Longer days are coming. We’re beginning to see snowdrops and crocuses pushing through the earth .In the not-too-distant future, we’ll see the return of abundance: orchard fruits, wild garlic, elderflower, and mugwort. But for now, much of the forest still lies dormant. Some helpful ingredients can still be foraged from the woods and meadows in winter. One such plant is the common rosehip, used by children as an itching powder, but also a versatile fruit that can be made into syrups, jellies, and tea, among other things. Rosehip is rich in vitamin C, known to reduce the length of colds. These berries have also been shown to help with heart health, and ease arthritis. Some say they can mend a broken heart. Where we are, a flurry of winter viruses are making the short days and long nights harder. Fern Freud – known as Foraged by Fern – has kindly shared a recipe with us for her rosehip fire cider – a potent immunity-boosting brew to help reduce the length and severity of colds and flu – and a tasty salad dressing or marinade. For this recipe, you’ll need to go outside and search the hedgerows and woods for rosehips and edible conifers.
Rosehip fire cider
Ingredients
1 red onion
3-5 garlic cloves
A large thumb of ginger
One lemon
One orange
1/2 cup of rosehips
Edible conifer (pine or fir)
Method
Roughly chop the rose hips, red onion, garlic cloves, and ginger.
Cut the lemon and orange into small chunks – keep the skin on.
Take the needles from the edible conifer off the woody stems until you have 1/2 cup needles.
Add everything to a 1-litre jar and top with good apple cider vinegar (it will take roughly 700ml).
Leave for 2-4 weeks.
Strain through a muslin cloth and squeeze the cloth to get all the liquid out! Pour into a jar or bottle and take 2 tbsp daily