...are those tomatoes?
...radishes?
...mini pumpkins?
...persimmons?
...crab apples?
When folks come into our front garden, these are the 'guesses' we have heard from people who want to know, What in the world are those?!?...
I guess they are too intrigued by the fruit, that they ignore the lovely pink ROSES that share the same very prickly-thorny shrub :)
Of course it could be the ginormous size of them!
Yes folks, I have big hips!
Do you know what you can do with rose hips?
Eat 'em.
It's very important that you ONLY gather rose hips that you know have NOT been sprayed (ever) or near where spraying occurred. You can gather rose hips from the wild, but do not do so near roadsides where spraying likely occurred.
You will hear people say to wait until after the first frost to pick...I say 'Ignore this'; it doesn't matter. The more you pick, the more flowers will come on...etc, etc. Hips start off as green, then turn yellow-green, then a dull orange, then a bright orangey -red...pick them at this stage, when you can feel them becoming soft.
*Pick; then trim off the brown leafy dried bit and stem
*Wash/Rinse
*You will need approx four cups (after trimmed) of hips
*In a big kettle with enough water to cover them, bring to a boil and continue boiling for about 10 minutes.
(Some folks rather cut and seed the hips first; seeing how this will take you at least three days to do, I can't be bothered)...it really won't take three days, but too long for me.
*After your hips have boiled for 10 minutes; pour off liquid into a second large pot. Note that you will continue to use this main liquid each time you boil the hips.
*Put hips through your Foley Food Mill; reserving the watery pulp that you have collected and dumping seeds/skin and large pieces of pulp/hips back into the original liquid.
*Dump the seedy pulp that didn't go through the mill back in the original water, adding more water if needed until covered and begin boiling again for approx 5 minutes; repeating the entire process above.
*You will continue to repeat all of these steps; each time collecting the thin 'tomato sauce' type pulp...Continuing until your arm falls off or until you have about 2 cups of thin sauce/pulp.
Whichever comes first.
Right about now you should have orange stickiness up and down each arm to the point of 'Oompa Loompa '. You have changed your apron thrice and every pot and pan (as well as spatula, wooden spoon, sieves and strainer) is dirty and overflowing in the sink. Not to mention the enormous mountain of rose hip guts on your kitchen counter.
...this means you are almost done!
Now what?
You have a few options...
*You can freeze the pulp in ice cube trays to use in the future when making lemonade, ice tea (or hot tea).
*You can spread it out onto your food dehydrator to dry and break it up into pieces, to keep in a clean glass jar to add later to hot tea, cookies, or eat as a snack.
Or you can make fruit leather, which I LOVE!
Spread it all out evenly on a huge jelly roll baking pan that is covered with foil. Set your oven on the lowest temp possible for about 4 to 5 hours. Keeping watch for the right consistency of 'fruit leather'.
Once it looks right, take it out to cool for a bit. Take a large piece of wax paper to lay over the top and begin rolling from the end.
You can just keep it rolled up like this and then unroll and cut (or break off if you went a little longer in the drying process!)
It will look like this:
Rosehips are chocked full of vitamin C; Notice we did not add ANYTHING to this other than water? You will be so surprised at the wonderfully sweet, tangy and mildly nutty flavor and NO ADDED SUGAR.
I LOVE IT!
Waste Not, Want Not ...as my Grandma used to say. What to do with that enormous mountain of rose hip guts? Spread them on your jelly sheet and dry them at a low temp in your oven over night. Or dry them on your food dehydrator. When completely dry, break them up and store them in clean glass jars until winter. You can add this to your bird seed come Fall and Winter!
Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!