North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Jenny Ruth Yasi" <voices@maine.rr.com>]

Thanks for the mulberry encouragement!  Much appreciated! I can't wait to 
have mulberries.

We have lots of rosa rugosas here, white, pink, and so double pinks, with 
thick juicy flesh and a central core that is just tons of seeds. We are on 
the coast of Maine so these are the naturalized roses that grow in rocks and 
sand all along the rocky ledge seashore ( they love seaweed), and the ones I 
have in my garden are growing in a thin clay on top of shale rock. They are 
so tough. Nothing bothers them. I have other roses, which all need way too 
much pampering (and I am tired of pampering them) but the rosa rugosas 
aren't even much bothered by Japanese beetles, they don't get any kind of 
mold or funk. Some years they get wormy though, so maybe hanging tanglefoot 
balls, as with apples, is a good idea for cultivating rosehips?

Processing is the problem. Someone needs to come up with a tool to remove 
the seeds and save the outer pulp/fruit, but I just remove the hairy part 
with my fingers, pull apart and simmer the whole (seeds and all) very very 
slowly, on very low heat, and very gently stir to separate  the seeds, which 
together with any worms float, and skim them off,  and/or strain.  It makes 
an amazing tea or syrup or cider, depending on how much water/hips you use.

Yasi