What to do with Rose Hips?

It's been a busy couple of weeks.  Since my last post the Yarrow Soup was a complete success, and now I know what I am looking for, I really didn't need to go so far as up the nearest mountain to find this once elusive plant.  I am spotting the stuff literally EVERYWHERE.  Free Food is out there people you just need to know what you are looking for! She says, stating the obvious.

With this in mind Georgie, Lauren and I have become foraging queens!  Albeit blackberries (we know they're safe) but, all mushrooms look the same so that's a minefield.  My next challenge was in the pipeline.  My first idea was to go through the book 'All Good Things Around Us' recipe by recipe, but as the book is seasonal this was proving difficult.   Therefore, I decided to stick with seasonality and pick some Rose Hips at least they were in season.  Now, when I was a child, these pesky little blighters were usually opened up and the pips chucked down someones T-Shirt, all in the name of good fun, unless of course you were on the receiving end (believe me, that ain't much fun!)  But who knew there were so many possibilities!  Rose Hip Syrup, Rose Hip Soup?!! Rose Hip Jam and even a recipe from 1671 (in the book) for 'A Tarte of Rose Hips'  don't fancy that one much, probably picking pips out of your mouth for the next two years...that recipe is for another day. 

I chose to make wine.  And as Benjamin Franklin said 'Wine is constant proof that God loves us and loves to see us happy.'  How can you argue with that?!

From this...

After an hour of picking, and the added bonus of finding a football, I became the proud forager of about 500g of beautiful orangey red Rose Hips.  Then I checked the recipe - yes I did it again.  The No 1 rule of making anything - READ THE BLOODY RECIPE!!!!!!  I needed a kilo.

...To this!

You may've guessed it... I made it up.  I chucked a load of wild plums in the mix, which I had previously foraged and horsed in the freezer, not knowing what the hell to do with them.  And I still have about 2kg of the damn things left.  Still, I lobbed all the ingredients in a bucket and put the lid on top.  I have had to stir that crusty bucket everyday for two weeks.  But today was the day was the day of the great decanting.  After using pretty much every colander and saucepan I owned, I finally got the pink/orange liquid in the bottle and have put it away to do its thing. 

The last lot of wine I made was, in my usual style, a complete disaster.  It had this sort of manky film floating on the top, so that vintage was reserved for the fine sewerage system of Great Britain. 

Its going to be a good couple of weeks until its ready, so hopefully there will be Rosé all around this Christmas!  Such fun! Til next time kids...

Love Melissa x