Farming Advice: Rose Hips for Vitamin C, Instant Doghouse and Parenting Tips

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PHOTO: MOTHER EARTH NEWS STAFF
An inexpensive and easy-to-make doghouse can be created very quickly by using an old 50-gallon barrel.

MOTHER EARTH NEWS readers share their farming advice, fun tips and country folklore, including freezing cooked rose hips for vitamin C then freeze them, an instant doghouse made out of a 50 gallon barrel and parenting tips using soap bars and a homemade clay recipe.

“C”-ing Better This Winter

Instead of buying those ridiculously expensive vitamin C cough drops, try a dose of better and cheaper C by making rose hips drops in the freezer. There are many ways of preserving the goodness of rose hips for vitamin C, but after years of trial and waste I find the ice cube method the easiest and least wasteful.

When I first became aware of the nutritional value of rose hips, I started making jelly. This was fine but there always seemed to be a dab or two that spoiled in the jelly jar and had to be discarded. Next I graduated to making plain puree and tried adding it to foods such as soups and sauces. Sometimes it altered the flavor of the basic dish just enough to draw complaints from more discriminating members of the family. Then, too, often a small portion of the jar contents was overlooked and discarded. I was raised on the axiom “waste not, want not,” and this excess bothered me.

Then inspiration struck–why not a frozen concentrate of rose hip extract?

  • Published on Dec 1, 1996
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