If you plan on planting them in the next few months, I would shell them, remove them from the hips, and clean them well with something like Comet or Ajax to remove the remaining flesh and any bacteria and fungi. I take a small wire strainer, mix up a paste of the cleanser then, using my finger, I rub them around in the cleanser paste in the strainer as the wire sits in the bottom of a small bowl or on a plate. You can rinse the paste off under the faucet and let them air dry on a paper towel. Dampen a paper towel, I mean DAMP, not drippy, fold it, place the seeds on it in a zip lock bag, press out the excess air, label the bag and put it in your refrigerator. You may have a few germinate in the bag. Those you may plant as they sprout. Once you're ready, carefully remove them from the baggie and plant as usual. You can find good instructions several places, but the Rose Hybridizers Association has several articles and threads about stratifying (holding seeds in both cold and warm storage) at the link below. Kim Here is a link that might be useful: Rose Hybridizers Association

Since you asked for views, I will say for the hundredth time how much I love my Bosch induction top, and it was not expensive. My kitchen designer pal says she is installing almost no gas ranges and that gas is over, from a design and utilitarian perspective, or will be in another 5 years as the US trails the EU. Young people want a sleek, clean look, and they demand energy efficiency. I can highly recommend Bosch dishwashers but racks vary so look them over. Decide, too, if you want that upper third rack. I liked my old Bosch's racks better but no disputing the quiet cleaning power of a Bosch. We went with panel ready, so there's another decision for you. It adds weight to the door but I love the look. Bosch ovens are excellent, too, and doubles are fab if your kitchen is large. I did not have room as I use a warming drawer a lot and my kitchen is small by GW standards. Too small for 2 large ovens + drawer. I was warned here to think carefully whether I really needed two, and to consider a Breville as backup, and boy has that worked well for me. (I roast a lot but rarely bake.) Our oven and WD are Electrolux Wave Touch - much beloved here -- and they are awesome. The WD will slow cook wonderfully. No comparison to my old KitchenAid I thought I wanted the micro drawer for its looks but that required me to give up my cat food prep space. (Nooo!) So we stacked ours like gooster ( except lift up) and I love it. Here is a pic. But we use the micro once per day on average so where it was stationed didn't matter to us. YMMV. This does give flexibility in size and brand you can use since, as has already been pointed out here, micros fail alarmingly. Still, if you have space, or if your kids will be using the micro, go for the drawer, or are least something lower. Fridge? Good luck. I hate mine. Electrolux. Everyone seems to hate their fridge. We went with a basic because all my friends with SZ spend their days waiting on the repairman. Seriously. My appliance guy, trustworthy, says get Liebherr. I don't know. Trust the folks here to guide you -- and study AJMadison. Good luck!

This is interesting: RUMFORD BAKING POWDER - Double Acting Premium Rumford® Baking Powder is Certified KosherParve, Certified Kosher and also Aluminum Free - which ensures against bitter after-taste in recipes or finished baked goods...! Premium RUMFORD BAKING POWDER - Double Acting 10 oz. Resealable CanisterHistory of Rumford Baking Powder: In 1859, Eben Norton Horsford (1818-1893), a co-founder of The Rumford Company, formulated and patented Rumford Baking Powder, the first calcium phosphate baking powder. The Rumford brand name comes from Count Rumford (né Benjamin Thompson of Woburn, Massachusetts), a gifted inventor and scientist. Hulman & Co. acquired the Rumford brand when it purchased the Rumford Chemical Works of East Providence, RI in 1950. Clabber Girl Corporation, which began as a wholesale distributor of general merchandise, takes its name from the most renowned member of the family, Clabber Girl Baking Powder. You might be surprised to know that several other trusted, long-lived brand names comprise the Clabber Girl family of brands. For much of the previous century, Clabber Girl Corporation operated as a collection of separate companies representing the various brands: The Clabber Girl Baking Powder Co., The Rumford Baking Powder Co., and The KC Baking Powder Co. In 2000, the company was reorganized and renamed Clabber Girl Corporation. The Clabber Girl brand name has recently been extended to other quality products in the baking aisle. Rumford Baking Powder is one of the three leading baking powders in the United States today. Years of testing resulted in a precise formulation to ensure that your baked goods are consistent in quality and uniformity, batch after batch for any family dinner or party gathering. Baking with Rumford Baking Powder: As an all-phosphate baking powder, Rumford Baking Powder does not contain any aluminum. This property makes it somewhat faster acting than typical double-acting baking powders. You'll still see a boost of leavening in the oven, but most of the reaction occurs in the mixing bowl. While this makes a more delicate crumb structure in the finished product, do not dawdle in the baking area. You've got to work quickly for best results...! When using Rumford Baking Powder, mix all your dry ingredients together, then add your wet ingredients at the end. Don't stir your batter more than necessary after adding the water. Two-thirds of Rumford's reaction takes place in your mixing bowl. The other 1/3 of Rumford's reaction takes place in the oven. Further mixing will have a tendency to stir out some of the forming carbon dioxide bubbles created between the baking powder and the water in your batter. So, without spending more time than necessary, stir the batter until smooth, put it into the pan and bake it immediately. Premium RUMFORD® Baking PowderParve, Certified Kosher is a source of calcium in the diet. Rumford Baking Powder is certified Kosher and is also perfect for vegetarians, as it contains NO MEAT. Rumford may be used in the exact quantities called for in your favorite recipes and is an all phosphate baking powder which is your assurance against after-taste and other harmful ingredients. Rumford Baking Powder will improve the crumb and texture of all chemically leavened foods: cakes, cookies, biscuits, muffins, and more ...!!!

Interesting reading. For ME that is! I learned something from it. ------------------------------------- Early in our cooking-baking life, we learned firsthand the enormous difference between making chocolate chip cookies with butter that is essentially melted, with room-temperature butter, and with butter at refrigerator temperature. The temperature of the ingredients has a lot to do with how the cookies turn out. If you put a warm, melty dough into the oven, your cookies will spread before they begin to set up. Too often they'll run into one another, becoming a single crisp, crunchy mess on your cookie sheet. The cooler the dough when it goes into the oven, the less it will spread. Another reason that cookie dough is refrigerated is that it gives the gluten time to relax. You don't want to mix a cookie dough containing wheat flour any more than absolutely necessary, as the more you mix it, the more gluten develops, and the more rubbery your cookies will be. Letting the dough rest in the refrigerator for at least half an hour does wonders for relaxing the gluten and letting you produce cookies that are soft or crunchy (depending on your preference), but not tough and rubbery. Finally, letting the dough rest in the refrigerator also gives the flour more time to absorb the liquid more fully. This allows the dough to become drier and firmer, which produces a better consistency in the finished cookie and also better taste. Even Ruth Wakefield, creator of the Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie, said she chilled the dough overnight. A writer for The New York Times recently conducted an experiment with a batch of chocolate chip cookie dough, where he baked a portion after chilling the dough for 12 hours, for 24 hours, and for 36 hours. The 12-hour cookies were fine; at 24 hours "things started getting interesting," with more even browning and better flavor; at 36 hours, the cookies browned still more evenly, and had "an even richer, more sophisticated taste, with stronger toffee hints and a definite brown sugar presence." In an informal taste test among his colleagues, the 36-hour cookies won conclusively. We have been speaking mostly of chocolate chip cookies � the dough of which we generally can't muster the fortitude to store in the refrigerator for even a few hours � but the rules can be applied to nearly any cookie.