The year has certainly turned to its darker months but through this darkness rosehips are practically glowing with their bright red berries. To me, these berries are a reminder of just how good it feels when you tune in with nature. As a country girl most of my life I’d like to think I have been relatively consistent in this, but reflecting on phases of city living I realise that the more you take time to connect, learn and nurture our relationship with the natural world, the better life can be! Knowing what the seasons bring us is the best way to curb some seasonal sadness and align with the rhythms of the world around us. As a food oriented person learning about nature comes much easier with a tasty snack. The snack doesn’t necessarily have to be for me, I am quite happy learning about the critical role of some plants for bees, birds or even little mammals. The past month I have seen an explosion of Ivy Bees over every bit of ivy I see. Have you seen them? What is interesting is they are relatively new residents in England but now, across the South of this country in particular, they are everywhere! Some expect there has been a decline in our wasps who used to feed heavily on ivy, in turn, providing its pollination. This is certainly a sad story but the impact of this may be lessened by the presence of the Ivy Bees. Often newcomers, both passively or more actively introduced to this country, are met with reservations at best. This is valid, as the already delicate natural balance of our local or national ecosystems are struggling but in the case of Ivy bees it seems they might be filling a niche. The wonderful buzz they bring to our autumn scenes are likely providing crucial pollination for our ivy plants which are often in smaller ways critical food resources for other wildlife through early winter. An often unpopular plant but one of my favourites and one I encourage you to preserve where possible for this very reason! If you are wondering how to spot an Ivy Bee I recommend looking for bees that look almost honeybee-like but a bit slighter in their body, sharper abdomen and consistent yellow and brown bands that look similar the whole way down their abdomen. Honeybees tend to be more barrel shaped and either mostly brown or pale half of their abdomen close to their ‘waist’.
Back to rosehips. Social conditioning based on rightfully cautious concerns meant that growing up I always thought that all red berries, including rosehips and hawthorn, were poisonous. While berries such as the almost luminescent night shades found towards the base of hedgerows definitely should be avoided, there’s many great ways to use rosehips and hawthorn. The key with both is to avoid the seeds, in the case of rosehips this is an especially delicate process as the seeds have irritating hairs on them which we do not want to ingest. That said one of my favourite pastimes at the moment is walking along a hedge and giving the berries a little squeeze - when soft and squishy you know they are ready, and in picking one off and giving an extra squeeze on the fleshy the fruitiest most wonderful miniature dose of goodness will squirt out. Take it a step further and you can make syrup or even jam - just be sure to research and follow the guidance on how to make this. Hawthorn I find slightly less exciting in terms of flavour but simultaneously less nerve wracking when avoiding the seeds - less scary hairs to contend with - an evening is well spent sat in front of the TV or chatting with family while I squeeze out the seeds and save as much flesh as possible to make hawthorn ketchup. In my mind these little berries can be used a bit like green tomatoes but if you want to avoid the long de-pipping process, syrups and other such infusions can be made with them too.