Wild Roses

Winter isn't really a season of harvest, is it? At least I don't think so. But when I was walking around in the forest today I noticed lots of wild rose bushes with their hips still attached. After the flower blooms and produces seeds, the "fruit" is called a hip.

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The flowers are very different from domestic roses. They have much less petals, grow in clusters, and are many times smaller. Here is a size reference.

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The one on the left is a larger specimen while the one on the right is more typical.
I heard that rose hips are a wild edible but someone else told me not to eat them because they hips contain bristles that will irritate your mouth and throat. However, you can steep them in hot water to make rose hip tea! I plan to make it for my friend and see how she likes it; she's an enthusiast of all things rose and rose jam. Since they're technically one season old they're dried up, but this will make them pack more of a punch.
I had to clip of all the stems off, which was tedious but it also worked to clean them. IMG_20180203_144803.jpg
This is a very hardy plant. It's already starting to grow, see the bud?
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I would only find this rose growing near trees, never by itself. Only bushes that were taller than me had any hips on them. This makes sense because a cutting I took from a wild rose that is now in my garden didn't bloom until its second year. I'll be sure to include pictures of them in the summer if I remember.
Thanks for reading! Hope this post inspires you to incorporate more wild foods in your diet!

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