Use caution with the celery family, including water hemlock and poison hemlock, as these plants are not edible and could be mistaken for cow parsnip. These poisonous plants are more slender with smaller flowers and finely divided leaves. Rose hips are well known for their high vitamin C content. Rose hips ripen in late summer, but often remain on the bushes long after ripening. They could also be gathered frozen from the bushes in mid-winter.
People make rose hip tea, jellies and even wine.
It has a spicy, hot quality that makes it ideal for flavouring stews and soups. Yarrow is a very useful medicinal plant. It stops the bleeding from wounds and cuts, it is used as a poultice on burns and open sores. Yarrow can also cure fevers and colds, and alleviate toothaches. The leaves are crushed, either by chewing them or by mashing them in water and then wrapped around the wound.