When life gives you roses------> make rose water!!

Ella  (24 days short of age 15) spent the day with me today.  She came over to pick strawberries and cherries but we stretched it out into much more.  After the cherry picking and eating we decided to make rose water.  The roses in my yard have been in full glory but this incessant 90+ degree weather will make their show a lot shorter.  Well when life gives you lemons you make lemonade but today the garden has given us roses---hundreds of them so Ella and I are making rose water.

Abraham Darby rose

Well we had plenty of roses.  Mine are organically fed and cared for and very fragrant

Rose water is great for your skin.  You can use it for a cleaner, toner or spritzer.  It helps hydrate, it's antibacterial and let's face it    it feels good and smell so divine.  You can also spritz it on your pillow before you go to bed and it may help you sleep better....and again it just smells fabulous!

Here's the recipe:

2 quarts of fresh fragrant rose petals
distilled water.

You'll need a stovetop pan
2 oz atomizer bottles

Start with the roses
My most fragrant are the David Austin roses but if you want some color (and we did) add some red roses.  They won't add to the fragrance but they will to the color.

fresh picked roses

Remove the petals from the stems - wash your hands first

rose petals

Place the petals in a stovetop pan and cover with distilled or spring water- no water with any chemicals like tap water.
Bring the water to a boil and then turn down to a simmer.
After simmering 5 minutes turn off the heat and let the "tea" brew.
Now is a good time to do something else while it cools.  Ella and I went out into the scorching heat and planted some flowers in pots.

Strain the tea into a bowl with a spout if you have one:

rose tea

When cool...we placed the above vessel into an ice bath mainly because we wanted a cold spritz
pour the rose water into 2 oz. glass atomizers.

into the glass jar

This batch made about a quart.  This was enough to fill 4 2 oz. atomizers and store the rest in the fridge for refill.

rose water

Ella made the labels and the project was complete.
I have used my rose water last night and again this morning already.  It feels so refreshing and again....smells amazing
I hope you try it.
Bonne Fragrance!

OK Ella did a little cherry tree picking and we did some eating too
I LOVED LOVED spending the day with this magical young lady I get to call my
Granddaughter
Thank you for all of your help today!

Ella - cherry picker

and the cherries