this wonderful autumnal aperitif was created completely coincidentally as a side product of the rose hips jam i prepared. i started very enthusiastically to make the jam but turned relatively quick into a bundle of nerves. at the end i was not even willing to throw the remaining mash away.

so i decided to take the mash, containing all the leftovers of the rose hips, the skin, the kernels, the blossom rest, stems and small pieces of pulp, as a basis to cook some syrup. and this syrup turned out to be such a tasty thing, that i decided to participate in the blog event of gärtnerblog in september with the rose hips syrup instead of the jam, as originally planned.

to win the syrup i gave the mash back in a large pan, covered it with water and cooked it for some minutes. by putting it through a very fine sieve i won almost one liter of juice, added 400 g sugar and cooked everything until it started to thicken. let it cool down a little bit and fill the syrup in bottles and store them in the fridge.

you can enjoy the rose hips syrup as an aperitif, combined with some sparkling wine. it will be a very good starter for an autumnal menu. but you can also combine it with some sparkling water to get a refreshment.