What did you Forage today?

[onebuggirl]

WE have been foraging tons of mulberries. I just went to a neighbors house and asked if we could take some apples thier tree was loaded and it didn't look like they were picking them. I also noticed they didn't really pick thier cherries. So it was worth the awkward "um can we pick your apples?" Moment. I offered apple butter in exchange.

 

[Islay]

Whoops, forgot recipes! Hang on five minutes and I'll get them up

 

[Islay]

Drying rosehips

Spread the hips out on a clean surface and allow to dry partially.

When the skins begin to feel dried and shriveled, split the hips and
take out the large seeds - all of them. If you let the hips dry too much, it will be difficult to remove the seeds, if not dry enough, the seeds will cling to the skin. Many recipes require the seeds to be removed. if you're not sure whether to remove the seeds, do so but store them seperately from the hips.

After the seeds are removed, allow the hips to dry completely before storing or they will not keep well.

Store in small, sealed plastic bags. These will keep indefinitely in the freezer or for several months in the refrigerator.

They are packed with vitamin C and are good to munch on anytime you need extra energy...or a moderately sweet nutlike "candy."

Soak in a little water for a while to rehydrate - use the water for the recipe to keep the goodness!

Apple and rosehip sauce

Cook apples for making sauce in rose hip juice, or cook rose hips and apples together and puree them using a sieve or other straining
device to remove the seeds.

Proceed with standard apple sauce recipe

Rosehip tea

Ingredients
1 tea bag
1 tablespoon (15 mL) dried rose hips
3-4 whole cloves
Sugar or honey to taste
1 cup (240 mL) boiling water

Instructions
Steep tea bag, rose hips and cloves in boiling water for five minutes. Remove hips and cloves. Reheat if desired. Sweeten to
taste with sugar or honey. Makes one serving.

Rosehip crumble pie

Ingredients
Pastry for single-crust 9-lnch (22 cm) pie
1 cup (240 mL) dried rose hips
1/4 cup (60 mL) milk
1-1/2 cups (360 mL) sifted flour
2 teaspoons (10 mL) baking powder
Dash of salt
1/2 cup (120 mL) shortening
1-3/4 cups (420 mL) brown sugar
2 egg yolks, beaten
2 egg whites
Pecan halves (optional)

Instructions
- Prepare pastry and line a pie pan.
- Soften rose hips in milk.
- Sift together flour, baking powder and salt.
- Cream in shortening and brown sugar, mixing well. This makes a crumbly mixture - reserve 1 cup (240 mI) for topping.
- To the remainder add the egg yolks, milk and rose hips.
- Beat the egg whites until peaks hold form and fold into the berry mixture.
- Spoon into pie pan, sprinkle with the crumbly topping and garnish with pecan halves if you wish.
- Bake at 350 degrees F. (175 degrees C.) for 35 to 45 minutes or until pie appears done.

Candied rosehips

Ingredients and Instructions
1 cup rosehips
1/3 cup sugar
40ml water

- Wash the rose hips with a spray or under running water. Drain and pat dry gently with paper towel or a clean cloth towel. Remove
the seed from each rose hip with a small coffee spoon or pointed knife.
- Add rose hips to the sugar-water and cook over medium heat. Be sure all hips are coated on the inside. This is easiest done by tilting the pan and spooning the syrup over and around them. Shake pan occasionally.
- Cook until rose hips are just about to burn, about 5 to 10 minutes.
- Remove hips as quickly as possible from pan - but individually,
if you can - dropping each onto a sheet of waxed paper that is covered with granulated sugar. (I use two forks for this process. )
- Separate any nested hips. Sprinkle sugar over them, then roll in the sugar until the hips are well coated on all sides.
- While they are drying, break off any hard bits of sugar. Add more sugar and toss the hips gently with two forks. Store in a glass jar.
- It is best to have the hips only one layer deep in the pan to avoid nesting of hips. Also, the syrup thickens fast while
you are removing the hips from the pan.

Rosehip jelly

Ingredients
4 quarts ripe rose hips
2 quarts water
1 package pectin crystals
5 cups sugar
1/2 cup lemon juice

Instructions
- Simmer rose hips in water until soft. Crush to mash, and strain through a jelly bag. Should make about 4 cups of rose hip juice.
- Add to juice, lemon juice and pectin crystals and stir until mixture comes to a hard boil. Stir sugar in at once. Bring to a full rolling
boil and boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove jelly from heat and skim off foam with metal spoon. Pour into hot sterilized jars.

Rosehip cordial

Ingredients
900g wild rosehips, mashed
1.8 litres water
275g sugar for every 600ml juice
squeeze of lemon juice to taste.

Instructions
- Boil the water in a large saucepan and put in the rose-hip mash and simmer for 15 minutes.
- Strain the juice through a jelly bag or muslin. Measure the juice and add the appropriate amount of sugar and lemon juice. Heat together until the sugar is dissolved.
- Fill up the clean warmed bottleing jars and stand them in a shallow tray in an oven at 150 degrees. Bring to simmering point and allow a further 20 - 30 minutes more cooking. Leave to cool and store in a dark place.

Rosehip and apple drink

Ingredients:
1/4 lb. rosehips
peel of 2 large cooking apples
3-3/4 cups cold water
sugar or honey to taste

Directions:
- Chop the rosehips coarsely and put them in a saucepan with the apple peel and water.
- Bring slowly to the boil and simmer for 30 minutes.
- Strain, add a very little sugar or honey to taste, then cool and chill.

Makes 4 small glasses.

Rosehip and rhubarb jam

Use slightly under-ripe rose hips. Cut in half and remove seeds with tip of knife.

Ingredients
1 cup rose hips
1 cup water
4 cups diced rhubarb
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon lemon rind
- Combine rosehips, water, rhubarb and salt and boil rapidly for 2 minutes
- Add sugar and lemon rind
- Boil rapidly 2 minutes. Seal in sterilized jars. Process in hot water bath for 15 minutes at 5,000 feet.

Rosehip chutney

Ingredients
1/2 pt Dried rose hips, seeds removed, or 1 pt Fresh hips, seeds removed
1 pt Cider vinegar or wine vinegar 1/2 lb Raisins or sultanas, chopped
1 1/2 lb Cooking apples, peeled, cored and chopped 2 ts Ground ginger
3/4 ts Cayenne pepper
1 ts Ground cloves
1 lg Clove garlic, minced
1/2 lb Brown sugar
1/8 c Fresh lemon juice
1/8 c Fresh orange juice, unsweetened
1/2 ts Grated orange rind

Instructions
- Remove seeds from rosehips. Soak the rosehips, raisins or sultanas, and apples in vinegar overnight.
- After soaking, place the rosehips with remaining ingredients in a large, heavy saucepan.
- Bring the mixture to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until mixture is thickened.
- Leave to cool, then place chutney in clean, dry jars and cover with parafin and cellophane and plastic-lined lids (or glass jars with rubber seals and hinged lids).
- Store chutney in a cool place. Keep for at least a month before using.
Like all chutneys, this one improves with age. It goes well with, turkey, ham, or game and is good during the winter holidays.

I haven't tried all the recipes above, but the ones I have tried have come out really well. They've been accumulated over the past year from friends and relatives and I don't know where most of them came from, so I hope I'm not breaching any copyright by reproducing them! Let me know if you try any and if they are good or not.

Also, I've got a blackberry jam and blackberry cordial recipe on my blog, and over the next couple of days I'll put the recipes on there that I've used to try to preserve some of the enormous glut of apples and plums we've got. I've had lots of success with doing a sweet vinegar preserve for whole plums, I just don't know if I can wait 3 months to eat them! I'm trying out a few different combinations of spices, but I'll post the rough recipe on my blog later on today.

 

[Hollyrose]

Blackberries and Black raspberries today. I pick them daily in my yard since the berries seem to ripen all a different times.

 

[freemotion]

Do all the branches I pick for my doeling count? She gets an evening meal of leafy branches almost every night. If I miss a night and she gets hay, I hear about it until the following night! So tonight I cut some in the pouring rain....talk about a devoted goat mom!

 

[me&thegals]

Another 13 quarts of blackberries. If I'm counting right, that's about 45 quarts this week alone! Please, please let the blackberries develop some dread disease before I have to pick another one.

 

[onebuggirl]

We foraged 2 five gallon buckets of wild grapes and some rosehips!

 

[big brown horse]

We foraged 2 five gallon buckets of wild grapes and some rosehips!

What are you going to do with the rosehips?

I have a huge wild rose (I think it is wild) bush that has these beautiful bright red rose hips on it. They are so yummy, they taste like persimmons.

 

[Blackbird]

So wait, a rose plant grows the actual rosehips? Why don't I know what a rosehip is?

 

[big brown horse]

So wait, a rose plant grows the actual rosehips? Why don't I know what a rosehip is?

Rosehips are the ball shaped calyxs left over when the petals fall off. They also make rosaries out of them.