Rose Hips

This is a wild food that is still available, rose hips.The fruit of the rose, call hips ,are high in vitamin C and make a very pleasant tasting tea. They tend to stay on the plant well into the winter unless eaten by the birds. This year that is a likely occurrence since most wild fruits that usually are present all winter are gone already. Rose hips are more seed than fruit but they can be used to make jelly as well as tea. Some roses have much larger fruit than others. There are several named cultivars available from nurseries that produce huge amounts of large hips. You often see these around homes and they present a chance for a little urban foraging. Most people are happy, if a bit baffled, to let you pick them from their plants. If you are picking the hips for tea, split them in half, discard the seeds, and dry the remaining thin shell of fruit. A nice addition to your collection of wild foraged teas, Free Food...Yeah!