Summer has rapidly turned into fall and it’s only a matter of time before the first snowflakes drift down to cover the golden leaves on the ground. It’s always a bittersweet time of year. Summer has been good to us this year, and even though we can’t complain that we didn’t get enough warm days, it’s still hard to let go. We want the remaining flowers in the garden to last just a little bit longer, and we hope that we can get just a few more bags of berries into the freezer before the north wind gets too cold.
Berry picking in autumn is the perfect reason to go out in the bush, once more, and to breathe in the cool, fresh air. Cranberries are often a berry picker’s favourite this time of year, but rosehips deserve to be enjoyed as well. These vibrant red, pear-shaped “hips” are what are left behind from all the sweet-smelling wild pink roses that grow so abundantly here in the Yukon and share with us their scent and gentle medicines during June and July. Even during years when other berries, such as raspberries and Saskatoons, may not be as plentiful because of a cold spring or a dry summer (or maybe some hungry neighbourhood bears), there are usually more than enough rosehips to savour.
Rosehips are incredibly satisfying to pick because they’re much bigger than most other wild berries and, therefore, also fill a plastic bag that much faster. They also generally grow fairly tall, which leads to much less bending down and fewer sore backs. You can find them in almost all parts of the Yukon—along roadsides and trails and even between houses in town. They’re easy to save for the winter months and don’t necessarily require any immediate processing. You can throw them in the freezer and then turn them into jams, jellies or syrups on a dark December day when you have a bit more time.
Birds, squirrels, bears and other animals like rosehips as well. And rosehips can be found all over the world, although not all are as fun to pick as the variety we have here in the North. In Peru, for example, there are rosehips that grow in the forests that, in addition to having the normal thorns on their branches, also have their fruit covered with tiny little prickles (making gloves absolutely necessary). Luckily, here in the Yukon we have the more finger-friendly variety.
If you need some motivation to go gather a bag full, here are Four Ways You Can Enjoy Rosehips this fall:
- Pick a few as a snack
While rosehips aren’t the kind of berry that you want to put fresh on your morning yogurt, they are actually much sweeter and more enjoyable than one might imagine. I love picking a few, while I’m out on a walk or a hike, and eating them raw. I try to get the slightly soft ones that stick to my fingers as I nibble away at the outer parts, carefully avoiding the fuzzy seeds inside. They’ll give you a boost of vitamin C, just as cold and flu season is about to begin.
- Turn them into something sweet
Using either the fresh or frozen berries, you can make a variety of delicious jellies and syrups. Carefully strain out the seeds, with a fine sieve or a cheesecloth, and you’ll be ready to go. In Sweden, dried rosehips are made into a soup called nyponsoppa and served as breakfast or dessert. Share the fruits of your labour with family and friends, on a blustery winter day, and be reminded of the bittersweetness of fall.
- Use them as decorations
If you’re looking for something natural and festive to decorate your dinner table with or maybe to use for doing crafts with your kids, look no further. A few rose branches with fresh, red rosehips can make a stunning addition to a centrepiece or a wreath, and the biggest berries can be used as beads and strung together to form garlands. They may lose their colour a bit when they dry, but they will still look pretty.
- Make a cup of immune-boosting tea
Rosehips have an incredible amount of reported health benefits—among them lowering cholesterol, controlling diabetes, strengthening the heart, enhancing bone health and aiding in digestion. Boosting immunity is, however, maybe their strongest virtue. Beverley Gray in her book The Boreal Herbal: Wild Food and Medicine Plants of the North writes that three rosehips contain the same amount of vitamin C as one orange. Dry some rosehips this fall and enjoy them as a vitamin-C-rich tea, all winter long.
SIDEBAR
Tips For Picking Rosehips
- Avoid eating the tiny hairs surrounding the seeds: they can irritate your mouth and intestines if you eat a lot.
- To save some time later, twist off the ends as you pick. That way you can use the berries without any subsequent hassle.
- Pick the ones that are a bit wrinkly, instead of the ones that are still hard. Ideally, gather them after the first frost, so they’re sweeter and softer. Freezing them can also have a similar effect and you can easily keep them until the following year.
- Look out for the thorns!
