Have you ever found yourself using useful knowledge from your childhood today?

It could be any type of useful knowledge - mathematics, travel, homesteading, navigation, playing a game, magic trick, etc.

For me, recently, it was while foraging.

Living in cities for the past 14 years, I’ve never found myself in a situation where I was in the wild and there was something edible growing that I could have picked. I’m sure there were such occasions on our day-to-day or in our travels, but when food is abundant and you’re living a fast-paced metropolitan lifestyle, your brain doesn’t automatically think to pick a berry of a bush and put it in your mouth.

“I’m not starving, I’m not a savage,” I thought.

Until we found ourselves quitting our jobs abroad and moving to the forest in Montana, my curiosity about nature and everything that pertains to it would start to blossom.

I’m slowly becoming a birder, a homesteader, a hiker, a forest bather, and a star bather as well. It’s true, old dog can learn new tricks :)

One of the ways I identified these wild berries was by taking a photo, then using Samsung’s native “Find More Info” feature I got my first identification.

Then I googled Rosehips and checked out what berries and leaves should look like. It also told me that it was an edible plant and that I could use it in a variety of ways, including making tea.

Being a big tea lover, I decided to do just that.

But while foraging these Rosehip berries, I broke one of the Golden Rules of Foraging, which I later learned.

GOLDEN RULES OF FORAGING

1. Don’t eat what you can’t 100% identify.

2. Always leave 2/3 of the plant for animals to eat and for the ecosystem’s health.

I felt pretty confident on my identification, but I honestly picked a lot of the berries.

The excitement was in the air and any old thoughts of savages foraging for food in the wild quickly disappeared. Feeling like a kid again, frolicking through the forest in search of more berries to pick, I think I’m going to like living in non-metropolitan Montana after all.

Rosehips can be big or small, when ripe orange or red (avoid green ones that are difficult to detach).

The bushes are prickly, so be careful or use gloves/sheers.

As it turns out, Rosehips grow in place of the flowers, so don’t cut all the flowers to grow more berries.

Also note that Rosehips can be made into a tea from the intact berry, or you can split it open, clean the inside hairs (which can be irritable to the throat or stomach), and do what I did.

I got rid of the black hairs that grow on one end, simply by pinching them off with my fingernails.

Wanting to dry them out completely, I cut each one in half, saving the seeds and scraping the tiny hairs out with my fingernails.

It was laborious, but I like doing things with my hands.

I saved the seeds to plant Rosehips near our garden next spring. Stay tuned for the results.

Then came the drying part, which was super easy.

I placed the halved Rosehips on a metal rack outside to be dried by the sunshine (why use electricity if you don’t have to). Each day, checking the progress, making sure they were becoming hard and very dry.

After a couple of days, they were nice and dry, so I brought them inside.

Understanding that most recipes call for one or two teaspoons of Rosehips for a cup of tea, I decided to run them through a blender.

What started off as a “pretty decent amount” turned into two 4-oz mason jars of Rosehip Powder.

Maybe an hour of manual work between the foraging, cutting, scooping, laying, blending and a couple of days of drying in the sun yielded a small amount of tea, maybe 10 cups worth.

What does it taste like?

That’s the best part, because the taste is what is going to keep me going back to foraging Rosehips.

It tastes sweet and sour at the same time — a flavor I love!

Reading more about Rosehips, it turns out that the longer they stay on the vine, the sweeter they’ll get. This is a great tip for our garden next year!

Also, apparently, if the plant is exposed to frost, before harvesting, the berries will also taste sweeter and more flavorful.

what are other uses of rosehips?

FYI: Information from the Internet, not verified, just letting you know what is out there, do your own research when putting things in your body

• Rosehips are considered highly medicinal thanks to a potent combination of vitamin C and antioxidants

• Rosehips are perfect to use in homemade syrup or you can infuse them into honey, oil, vinegar, or even alcohol to utilize their medicinal benefits to treat coughs and colds.

• Rosehip seed oil is a gentle and soothing moisturizer for dry skin.

• Rose hip tea may help reduce inflammation, soothe aches and pains, and treat sore throats

• Rose hips contain polyphenols and anthocyanins, which may help ease joint inflammation and prevent joint damage.

• Rose hips may be useful as a systemic therapy for hyperpigmentation.

• Rosehip oil may help regulate blood glucose levels, which may reduce the risk of diabetes.

• Rose hips may help strengthen the kidneys and treat kidney disorders.

• Rose hips may help increase metabolism and decrease the concentration of toxins in the liver.

• Rosehip extract may have anti-obesity effects, including decreasing body weight gain and lowering abdominal fat.