Today I learned to stop and eat the roses.

I love roses. They are just classic. They smell nice. They look beautiful. They remind me of summer. My oldest daughter's middle name is Rose. (We gave our little one a floral middle name, after we adopted her. We'll probably have a whole garden by the time we're done having kids.)

Anyway, this is usually what roses do in my house:

Sit there and look purdy. Purely decor.
Until today.

Spoiler Alert - On Saturday I plan to learn how to make Turkish Delight. You know, the "sweetie" that Edmond betrayed his siblings for in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. When I was a little kid and read the book, I always wondered what it tasted like. So I plan to make it this weekend to appease my curiosity. One of the ingredients is rose water. I looked around quite a bit for rose water locally, and did not find it. Normally that sort of thing would have left me shrugging that maybe I'd find it someday and then be able to make it. But now that I am challenging myself to learn new things, I was just excited to have another new thing to learn. What is rose water? How do you make it? Off to learn, I went!

What is Rose Water?

Basically, it's water that's been infused with the smell and flavor of rose petals. Rose water is probably one of the oldest perfumes in the world. It's not like the heavy rosy perfumes or soaps that you're probably thinking of. It's much more delicate. Romans used roses in their baths and noticed the astringent qualities, and those are the purposes it's most known for here in the U.S. - as as a body mist or as a facial astringent.

However, rose water has also been a staple for cuisine in the Middle East for a very long time, in savory dishes such as mutton or sweet - as in Turkish delight or marzipan. When we lived in Japan I remember seeing rose petals and dandelion leaves in a salad at a fancy restaurant. And I've found an English recipe for rice pudding that uses rose water. But flowers just aren't really found in food here in The States like they are in other places of the world.

How Do I Make Rose Water?

There are different methods for different purposes. The method I chose was for culinary rose water, and the first task is finding suitable roses. If you are eyeballing your drooping Valentine's bouquet I suggest you forget that route. Most roses in such bouquets have floral preservatives and probably pesticides and wouldn't be suitable for eating. The best place to look would be your own rose bushes since you know what has and hasn't been used on them. But since it's winter here now, you can contact your local florist and ask them if they could get some organic roses. They have more contacts than you might. Unless you are a florist. Hello to all you florists out there! (Especially Jean!) I was able to score two roses locally that were pesticide-free. You can also ask about getting misfit roses with missing petals or broken stems for a discounted price.

My Wonky Rose

Step #1 - Remove the petals from the stem

The easiest way to do this is cup the rose in your hand at the base and pull them down to a right angle. It takes a lot less time than the loves-me/loves-me-not way of doing it. You will need to put the petals in a colander and rinse them in cool water. I did that after I measured:

You need one firmly-packed cup of petals (about two roses).

And two cups of distilled water.

Put your petals in a bowl.

Put your two cups of water on to boil.

You can go ahead and snack on a petal while you're waiting, if you want.
I'd suggest taking off the white part of the petal first, as it's somewhat bitter.

Waybums is a regular aphid.

Pour the boiling water over the petals and let it steep until the water is cool.

The petals will turn a different color as their pigment transfers to the rose water.

Ours turned almost purplish-pink.

Now, pour through a strainer.

You can squeeze the petals over the strainer for extra essence.

Now, funnel your rose water into a sterilized container.

I used this one because I like recycling and it seemed an appropriate match:

It will need to be refrigerated to stay fresh,

or you can freeze it into 1 tsp. cubes if you need it to last longer.

If you want, you can also use this culinary rose water as a body mist.
You could even use it as an air freshener.
Just put it in a spray bottle and spritz away.
Just remember to refrigerate it,
or to add 1 tbs. of rubbing alcohol as a preservative
if it's not going to be used for food.
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NOW, what to do with those blanched rose petals?

I hated the idea of throwing them out. During my research into rose water I found a scone recipe with shredded rose petals in it. But when I searched for it again, I couldn't find it for the life of me.

So, I just made one up!

Rose Petal Scones with

"Roseberry Razz" Icing

You know how when you cut onions your hands smell funny afterward?

Oh, the delight of dicing rose petals! :)

I'm the type that likes a recipe to follow, but since I'm eating flowers today and moldy cheese yesterday, I decided I might as well live a little on the wild side. I looked at about a dozen scone recipes so I could get the basic format and then I pieced together bits from each that I liked. Here's what I came up with:

5 cups flour (all-purpose)

2 tbsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

Two sticks of unsalted butter,

(still cold and it helps to cut them up a bit)

3/4 cups sugar

1 1/3 cup milk

1 cup shredded rose petals

2 tsp. almond extract
2 tsp. rose water
(You could add fresh raspberries or 1 tbs. of raspberry jelly if you like, too.)

The almond extract is kind of my signature ingredient. I LoVe almond extract. I put it in everything from hot cocoa to chocolate chip cookies. My husband thinks it has a very strong flavor and the second he walked in the door tonight he said something like,

"Went a little wild with the almond extract, did we?"

It was the one thing I remember seeing in the original rose scones recipe that I can't find. But, if you prefer you can use vanilla or raspberry or whatever flavoring you think would be good. I have to say it's pretty good with the almond extract, though. Adding it made sense to me since rose water and almond paste are co-ingredients in marzipan.

You mix together the flour, baking powder and salt and then cut in the butter with a pastry blender. (Or a fork. I'm just excited to have a pastry blender and enjoy getting to use it when the occasion comes up.) Then add the sugar, rose petals, milk, almond (or whatever) extract. Stir them a bit until it starts to form a dough. (If it's still crumbly add a little bit more milk until it's just starting to be doughy, but not sticky.) Turn out the dough on a floured surface and knead it a dozen times or so. There are two schools on scone-shapes. There are round, biscuit-like scones and there are wedges. I made wedges. If you want to make circles, just roll them out and use a biscuit cutter or upside down cup and cut them like biscuits. If you want to make wedges, divide the dough into four equal parts and make them into circles like so:

Now, put them on an ungreased cookie sheet and slice them like you would a pizza.

You can even use a pizza cutter, if you like.

Leave the slices together if you like moist edges,
or separate them a bit if you want them crispy.

Bake them at 425F for about 12-15 minutes until they are golden brown on the top.

For the "Roseberry Razz" Icing
(which my husband named)

4 1/4 cups powdered sugar

3 tbs. butter

1 tsp. vanilla

3-4 tbs. rose water

1 tbs. raspberry jelly (seedless)

Blend together until smooth and then spoon over scones.
(This is kind of an estimate since I didn't measure as I made it...)

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet...

And wrapped inside a lovely scone -  it is a tasty treat!

Ok, so I'll keep my day job. :)

This blog is really helping me to see things in new ways, to think outside my little "known" box and branch out into new places of creativity and resourcefulness. Man, I'm having fun. And thank you, readers for tagging along with me as I go...

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PS - I did learn how to make paper cranes today. Although, Waybums thought it was a flying dinosaur. I thought it looked sort of like a crane. Maybe one that had been gnawed on by an origami predator...

I've just learned this is a skill I'm going to have to practice.

~~~~~~~~~~

I'll Keep You Posted!

Today I learned about finding confidence and the art of flowers.

I think flowers are delightful. They’re bright and cheery. They smell beautiful. And in our culture they are a symbol of one person expressing something nice to another. What’s not to like about that? And today I was able to see the art of floral design first-hand.


The place of my study was Floral Designs by Jean, a quaint small-town flower shop owned by my best friend’s mom. Before her flower shop, she’d worked two factory jobs and was laid off from both. When she had the opportunity to go back to school for training, she took floral design and business classes. She explained that there were classes that covered specific aspects of floral design – bouquets, weddings, funerals, corsages, etc. that she had to learn before she could get her certification.


The most interesting thing I learned was that there is a LoT of prep work that goes into the flowers before they are all purdy and ready for us to buy. They arrive at the flower shop in a box, from exotic places like Columbia and California. It’s somewhat amazing to think that somewhere in the world there are sprawling fields of flowers that are destined to grace our wintry domain. As soon as she receives the flowers, she sets to work to condition them. She puts a special flower preservative with the water in the floral buckets and sets them to soak. (It’s the same type of stuff you get in those little square packets that come with your bouquets.) She explained that sometimes flowers will come in tightly closed, and in those instances she puts them in warm water. So, take note, if you receive flowers that have shy blossoms, putting them in warm water will help them bloom.


The next step she takes is stripping the flower stems of their leaves. She explained that only the stems should be under water. Leaves that are under the water line will start to decay and breed bacteria that will shorten the life of your blooms and discolor the water. And usually make it smell funky. This was sort of an “Aha!” moment for me because my fresh garden flowers usually had that problem, and now I know why.

With the roses, she said it’s good for the flowers to keep their leaves, above the water line. The thorns, however, had to go. Those things are wicked! It’s not just for your sake, either. Can you imagine reaching your hand into a bucket of rose fangs all day? Yeouch!

When I usually get a bunch of roses, I run water over them as I cut their stems. But at the shop, she cuts the flowers in a bowl of water. Snip- snip-snip. What a handy idea! You save on water, time and moola on your water bill. She lets the flowers sit to condition awhile at room temperature before putting them in her cooler.

I watched her assemble a pretty springy bouquet…

…fix up some standard Valentine’s Day bouquets for the cooler…

…prepare a plant for someone in the hospital…

…and turn a broken-off rosebud…

…into something really lovely.

I learned a lot about flowers today. (I also realized that it’s nice to have grown-up conversation over salmon spread and crackers.) It was great to see someone who is skilled in their trade at work. A couple of weeks back I helped take down the Christmas decorations at our church, and I was tasked with arranging some silk flowers in the entry. I'd jab a few flowers here and poke a few fillers there, but I was never really sure about what I was doing. So I took notice today when Jean was assembling the flowers and fillers. She'd narrow her eyes, spin the bouquet around and poke what needed to be poked where it needed to be poked. After 18 years of assembling bouquets, she knows what they're supposed to look like. She has a vision in her mind of what it's supposed to be and then she just follows that vision. Now there's a thought worth exploring.

Confidence and vision go hand in hand. If you know where you're going, you can take surer steps to get there.

What a great day of learning. And fun! So, for taking the time to teach me today’s lesson, Jean at Floral Designs should get a blue ribbon…

…I’m sure there’s a dozen shades of blue in there. :)

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A lot more lessons to come…
…I’ll keep you posted.