Rose Water Making…….. June 2021

Rose water making

The scent of roses from the garden over the last few days was reminding me that if I wanted to try to make some rose water this year that the time was now.

Rose water is something that I love mostly as the scent of roses  is one of my favourites, especially the highly perfumed old fashioned shrub roses

Having come across a recipe about a year prior from a Moroccan recipe book for rose water and almond biscuits, the idea of using flower water in baking,was so new to me at the time- I loved the result, being able to taste the scent of roses!

I have come across a fun and easy method of making rose water using ice cubes

I followed the recipe from  https://www.alphafoodie.com/organic-rose-water/

I improvised when it came to the saucepan, using one of our own with a glass lid as I thought it would also be nice to see the process through the glass. I discovered later that there was a steam hole in the glass lid which I had to plug with a small piece of cotton wool to stop melting ice from dropping into the awaiting bowl – this worked!

The process was slow and needed to be watched all the time but the scent of roses was heavenly

After a few hours, adding more petals and ice, the end result was a small  bottle of pure distilled rose water- I was very pleased

I strained off the remaining rose petals in the pot and bottled the liquid – this rose water is not the same top quality as the steam distillation but still great to have

Toptips

Rose water making for home use

I gathered the rose petals on a very dry warm sunny day, removed the petals and spread them out on paper to let any creatures escape

This rosewater can be used in baking but also as a facial tonic-a little pick-me-up spray

Really lovely, and only required a small amount of rose petals

All of the roses came from our garden, we don’t use any chemical sprays- hence the raggedy look at times but non the less they produce beautifully scented flowers

The roses that I  use are old fashioned highly scented shrub roses like  the Apothecary rose- Rosa gallica,  Rosa rugosa or Rosa DeLa Haye, David  Austin roses are good too.