Rosehip purée

First, shoot your hare.
Top and tail rosehips with a small knife.
Scrub your hands (you’ll know why).
Clean rosehips in cold water.
Dry gently with tea towel and/or let air dry if not cooking immediately.
Store in fridge (1-2 days) or freezer if not cooking immediately.
ALWAYS, ALWAYS top, tail and clean rosehips before freezing, or you’ll end up throwing them away.
In the freezer: store rosehips away from dill if you don’t like dill scented hips

Ingredients
rosehips, no more than 3 liters
water
100-200 ml sugar per liter raw rosehips (see below)
(½-1 t lemon juice, freshly squeezed)

Equipment
3 saucepans: one for the hips, one for sterilizing jars, one for the purée
slotted spoon
large wooden spoon
some other spoons
scraper
metal sieve
small canning jars (150-350 ml)
canning funnel
enough time

Instructions
Cover hips with water, bring to a boil.
Let simmer, covered, for 2,5-3 hours depending on size and fleshiness. Rosehips are very individual!
Stir sometimes, they mustn’t burn.
Add more water as necessary.

Place metal sieve over a pan or bowl.
When cooked (soft enough for you to squash them), put a handful of hips in sieve using the slotted spoon.
Press hips with a large wooden spoon or a tablespoon – see what fits your hands best.
The purée will fall into the bowl, or scrape it off.
Put seeds aside – don’t discard.
Let rosehips continue to simmer as you press.

Use a passe vite if you’ve got one. It will still be a lot of work, because you have to keep scraping the seeds out, and this is very time consuming, but it's not as physically straining as pressing through a sieve.

Wash your hands.
Wash jars and lids.
Sterilize jars and lids.
Sterilize canning funnel + spoon.
Bring purée to a boil with sugar (and lemon juice).
Stir, it mustn’t burn,
and make sure the sugar is dissolved.
Drain jars upside down on clean towels.
Pour or ladle purée into piping hot jars.
Fill jars to the top, air encourages mould.
Crush air holes with a small spoon.
Clean jar rim if you make a mess.
Close jars immediately.
Place jars on wood until cold.
Store in a cool, dark place.

Instant seed soup
Mix seed mass with water.
Whisk, bring to a boil.
Let boil gently until the pulp dissolves from the seeds.
Add sugar to taste,
Be generous, the seeds are bitter.
Pour into sieve, press as before if necessary
(sometimes I do this twice).
Serve with whipped cream.

On sugar
Sugar is necessary for taste and as a preservative. I have been using 100 ml sugar per liter raw hips, but I’m thinking of increasing the amount, as I’ve found I’ve been adding some sugar to my teas and soups. Sugar content is a matter of taste, but I would say that 100 ml sugar per liter raw hips is the bare minimum.

As I understand it lemon juice is meant to prevent moulding. But if you're using a lot of sugar I think you can skip the lemon.

How to enjoy and maximize nutritional benefits
Use rosehip purée as a base for soup or tea.

Always serve rosehip soup with whipped cream or some other source of saturated fat from grass fed animals, or you’ll be wasting the carotenoids. Remember that low fat dairy makes humans infertile.

If you feel you are coming down with something, add a little vodka and cream or butter to your daily dose of rosehip tea. This way you can go through the winter without getting a cold even once! It's true, it's been tested on humans.