Fall Foraging

Despite the blustery weather - icy cold rain whipped by high winds - Joanna and I went foraging for rosehips. Why would we choose such a day to go? I'm stll asking myself that question. But as Joanna said..."it's an adventure!"
Her sons, Boaz , who will be four in January, and Dov, who will be two next month, were smarter than we were. They chose to stay in the car and watch us forage by the side of Sandy Cove Beach, right on the Atlantic Ocean. There were lots of wild rose bushes and, naturally at this time of year... rosehips galore. We took turns battling the elements for our foraged treasure...
... two and a half pounds of rosehips to make syrup for a wonderful rosehip & pistachio baklava recipe from my latest cookbook find - The Wild Table: Seasonal Foraged Food and Recipes.

Let me back up a bit, so you can understand why we chose to ignore the weather. Joanna, my "back to the land" daughter, started growing her own vegetables this summer. She even is starting her very own composter in her back yard and has been talking about foraging for mushrooms for at least a couple of years. The thought scares me to death! Then again, I don't go scuba diving in shark infested waters either... but that's another story.

When I was asked to review the book, I knew that, although my idea of foraging is, at best, going blueberry and apple picking at U-Pik farms, and.... even more my style.... letting farmers do the harvesting while I do the buying at local farmers markets, Joanna would love this book. I wrote about it here, and even arm-chair foragers like me will fall in love with it.

Between The Wild Table, Preserve It!, and Jellies, Jams & Chutneys (two other awesome books Joanna inspired me to get), we brought our harvest home and after changing into dry clothes, and sipping some much needed tea, we began the syrup making process....
... removing the "beards" which took quite a while;
... cooking the rosehips after coarsely chopping them in a food processor (just equal amounts of water to rosehips;
... letting the liquid drip out of the pulp through a jelly bag. Don't you love Jo's creativity in finding an alternative to a real jelly making stand? The pulp is then returned to the pot with additional water and boiled down again. This time the bags drip overnight.
Next step is to actually make syrup out of the liquid.... I'll keep you posted. For now it's off to babysit two smart boys while their parents go off to daddy's convocation. Congratulations Ezra!