It's Free for the Taking

Today, I stopped for lunch in a parking lot of a county park. It was deserted except for a couple of chickadees and the roar of a cataract as water fell over the spillway of the old dam. It was such a peaceful place to munch my sandwich and contemplate how much I would rather be home, digging potatoes or processing yet more apples....and then I looked left out my window. Holey moley! Bounty was at hand. Literally inches away was a whole passel of bright red, ripe and ready rosehips. Rosehips, for the uninitiated, are the little red apple-like fruit of roses of the rosa rugosa variety. They are tart and not so nice on their own, but brewed like tea they make great...well, tea. And you can also use the tea-infusion to make a great lightly rose flavored jelly, chock full of Vitamin C and other great stuff. After climbing out of the car (okay, yes, I nearly fell out of the car in my hasty joy of finding wild forage of such beauty), I wound up with almost two cups of rosehips.

After finishing my work day, I wandered home by way of the store for yet more pint jars (oh yes, there be apples here...) and comenced the afternoon's "putting up" sequence. I made another huge batch of applesauce, adding another 6 pints to my stash, and juiced a whole buncha apples into my own homemade cidery drink. I have nearly four quarts full, but once the froth dies down and I filter it, I think I'll have three quarts to pop into the freezer and enjoy all winter. What about the rosehips, you say? Oh yes, those have been steeping with two chopped apples and four cups of water, to be poured into a jelly bag and drip overnight. Tomorrow morning, I'll pop the clear juice into the fridge and it will wait patiently for me to come home & transform it into one of my favorite "old timey" jellies: Rosehip Apple Jelly. Mmmmm mmmmm. Here's me, fighting scurvy one foraged fruit at a time...