8x the Vitamin C of an Orange, Growing Wild by Your Door. Why Does No One Pick It?

📖 The Nature’s Lost Vault Book Is Now Available. Learn more: https://naturelostvault.com/book.html In the autumn of 1941, with enemy submarines sinking the ships that carried oranges into Britain, a nation went looking for vitamin C in the last place anyone expected. Not a farm. Not a pharmacy. The thorny hedge growing wild at the edge of every field. What grew there held roughly eight times the vitamin C of the orange nobody could buy, and for a few short years it became a national crop, gathered by schoolchildren and cooked into a syrup handed out to the country's children. Then the oranges came back, and this free wild fruit was quietly forgotten. It is still out there, very likely growing within a short walk of your front door. This is the story of the rose hip, the fruit of the wild dog rose (Rosa canina), and how one of the richest free sources of vitamin C in the temperate world went from strategic wartime harvest to roadside curiosity in a single generation. We cover the wartime Vitamin Welfare Scheme of 1941, the nutritionist Claire Loewenfeld who pointed Britain at its own hedgerows, how the dog rose spread through American victory gardens and never left, and how to identify, harvest, and prepare rose hips today. Foraging for rose hips is simple once you know the one step many people miss, the fine irritant hairs around the seeds that must be strained out before you make rosehip syrup, jelly, or tea. If you care about wild food, foraging, forgotten remedies, self-reliance, and the traditional knowledge that faded when convenience replaced it, this one is for you. Late September through October, after the first frost, is the season. Look to the hedgerows. Sources and further reading: - Kinlin LM, Weinstein M. "Scurvy: old disease, new lessons." Paediatr Int Child Health 43 (4) (2023): 83-94. doi: 10.1080/20469047.2023.2262787 - Igual M et al. "Bioactive Compounds in Rosehip (Rosa canina) Powder with Encapsulating Agents." Molecules 27 (15) (2022): 4737. doi: 10.3390/molecules27154737 - Fascella G et al. "Bioactive compounds and antioxidant activity of four rose hip species from spontaneous Sicilian flora." Food Chem 289 (2019): 56-64. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2019.02.127 - Roman I, Stanila A, Stanila S. "Bioactive compounds and antioxidant activity of Rosa canina L. biotypes from spontaneous flora of Transylvania." Chem Cent J 7 (1) (2013): 73. doi: 10.1186/1752-153X-7-73 - Cendrowski A, Krolak M, Kalisz S. "Polyphenols, L-Ascorbic Acid, and Antioxidant Activity in Wines from Rose Fruits (Rosa rugosa)." Molecules 26 (9) (2021): 2561. doi: 10.3390/molecules26092561 - Tafreshi YM et al. "Salicylic acid and jasmonic acid in promoting seed oil content, vitamin C and antioxidant activity in rosehip (Rosa canina L.)." BMC Plant Biol 25 (1) (2025): 249. doi: 10.1186/s12870-025-06251-0 - Ayati Z et al. "Genus Rosa: A Review of Ethnobotany, Phytochemistry and Traditional Aspects." Adv Exp Med Biol 1308 (2021): 353-401. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-64872-5_23 - Christensen R et al. "Does the hip powder of Rosa canina (rosehip) reduce pain in osteoarthritis patients? A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials." Osteoarthritis Cartilage 16 (9) (2008): 965-72. doi: 10.1016/j.joca.2008.03.001 - Pekacar S et al. "Anti-Inflammatory and Analgesic Effects of Rosehip in Inflammatory Musculoskeletal Disorders and Its Active Molecules." Curr Mol Pharmacol 14 (5) (2021): 731-745. doi: 10.2174/1874467214666210804154604 - Cohen M. "Rosehip, an evidence based herbal medicine for inflammation and arthritis." Aust Fam Physician 41 (7) (2012): 495-98. - U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. "Rose hips, wild (Northern Plains Indians)." FoodData Central, SR Legacy (2019). Vitamin C, 426 mg per 100 g. #Foraging #WildFood #RoseHips #ForgottenRemedies