Carla and I Have a Saucy Day!

I couldn't resist this rainbow.  Taken from our mailboxes.

Carla has been spending the weekend with us and on Saturday we decided to walk over to the side hill above the pond and see if we could see any ripe raspberries.  We took along a couple little buckets "just in case".  It looked like we needed to wait about a week or have looked sooner before the birds found the first ripe ones.  We got maybe a dozen or so raspberries is all.

Carla picking berries down the hill.

More berry picking.

Carla observed that there sure were a lot of rose hips and wondered what she could do with them if she picked a bunch.  We decided we could check out the internet or else make rose hip tea so we picked and picked!  Along the way we discovered there were also choke cherries to be picked so we picked some of those too, before the birds got them.  Carla then decided they had a whole bunch up in their yard in Casper so she could add those to what we picked to make some jelly or syrup!

Meanwhile I had picked a huge batch of crab apples down at the VQ hotel in Denver and brought them up to make another batch of jelly (I made some jelly last weekend along with some crab apple butter--I will do some recipes and pics on that event next blog).  I also had bought a new strainer to strain seeds and skins from the leftover crab apple pulp easier and in less time.

I got my crab apple juice going and Carla found all kinds of interesting recipes for rose hips on the internet.  She decided on making some rose hip sauce.  She added some surprise ingredients to it and it turned out very delicious!  She was so excited that she went out and picked a bunch more rose hips.  When she came in she decided to make some rhubarb sauce with some of my frozen rhubarb.  I had made a big batch of  crab apple butter while Carla was outside.  Here are some pictures of Carla and her rose hip sauce.

Pretty rose hips.

Some are harder to pick than others.

Carla's bucket of rose hips.

Snipping off the blossom end.

Cooking and mashing the rose hips.

Pushing the pulp through the strainer.

Carla discovers the seeds feel like they are exfoliating her hands!

Rose hip pulp waiting to be seasoned and cooked down in the crockpot.

Carla adds her secret ingredient!

Honey sweetens the pot!

Carla is going home with a jar of rose hip sauce, a couple jars of rhubarb sauce, a jar of crab apple butter, a jar of crab apple jelly, a big bag of crab apples, a bucket full of rose hips, and a small bucket of choke cherries!  I have 2 ice cream buckets full of crab apple juice in the freezer ready to  make jelly or syrup, 6 pints of crab apple butter, 6 pints of crab apple jelly and a jelly bag of crab apple pulp ready to make crab apple sauce.  Not bad for a day's work!