question about acorns and rose hips

[secretsmom]

I have been gathering rose hips and have an order of fresh acorns on the way for Secret. Can anyone tell me what they do with theirs to make them last the longest.

The rose hips-should they be kept in the refrigerator, should they be left out to dry or put in the freezer?

and the acorns-I know they can be kept in the freezer, but should they be left out to turn brown first or put them in the freezer right away?

thanks!!

[ShesASquirrelyGirl]

I feed dried rose hips to my chins and as long as sealed correctly they last months. So IMO I would dry them.
The acorns I would probably freeze first? Not sure..

[muffinsquirrel]

I put the rose hips in the freezer as I pick them. My squirrels don't want to have anything to do with the dried ones. I feed them straight out of the freezer - the squirrels seem to like them that way.

As for acorns, I pretty well do them the same way.....straight to the freezer. And it doesn't make any difference whether they are green or brown. I will warn you, though, that if you keep acorns sitting out at room temp after you gather them, you will find lots of tiny little worms in or around the container. These little worms won't hurt your squirrels - in fact, the squirrels seem to love them. (I have seen my flyers take a just-picked acorn, bite into it to get the worm, and then throw away the rest of the acorn!) If you freeze the acorns the worms stay inside and are no problem (just don't think about them when you feed!) As with the rose hips, I feed the acorns still frozen - kinda like 'squirrel ice cream'.

I've been doing rose hips and acorns this way for 6 or 7 years, and haven't had any problems.

muffinsquirrel

[secretsmom]

Great! thanks for the help, straight to the freezer for both then~!