I’ve had rosehips on my mind and in my hands for the last week. Also known as beach roses, they grow wild and slightly prickly all over the Northeastern shoreline, which is where I encountered them early last week. A friend with a beautiful spot at the start of Cape Cod invited several of us to fill her three empty bedrooms after the weekend inhabitants cleared out. Just back from a week away, I did not necessarily need a break from my every day, but I said yes to what turned out to be an utterly delicious couple of days.
We talked deeply and honestly. We cooked and ate for and with each other. We drank water, and cold white wine, and coffee, and tea, and an incredibly delicious spritz that tastes like a summer excursion to Corsica which is where one of us discovered it. We laughed, a lot. We played tennis, did yoga, and swam in the ocean. Crowding the side of the sand-strewn road that took us from one swimming spot to the next were loads and loads of beach rose bushes, their flowers giving way to rosehips, the bursting with vitamin C fruit that follows the flower. “Let’s get picking, friends!” I enjoined, visions of a late summer seasonal shrub dancing in my head.
With discretion and moderation, we pinched and plucked the deep orange, turning to red fruit.
I was thrilled with the harvest and its potential uses, and also completely new to rosehips, which, turns out, peak in their sweetness and flavor in autumn, after the first frost concentrates their sugars. Initially disappointed and bothered by my impatience, I then started to think about how great it is that the end of summer, which we can tend to think of as a time of loss –of time, sunshine, freedom, fruit, and flowers – is in some cases a breeding ground for abundance that happens later. I began to celebrate the under-ripe rosehip as a reminder to enjoy and celebrate all that is at the moment delicious, and anticipate what is ripening and will peak after the first frost. And, for those who are curious, you can make a delicious peach rosehip switchel with August rosehips…
xo Jill