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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, 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?

To make the extract, I've "trialed and errored" the following method.

Gather hips when ripe, i.e., red. (We grow Rosa rugosa shrubs which produce small blossoms but large hips the size of small crab apples.)

Chill the hips to inactivate enzyme action that might destroy the vitamin content.

Remove stems and blossom ends. Wash. For each cup of hips use one-half cup boiling water. Cover pan and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and mush with fork or masher; let stand in a pottery utensil for 24 hours. Strain off extract, add two tablespoons lemon juice for each pint. Pour into plastic ice cube trays and freeze. As soon as they solidify, I remove them from spacetaking trays and put the cubes of nutrition into plastic bags. I add any amount of cubes to fruit drinks, soups, gelatin desserts, and sherbets.

—Joan Lindema
Hornell, NY

A Goodly Trio

If you have tons of leaves and live near an empty field, you might try my method of disposal: get permission to add some nutrients to your neighbor's field. It's quick and utilizes just your lawn tractor and plastic bags.

We mounted a discarded utility company wire reel. Then we added a few inexpensive hardware-store items. Now we have a great hose storage area.

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