Thursday, April 19, 2007

The Well-Known Flowering Shrubs


This one goes out to my sister. She keeps asking me to look up "rose-hips" in my OXFORD COMPANION TO FOOD, and I keep forgetting. Anyway, turns out it's the "fruit" of the rose. Perhaps this raises more questions than it answers! If this helps, the COMPANION refers to roses as "the well-known flowering shrubs." So I suppose "rose-hips" are the "fruit" of that "well-known flowering shrub." Also known as "rose-haw." Now, about rhubarb. It's a vegetable, but in 1947 everyone decided to call it a fruit instead. The stalk is the good part. In ancient times, the root was used for medicine. At some point, maybe in the 17th or 18th century, somebody said, "Hey, these stalks are pretty tasty." Hope this helps! (Pictured, the world's largest rosebush, or so says the "internet." It's in Tombstone, Arizona! Hey, I've been there! Maybe I'll "blog" about it one day. It's the first place I ever had chorizo. For that reason alone, I love you, Tombstone, Arizona! "Blogs" are awesome!)