Preserving Spring-only plants?

[ariusshadow]

Things like lilacs and roses, that will die when spring and summer begin to end, my rabbits will be devastated if I don't have these around during winter months. Is it okay to freeze some of them? Like roses? My mother told me that some of it will probably turn to a green mush in the freezer... So now I'm wondering how to preserve/defrost some of the more common wild diet, like dandelions and clover...

 

[Inle_Rabbitry]

I wouldn't advise it. Once plants have been "harvested" and cut, they quickly lose their nutrients, and some plants can even causedigestive problems once they start to ferment.

Rabbits in the wild do not naturally eat fresh greens during the winter as they are obviously not available. Instead, they rely upon more dry and fiber packed grasses at that time. This in turn provided them with what they need to sustain through the winter temperatures.

 

[ariusshadow]

Oh, okay. Well, on that note, I've seen a website that sells rose petals year-round, packaged in plastic containers... Any idea how effective or dangerous these may potentially be? I was thinking of purchasing some... But not if it may cause digestive problems... I'll see if I can come across the site I found...

Edit: Found it:
http://www.bunnybunchboutique.com/chins.html

Need to scroll down a bit.

 

[Inle_Rabbitry]

As long as they didn't have any pesticides or preservatives on them, they would be safe. However, nutrition wise, they wouldn't provide much benefit for your rabbit.

 

[ariusshadow]

I didn't expect them to. I feed roses to my male only, since he's the only one that likes them, and they're just a treat. Because he FLIPS OUT for them. He sees the bag and goes ballistic- from binkies to licking the bars. I don't really depend on them to be of nutritional value. So it wouldn't much matter, I guess, if there's no nutrients in them. So long as they taste like roses. He'd be devastated if winter came and the roses went away for months. But it's good to know they're okay for them. Thank you.

 

[Inle_Rabbitry]

No problem

 

[Hazel-Mom]

You can dry a lot of the herbs etc. if you grow them. I dry basil, mints, lemonbalm, agastache (aka licorice mint), chamomile, marigolds, oregano. Going to try a few more this summer
If you don't know how, you can google how to dry herbs. You can also dry certain flowers, but I haven't tried that yet. Though I did dry roses a few times. You can just pick them and hang upside down in a dry place.
I also buy dried roses and hibiscus flowers to mix in Hazel's winter "hey".

I've bought roses from this site: http://www.mountainroseherbs.com/ Hazel loves them The red roses are grown organically even!

 

[ariusshadow]

Awesome! Thanks for the tips. I don't know why I never thought to dry the herbs... I certainly know how it's done, as I've dried Yarrow and Lavender for other reasons. I'm sure my buns would love that.

Do you happen to know of a way to dry rose petals without the flowers? Hanging them upside down usually leads to the petals falling off. (From what I've experienced, anyway..) I'm curious if there's an easier way of doing it. Especially since, at the present moment, I only have petals. Because they're just easier to hand to the buns that way. I cut off the leaves and pull off the petals and just use it as a treat.

 

[Hazel-Mom]

I have never had problems with the petals falling off while drying. Once they are dry though, it takes very little for the petals to drop.
Not sure how to dry just petals, other than spreading them (single layer) on a screen and putting them in a warm, dry place, but out of direct sunlight. I've seen references to microwave drying, but I've never tried that, and I'm not sure how well it would work.
If you have a food dessicator, you could try using that.

 

[ariusshadow]

I'll have to look up microwaving... I never thought of that. o.o Thanks for the tips.