Witches’ Dozen

Oregon is definitely rose country. They grow abundantly here, without a lot of extra fussing. All right, I imagine my roses would be more attractive and bloom more if I gave them a little more TLC, but they produce abundant blossoms all summer even with my . . . ah . . . relaxed gardening methods. The above photo is the perfect, luminous blossom on a little rose in my front yard. The color is so splendid!

Of course you can dry rose petals for winter teas, and you can make many things with rose hips if you have a variety that produces those big, red hips.

But my favorite way of tasting the sweet, summery delight of roses is to make rose petal honey.

My stepdaughter and I made rose petal honey early this August. We collected roses from all different rose bushes in our yard. Any rose petals will work, so long as they are fresh and fragrant. Don’t buy rose petals from a florist for this; not only are they less fresh and usually less fragrant, but the roses in the flower shop are heavily sprayed with chemical pesticides and fertilizers and heaven knows what else. And many of the roses found in flower shops are flown in from South America–hardly a sustainable practice. Your regular garden variety roses are the way to go.

My method is messy but simple: collect fresh rose petals and make sure they aren’t wet. Remove the petals from the blossom, make sure there aren’t a bunch of little bugs clinging on, and fill a very clean, very dry mason jar right to the top. Then pour over raw, local honey until the jar is full. That sounds simple enough, but you will have to use a clean, dry stainless steel knife or a chopstick or the clean handle of a wooden spoon to push the flowers around and get the honey all worked in. Cover it lightly and walk away for a while–have a cup of rose petal tea, perhaps. Come back an hour later or so and make sure the roses are still covered in honey. They’ll have floated to the top, and that’s all right so long as there isn’t a big pile of petals on top of the honey. Top off if necessary, cap, and place somewhere cool and out of direct sunlight.

The roses will end up all floating on top of your honey. You might want to peek at your honey frequently for the first few days to make sure all the roses are in the honey. What I did, since my rose petals kept floating up, was turn the jar upside down every few days (make sure your jar doesn’t leak!!!). The flavor of the roses did end up all through the honey.

Let them sit for about six weeks, then strain through cheesecloth. You WILL get sticky doing this. It can’t be avoided. Just enjoy it, remember that when you’re all finished you can lick your hands. Mmmmmm . . . .

Here are some suggestions for using this honey.

-Add to a cup of warm milk to help you relax before bed.

-Use rose honey as a substitute for the sugar in vanilla or tapioca pudding.

-Roses and chocolate. In a small saucepan over medium heat, warm a mug’s worth of milk (about a cup, possibly a bit more). While the milk is heating, place 1 level tablespoon of good quality cocoa powder and 1 level tablespoon (or a goopy full teaspoon, depending) in the bottom of a mug. When the milk is steaming hot, ladle a few tablespoons worth in to the bottom of the cup and stir in to the honey and cocoa until you have a smooth paste. Then add the rest of the milk slowly, stirring constantly to incorporate all the cocoa. Drink while it’s hot!