Hips and Haws!

That's exactly what I was taught! Been a very weird year so far, so wet,so hot and now having started winter last week we are back into a pleasant autumn here!

The bushes around our way have been laden with hips, haws, sloes and blackberries. Yesterday, for the first time ever, I picked a bag of crab apples and have just made a batch of crab apple jelly with mint. Delicious and very satisfying.

Food for free - well, almost!

Dont know where my photo went!

I've noticed more berries and rose hips than usual. Hope it isn't a sign of a bad winter to come as here in the NE we've had a wet windy and cold summer - none of the heat experienced in the south. I have various health issues and feel the cold really badly. So even through last winter wasn't a severe one I still struggled with temperatures and had to have my central heating constantly blasting.
Crab Apple jelly sounds good old goat. I only once made it when my children were young but they wouldn't eat it as it wasn't red!

So, by the look of it, the extra berries etc seems to be quite widespread, Smithy if you've noticed it in the NE, and I have in the SW!

That sounds lovely, oldgoat I wonder if I can find some crab apples around here. I bought some mint today, but there's a type of wild mint you can substitute.
Rosehips were used in WW2 to make a syrup which was given to children for vitamin C. (You couldn't get citrus fruit in those days.) You could be paid (a small amount) for collecting them and handing them to the Health people. I think there's a recipe on the 'net. It was too sweet for me.

Delrosa, if I remember correctly TriciaF? Although I wasn't born until 1958, I think it was still around!

Also, the contents of rosehips made itching powder! (Allegedly)

We were played 3d per lb Tricia we did it through school.
I remember it very well.

We did too ann but collected them in jam jars and got 3d for each full jam jar.

I remember being given rose hip syrup as a child but I have no idea what for. I was born in September 1943.

I remember collecting rosehips and taking them into the school hall to be weighed and paid for, and that must have been in the early 1960s.

"I have no idea what for. "
It was to prevent various serious disabilities caused by the lack of some imported foods. During WW2 the UK were entirely dependent on foods produced in the country, as almost all imports were stopped.
The govt. worked out plans to keep the nation as healthy as possible, especially children.
Almost everyone was thin btw

I loved rose hip syrup as a child, poured over ice cream or drizzled on rice pudding. Yummy! It seems to be very difficult to get hold of now, which is a shame. I thought of making my own but would prefer to buy a small quantity first to make sure I still like it. Tastes change over 60-odd years.

My children all had Delrosa. I think it was discontinued because of its high sugar content. It was yummy though

'59 baby here so I had Delrosa as did my sister a '67 baby.
By the time I had my son in 82 it had been stopped as deemed bad for teeth.

My children had a powder rosehip or fennel to be mixed with water.
Both mine loved the fennel.
It was great for wind.

Do any GNets remember the drinks
They were in a tall cylinder tube container the fennel was green, the rosehip pink.
They were sold in the chemist.

I used to buy Delrosa at the baby clinic for all 5 of mine, through the 60s and early 70s. Can`t check the hawthorn , there isn`t any round here. When I was young, we loved eating the freshly opened hawthorn leaves, we called it bread and cheese, did anyone else do that?

Yes we did - but no idea why it was called bread and cheese.

In the 1950s we used to pick rosehips which our primary school sold, presumably, to Delrosa. If you were very lucky you were given a badge but there were never enough for everyone.
My friend finely chopped rosehips and cooked them with her crab apples which she says gave the jelly a lovely flavour and pink colour.
Might try that with my next batch.

They are also very prolific this year in East Suffolk.

I think they look so beautiful. Has anyone managed to dry them in any way as a winter indoor decoration?

Also, I'd like to try drying pampas for indoor display.

Oh yes! Bread & cheese. We used to do that until my mom said the leaves were poisonous . But she was a city kid, from Birmingham , so what could you expect?

seacliff I too would be interested in ways to dry or preserve them, would look lovely at "you know when"

With regard to pampas grass, a friend just used to cut them, then hang in the garage for a while, then use hairspray on them!

I dry lots of things. I hang bunches from the ceiling in the cool utility room. Seems to work. I agree, dried hips would look lovely I the ' not yet to be mentioned season '

Wish I had somewhere to hang things, although thinking about it, I appropriate a bit of space at work!

My boss has already said I can spray my champagne and cava corks in the barn, providing I protect the floor