Reply To: Foraging 8: Roses

[M]

I was never a fan of roses, as I struggle with parfumes and synthetic fragrances and this is one of the strongest out there. however, this summer I relocated to southern Italy, and in our garden is a rose that has been with our family for more than 50 years. my grandma brought it with her when she changed home and she passed this year, so this rose became a way of thinking about her/ being with her and seeing the fruits of all she has left for us blooming. I am thus building a much more loving relationships to roses now and doing some research for this module was super fun! I am now gathering roses when they bloom and drying them upside down before collecting petals (and going through another drying round with kitchen paper). I would then like to infuse some olive or almond oil with the petals for skin preparations and such. However, I found some amazing things online that make me very curious to try out more things, such as fresh rose petals prepared with sugar in a mortar, or a tincture made with 15 drop of vitriol oil to help stomach and haemorrhages. However, I will definitely take some research time before ingesting any vitriol form. I really appreciated all the posts above, as I had never thought of simply placing the petals in salt and sugar but it sounds lovely, thank you guys!