Rosehips for the finches.
This is such a common view in a Polish countryside and I am so glad about it. All the wild areas that used to be full of the wild plants, bushes and young trees are slowly taken over and houses pop one after another. So there is less and less places (though I still know a few guaranteed spots) where the wild roses can grow, bloom, smell like heaven and then give the red berries.
As a little girl I remember my grandfather used to pick them in the fall. Then he was removing the spiky tips and bits of stems, drying them and was using them to make tea in winter since the berries are full of vitamin C. You can read about other goodies it has here. The tea is quite popular and probably easy to get if you cant get the fresh berries yourself.
No, I did not pick any. I left them hanging there for the birds. Apparently finches like to nibble on them during the winter and when the snow comes and covers everything the red fruits might be the only thing they find.
Besides that they look very nice when everything else is dead and covered in white fluff.
As I walked I shot the berries on few separate bushes. I was hoping to catch some birds too, but the finches are fast beasties. I did see some flying and there is quite a few of them around, but they are fast beasties and very camera shy it seems :)
Aint that just lovely?
Shot with Nikon D5500 + Sigma 105mm lens
All photos and text are my own.
Oh, we use to make a jam, the best and most painful taste Ive ever experienced. Still seeing them dying slowly mostly next to the road, this year I'm late, but next might dry them for the tea - no spiky tips removal required.
Fav.👌
How do you make the jam?
My mum makes the jam/paste but from the petals. It is a-ma-zing!
Huh? :D
From the petals? How so?:D
After picking, the fruit is dried for a couple of days until it softens, then the lower part is removed (the prickly part where the flower used to be), washed, boiled, mashed.
The way we used to prepare it was painful, you tear off the prickly parts with your fingernails.
But the taste is something that can not be compared with anything.
That's what my grandfather used to do. Can't just chop it off? :P
You pick the petals from the wild roses and just mush them with sugar to a thick paste. Then off to the jar.
It is not eaten on its own. You can add some to tea to make it fragrant or to so jam. Mum normally mixes some with plum jam that she stuffs doughnuts with. It's amazing!
I found recipe in Polish: https://klaudynahebda.pl/konfitura-platkow-rozy-ucierana/
Probably, but we had "I know it all" person in family, and I was just a kiddo, so mercy please.:P
OMG that sounds like something that can be added to the summer fillings. I adore that sophisticated rose taste!🤤
Dammit, I must have this, and I must start making a food bucket list.
Congratulations, you just earned a bonus nest.:P
I love those fruits, never tried in tea, I use to eat the past in it directly :) full of vitamins ! I prepared a jam only one time, it was too much of work for not a lot..!
Thanks for those nice shots,
beautiful contrasted bushes !
The whole fruit? I read somewhere they have some little irritating hair inside. You ate them too? :P
Oh no ! Not the whole :) My mistake, wanted to write the "paste" in it ^^ Yeah, the hair are really not good, in vernacular french, those fruits are called 'gratte-culs' (ass-scratchers) haha
😂😂
Great photos of the rosehip!
I also love tea with it.
And the rosehip syrup is absolutely incomparable!
Oh yea... the syrup is great too :)
Oh, we have that too. On the outskirts of the city I often see, in the meadows especially a lot of wild rose grows.
Yeaaa they like the free spots where nobody bothers them.
I haven't seen a rosehip plant (or tree) in person. It might not grow here. However, there are canned ones on sale. It's very expensive.
Canned rosehips? I haven't seen that :p
It is basically a while rose bush, maybe it will be easier for you to find that.
Thank you!
We also used to do the same, picking and drying them for tea. It was tasty when already in the cup.
But I haven't found good rosehip tea for years now in the shops, must be that it is not the same when you buy it and pick it by yourself. Not the same.
Definitely not the same. It is the same with mint - I am used to have it fresh (or dried, but from the garden) and the shop one in teabags just doesn't taste good.
We have wild roses here in the Pacific Northwest of the US, too, but not in that kind of profusion!
In some places they are a terrible mess! Only small birds can pass it :D
Looks cool though.
Hello dear friend @ewkaw good day
I did not know that there was a wild rose plant that had fruits, and it is good that you can prepare infusions with them. Great knowledge of your grandfather.
I appreciate you sharing this information with us.
Happy start of the week
All roses have fruits like that :) Maybe some have different shape.
I didn't have the tea in a while.. will have to get some and make it.
Have a great day!
You took some very nice photos, I loved the bokeh effect that some of them have, very good focus!
The combination of red and green in the photos makes everything look very beautiful!
I have never tasted those fruits
Thanks!
I am not sure how they taste on their own. The tea is a bit sour and fruity.
They are always a delight to see in the wild!
I remember seeing them on mom's roses once in a while. Usually she was very careful to always pluck them off, or deadhead them as they called it. Apparently she believed that removing them would give the rose bush more energy to produce more blooms.
I think the deadheading does help and saves the plants energy - nothing wasted to produce the seeds.
The wild ones just do their things :)
I appreciate your work and your post has been manually curated by Botanic team @oscurity on behalf of Amazing Nature Community. Keep up the good work!
Thank you!
thanks for sharing
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This reminds me of drinking Rosehip syrup as a child (that was a very long time ago) !LOL
Lovely photos !
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This tastes a little funny.
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Thank you!
Yeaaa the syrup is nice too :)