Date/Time
Date - 10/29/2014
10:00 am - 1:30 pm
Location
Plymouth Long Beach - Main Public Beach
It’s time to reap a another tasty harvest from Long Beach! Join us for a fun program picking, preparing and canning rose hip jam.
Rose hips are high in vitamin C.
Rose hips are the fruit of the Japanese rose, Rosa rugosa, a nonnative plant which was introduced because of its hardiness and ability to grow in poor soil. While it does stabilize the dunes and provide beauty, it doesn’t support native pollinators and disrupts the natural ecology of beaches. So, what to do about them? Eat them! Or, their fruits,* anyway. You will go home with at least one 8 oz. jar of jam.
Unlike the beach plums, which we made into jam last month, rose hips sweetness increases with first frosts, which cause sugars to concentrate. Thus, we have to wait until the end of October to harvest.
We will meet at the Long Beach parking lot at 1o a.m. and carpool out to the field station. We will finish around 1:30 or 2 p.m. Cost is $10. All materials provided. Bring your lunch and we can eat while the fruits cook. You might also like to bring an apron, and slippers or warm socks to wear in the field station.
*Remember that technically, the fruits of beach plums are called “drupes?” Well, rose hips are similar to “pomes” (like apples) except that they have multiple achenes. Want to learn more? Click this link for photos and examples of fruit types: http://www.horticulturebc.info/labreviews/pdfs/Fruit%20Types.pdf