[Sca-cooks] And now- for something completely different!- rose hips!

[Stefan li Rous]

Here is a bit on harvesting rosehips that I thought you might find
useful. This is from my new flowers-msg file:
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/rialto/flowers-msg.html

> Subject: [Ansteorra] Re: A&S Question -Rose hips
> Date: Fri, 25 May 2001 16:35:40 -0500
> From: "Nathan Jones" <bigbeartx at msn.com>
> Reply-To: ansteorra at ansteorra.org
>
> Joanna Montgomery wrote:
> >I need to know how to harvest and prepare rose hips.  I know somebody out
> >nthere knows what to do with them. I have access to a bunch if I get them
> >quick.
>
> Harvesting rose hips is easy.  When they are ripe in the Fall or Winter, you
> pluck them from the bush.  Try to pick the hips that are the deepest red or
> orange that you can find.  Preparing them is another story and I leave that
> to Mari to go into if she desires.
>
> However, there is no need to prepare rosehips to make them edible.  They can
> be eated fresh off of the bush for a tangy treat.  They tend to be pretty
> tart and tannic, much like a crabapple.  (Not that suprising since apples
> and roses are cousins.) They are very high in vitimin C, higher than oranges
> proportionately.  They can be dried and added to teas and such, or used
> fresh.
>
> If you want the hips for proprogation of roses, then that's also pretty easy
> (sort of).  Pick the hips when ripe, label and store in the crisper drawer
> of your refridgerator.  Keep them dark and cold for about six weeks.  Then
> take them out and let them warm up for a few weeks.  You can remove the
> seeds from the hips after you picked them, or after they have gone though
> their first dormant period in the fridge.  Place them in baggies, or plant
> them in a sterile medium, keep them a bit moist, and put them back into the
> fridge.  [The purpose of this is that roses require a double dormancy in
> order to sprout. Cold-Warm-Cold.]  Take the seeds out of the fridge when
> they begin to sprout and either plant them in a sterile medium, or, if
> you've already done that, place in a protected area outside.  When they have
> grown enough to have a couple sets of true leaves, transplant into larger
> containers.
>
> If these are hips from last season, then they should be fine for harvesting
> and will probably be dried and shriveled on the bush by now.  If they are
> green hips from this past Spring's flush, I agree with Mari and I doubt that
> they are ready for harvest.  Try to convince the owner not to prune them off
> and leave them to ripen.  They should be ready about October.  (Oh, and if
> you need a reason to convince the owner not to prune, let them know that
> it's a bad time, the plant needs the reserves in that extra Spring growth to
> help it get though the heat and dryness of the Summer.]
>
> Giovanni di Cellini

--
THLord  Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
Mark S. Harris             Austin, Texas         stefan at texas.net
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****