Eating Rose flower
Roses are a traditional symbol of enduring love and also serve as delicious food and good medicine. Fortify your immunity by including rose in your diet.
Eating rose petals bestows flavonoids, antioxidants, and immunity-boosting vitamins and minerals. Antioxidants strengthen our hearts and blood vessels, and the astringent action in the body tightens inflamed tissue, soothing sore throats and coughs. Roses are rich in vitamins A, B, C, E, and K and minerals including calcium, iron, and phosphorous.
Rose petals with raspberry chia pudding and fresh blueberries and raspberries
5 ways to eat rose petals:
1- Fresh Petals
Sprinkle them on salads. Put them into water along with lemon, strawberries, or raspberries for a healthy, uplifting beverage. Chop the petals up and stir them into softened butter for a fancy spread on biscuits, crackers, or muffins.
2- Rose & Honey
Place fresh petals in a basket and let them wilt for a day. Transfer wilted petals to a clean glass jar and pour lightly warmed honey on top of them. Making sure the flowers are completely covered, screw on a tight-fitting lid. Let the jar sit in a warm spot for one week. Every few days take the lid off and wipe any condensation from the underside with a clean paper towel. After at least one week or up to three, strain the honey and store your rose-infused sweetener in a glass jar in a cool dark place. Rose gives up its medicine easily, for the most part. Using a local honey also can assist in seasonal allergies. Drizzle on peanut butter toast or add a teaspoon to a warm cup of tea or some hot water with lemon.
3- Tea
The easiest way to dry buds or petals or whole flowers is to simply lay them out in the sun on a dry day. Store dried roses in a sealed glass jar in a dark cupboard. Light will subdue their vibrant color over time. Dried rose petals can be steeped in hot water to make a tasty rose tea. For a more multidimensional flavor add some black tea, like Ceylon or Earl Grey, and a pinch of ground cardamom.
4- Flavor vinegars
Add those dried flowers to a bottle of rice or white wine vinegar. The vinegar will draw out the minerals, fragrance, and floral flavor of the rose petals. It is a great way to boost the medicinal qualities of your salad dressings or brighten up a dish with complex flavors.
5- Rose hips in Autumn
Don’t forget about those rose fruits you spared during your early summer harvest. Revisiting those patches in the fall, preferably after the first frost when the fruit becomes sweeter, will gift you with a more potent flavor of rose, reminiscent of its close cousins apple and cherry. Just three tiny rose hips have the same amount of Vitamin C as an orange. Pluck the fruits off the rose bush and drop them into a dehydrator or a basket for a few weeks, moving them around once a day. After they have dried, remove the seeds. Grind the rose hips into a powder and add a splash of apple juice for an easy jam.
