Rose hips can easily be made into a vitamin C rich tasty spread. I make this recipe with dates and apples to sweeten the rose hips. It is best to cook rose hips even though heat breaks down vitamin C. There is also an enzyme in rose hips that also breaks down vitamin C very quickly which is neutralized by heat. Therefore it is important to cook the rosehips long enough but not too long!

I like this method because it can take a really long time to clean rose hips individually and remove the hairs and seeds from them. Simmering them and then straining them through a moulie or sieve helps this process to go faster.

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Apple sauce! Everyone knows how to make it, I have found a way to do it with minimum processing and I love to add lots of spices to my apple sauce. This is great for Almond Pancakes or for Apple Sauce Souffle.

• 5 lb organic apples
• water to cover the bottom of the pan
• vanilla pod
• 1 inch ginger root, sliced
• 1 stick cinnamon bark
• 4-5 cloves, whole
• 4-5 cardamom pods, whole
• 4 black peppercorns
• 2 handfuls of pitted dates

Method: Cut the apples into quarters and core them. Add water to cover the bottom of the pan and the spices and vanilla pod. Allow to simmer covered until the apples are very soft (I let mine simmer on low for a few hours, the smell of apples cooking lowers blood pressure and smells fantastic). When the apples are nearly ready add the dates and cook until soft.

Let the apples cool and then peel the skin from the apples and remove all of the whole spices. Mash the apples with a potato masher or moulie. This combination of spices gives the apple sauce a chai flavor.

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A very simple light and fluffy dish.

• 1 c home-made apple sauce
• 2 egg whites
• 1/4 c honey

Method: Add honey to apple sauce, or if it is sweet enough leave it out. Beat egg whites until stiff and dry. Fold into apple sauce.

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Charoset A traditional Passover relish.

Makes about 4-5 cups

This is an ancient, wise and delicious food that every age group loves:

• ½ c dried cranberries or cherries, chopped
• ½ c dried apricots, chopped
• ½ c raisins
• ½ c dates, chopped
• 2/3 c mixed nuts, chopped
• 2 large red apples unpeeled, cored, and grated
• 1 large green apple, unpeeled, cored, and grated
• 1c organic grape juice
• ½ t almond extract
• 1 ½ t. ground cinnamon
• 1 pod vanilla bean, scraped (optional)

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Originally published in Healthy Options, November 2003, New Zealand

I know a young fellow who eats 6-8 apples a day. As a child he was insulted when his teacher told him that apples could not be his staple diet.

It is uncertain where the first wild apple was cultivated to eventually produce the sweet and fleshy apple of today. From that small, sour, seed filled apple we now have more than 5,000 named apple varieties. Apples have been eaten in many ways, the most popular being raw. In Shakespeare’s day people would eat baked or stewed apples for dessert with a small dish of caraway seeds.

The apple has had an important role in myth, health and love for thousands of years. A love potion from Germany consisted of soaking an apple in the desired ladies’ perspiration. Once the amorous young man devoured the apple all his deepest fantasies would be fulfilled. The Greeks considered the apple capable of healing all ailments and American folk medicine credits them with being therapeutically effective in neutralizing the bodies excess acids and being very helpful for digestion.

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