Wild Rose Petal Harvesting
A Plant Matter Pluck And Dry Under The Sunny Skies!
In our chunk of North Idaho woods there are no shortage of wild Nootka rose plants lurking about. Rosa Nutkana bushes are present in abundance around the perimeter of my home, and I have been keeping an eye on their developing blooms this spring, for I wanted to pick a pile of petals and dry them for a potential spice mix recipe that has been percolating in my grey matter regions.
Between the arrival of our new puppies, visiting and departing family members, a car fender crunching, 4-H animal working, and all manner of life detritus, I actually harvested and dried my rose petals this past Monday. What was that, like five days ago? Ah well, at least I am getting to my word weaving of the rose harvest in the same week that the activity occurred, that has to count for something!
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So, this past Monday morning I woke up and rolled into my holey jeans and Marines Do It Best t-shirt that has been passed down from my husband's uncle to son then to me (YAY). The day before I had checked the stage of bloom status of the rose blooms, as I like to pick my flowers for drying right when they open from the bud stage, and I knew that Monday morning was going to be rose petal harvest go time!
It's also important to note that I always pick any fragrant herb or flower before about 10AM in the morning. Why do I do this? Well, as the temperature rises so does the fragrance and oils of the plant evaporate into the air a bit, so if you harvest first thing in the morning you will gather plant material that has more of its essence within it. At least that's what my herbalist mentor guru lady told me when I was a youngin just learning about plants.
My maximum plant harvest awesomeness time management skills were just dandy Monday, as I was out at the rosebushes by 7ish. Well, a certain dog beat me to the roses by a hair, or I should say a log. It was a lovely sun-filled morning, birds were singing, and the fragrance of blooming roses were on the air. I have a really big Nootka rose bush by our sauna, and I was totally going to start my petal harvest at that location. My mom's dog really wanted to make the moment special and ran up and dropped a post digested loaf of used to be kibble right underneath the rose bush. I've heard of putting lipstick on a pig, so I guess rose scented poo could be a thing too. Dern canine.
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A little while later I had quite a few petals in my basket. I also had an assortment of pollinator friends hitching a ride on my yellow and red shirt clad form. Good thing I don't mind insects cause I had no shortage of beetles, bumbles, and honey bees crawling around on me!
I don't wash my rose petals before I dry them as that tends to turn them brown when they dry. It had also just rained a bunch the previous day, so I wasn't too worried about stuff being on the petals anyway, and to be honest, I don't mind a bit of soil and dust here and there.
Soon I had five trays of rose petals spread out in single layers in my super inexpensive dehydrator. I plugged ol Dehy in and proceeded to watch my mellow and overall demeanor grow very chill and serene as the house filled with the scent of drying wild rose petals.
And here is the end result! Well, not all of the end result, I just plunked some of the delicately scented petals of old fashioned scented excellence into a bowl and took a super fancy, non-technical photo of my handiwork to show you all. I have an idea for a seasoning that combines some plant and herb elements that grow around the farm into a seasoning mix that just might taste good. Or it could make a donkey choke, you never know with experiments, but in all honesty that's why I love them, you just never know what is going to result!
Hope you all have a rose-colored glasses tinted kind of Saturday!!!
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The dog loaf kind of takes the bloom off the old rose if you catch my drift with this pun laden discombobulated sentence lol.
Well I must admit you are the thugiest librarian I know of ;)
I have no doubt the house smelled amazing!
Thug petal life forever, Yo!
That sentence was received with bloomin clarity! 😆
Heh, I kind of want to list thug librarian as one of my skills on my resume. I mean, I took my son to a big Nerf gun battle the other day and a bunch of the kids screamed when they saw me, that has to mean something;)
Preach it petal pal, word!
Interested to see what spice mix you come up with that has rose petals in it. I'm sure you'll share. 🙂
LOL! You know me pretty well at this point;) I'm hoping that mix comes together and tastes pretty nice, I have an entire freezer full of meat we raised to test it on!
Can anyone say rose macarons .... so clever, Kat. Or maybe a rose chocolate cake ... you have my creative cooking juices flowing. I bet your house smelled just divine. You will have to post when you start cooking. A lovely set of photogs to go with the blog too. I'd put that spice mix in a glass container and put it on show. I bet it would look beautiful:)
I am not going to mention the poo ... lol:):):)
Ooh, rose macarons sound lovely:) The house did smell a lot better than the outdoors did when I picked those petals if ya know what I am saying, lol, lol!
My nephew just surprised me with a really nice camera, I should be getting it this week! Can't wait to start start snapping pics a plenty with a nice piece of equipment, I'll probably overload you all with Kat-images! Ha!
Did you do something fun this weekend? I sure hope so!!!
Thanks, Kat. Just the regular stuff ... kung fun for me and french class for my son. Today is karate and a bunch of homeschool catch-up:) You?
Looking forward to seeing the results of the new camera:)
Ah, French, <3 :)
Wow Pryde! You alternate your Kung Fu days with your Karate days? I am impressed! I was just happy to complete all five days of my high intensity Pilates last week, the sore is real, lol!
Today is a bit of a rest day, and by rest day I mean helping the children proofread their 4-H speeches for their meeting tomorrow, lining out the downloading and logging in of the new summer reading app onto all our phones, paying bills, answering replies, and puppy potty training. You know, restful stuff😉
First you have to appreciate the photography. Because I liked seeing the pictures. Then you have to say about your post. You did it very well. I was very benefited by reading that. Thanks so much for teaching technically about this.
Hi there! I am so glad you enjoyed me post so much, thank you for all the kind words!
STOPfabulous one!!
nice photogaraphy man, i like your work.
I always learn something when I read about your homesteading and gardening word weavings. This makes logical sense and I do so appreciate the wisdom! Our mint leaves will be all the more rich for harvesting. :)
Great experience...
Rose is the symbol of peace and love...
I also like to harvesting many types of flowers..Rose is one of them @generikat
this very beautiful flower of my friend May you always be in good health and please visit my blog once