were used to make rosehip syrup. I think it started during the war because of the shortage of fruit to provide vitamin C, and carried on for some years afterwards.

We found this simple rosehip syrup recipe on the River Cottage website, now all I need is some littl’uns to collect them for me.

Rob