By chance I spotted rose hips yesterday in a car park in sunny Aberaeron and they looked fantastic; they really looked good enough to eat.
This got me thinking about the uses of rose hips and how little I knew about them. I also remembered a post written this week by 
We've got tomatoes growing in the greenhouse so I was reminded of them by this bunch of rose hips.
When I got home in the evening I read around the topic and to me the most interesting snippets of information were here. This is because the information given combined something I had heard of, ie some seeds need to be left and get 'winter chills' to activate them.
The most comprehensible article I read tackled (to some extent) a doubt I had about cooking food that's supposed to have vitamin C.
I have often wondered how much goodness is actually 'destroyed' during the cooking/preserving process. You can read more about rose-hips here.
Incidentally, do you make your own jam or preserves ?
I seriously considered going round collecting some rose hips at home, but the other day I made blackcurrant and blackberry jam. It was a lot of work 'topping and tailing' each of the hundreds of blackcurrants (it seemed millions at the time though).
My very old (guide)book, which was published in 1977, said to cook the fruit with water, soften and then add sugar.
The amount of sugar was the same as the weight of the fruit !! How healthy is that ? After all the boiling, it really made me question whether or not I should just try to eat the fruit raw, but then how do I keep the surplus?
Any constructive comments are always welcome.
Incidentally, I went to check whether that preserving book was still available, and found out that the author, Marguerite Patten, died aged 99 three years ago. The book is still available here.
all photos by 