Widow's Endorphins: Wild Rose Infused Honey

Widow's Endorphins: Wild Rose Infused Honey: These multi-flora wild roses are the prettiest I have ever seen, with sun drenched blossoms of bright coral pink, deep rose, pale pink...

Wild Rose Infused Honey

These multi-flora wild roses are the prettiest I have ever seen, with sun drenched blossoms of bright coral pink, deep rose, pale pink, pale violet, and white.  If it weren't for their thorns, and bumblebees, I would have fallen into their fulsome boughs, just to inhale the sweet fragrance of Summer!

Wild roses bloom for only a handful of days each Summer.  With a few handfuls of their precious petals, you can preserve them, to enjoy year 'round.  Wild Rose Infused Honey is as easy as a Summer breeze to make in your own kitchen.

Recipes vary from one cup of rose petals for every cup of honey, to two cups of rose petals for each cup of honey.  The infusion period also varies from as little as one week to one month.  All of the recipes recommend picking the petals after the morning dew has dried.  Some recipes suggest drying the petals for a day, before making the honey infusion.  Use only the petals, not the stamens, or rosehips, or any little insects which might be sunning themselves.  Most importantly, use pesticide-free rose petals.

Wild Rose Infused Honey

8 Cups organic, pesticide-free rose petals

4 Cups organic honey, warmed

Pack the rose petals into a sterilized Mason jar, pushing the petals down until the jar is about three-quarters full.  Pour the warm honey over the petals, so that the petals are covered with honey.  Stir to remove air bubbles, and make room for a little more honey.  Put a sterilized lid on the jar, and set it aside in a warm place for one to four weeks.  Stir the honey every few days.  Taste the honey each week, until the rose flavour is the right intensity for you.  Warm the Mason jar of honey in hot water, so that the honey will pour easily.  Strain the honey through a sieve, pressing the petals to release even more flavour and honey.  Pour the rose infused honey into another sterilized jar, and seal it. Call Martha Stewart, and brag!

Enjoy your honey on fresh baked scones or morning toast...or, pour over vanilla ice cream...or, stir into freshly whipped cream, and spoon over fresh berries.  Did you know that wild roses and blackberries are from the same family?  They're practically cousins!  They even look alike. Blackberry Peach Pie with a dollop of Wild Rose Honey Whipped Cream - Summer in every bite!

Photographs copyright of:  Ruth Adams, Widow's Endorphins Photographic Images Incorporated.

Widow's Endorphins: International Widow's Day June 23

Widow's Endorphins: International Widow's Day June 23: Sir Richard Branson, Patron in Chief of the Loomba Foundation, talks about the plight of widows in developing countries...Please take a mom...

International Widow's Day June 23

Sir Richard Branson, Patron in Chief of the Loomba Foundation, talks about the plight of widows in developing countries...Please take a moment to listen...

http://www.theloombafoundation.org/

Widow's Endorphins: Chicago Peace

Widow's Endorphins: Chicago Peace: One of my favourite roses is Chicago Peace, a Hybrid Tea Rose that lives each passage of its life in glorious splendor.  It is a photo...

Chicago Peace

One of my favourite roses is Chicago Peace, a Hybrid Tea Rose that lives each passage of its life in glorious splendor.  It is a photographer's dream.  From the coral pink of a budding rose, it unfurls petals of deep rose pink, and peach, and gracefully ages into soft pink, apricot, soft yellow, white and pale lilac.

 

A single rosebush, with blossoms opening on different days, will appear to be two distinctly different varieties of roses.  Of the two pictured above, the blossom on the right, was the first to open.  Days before, it looked very much like the rose on the left.  Then, in it's last days, the opulent petals of the Chicago Peace rose fade to a champagne colour.  Backlit by the noon sun, this rose shown below, is the personification of an aging diva.

The Chicago Peace rose is a descendant of the legendary Peace rose, a rose which almost never came into being.  In the late 1930's, French grower, Francis Meilland and his Father, Antoine had hybridized a rose from a Margaret McGredy rose and an unknown seedling.  Francis named test rose 3-35-40 the Madame A. Meilland Rose, in honour of his late Mother, Claudia Dubreuil.

When the German Army occupied the Meilland farm, they ordered that only food be grown.  Francis shipped the rose stocks to friends in Turkey, Scandinavia, the USA, and even Italy and Germany. The shipment to Turkey was destroyed when the Nazis commandeered the train.  The budwood shipments to Scandinavia, Italy and Germany did not make it to commercial production. The budwood from test rose 3-35-40, smuggled to the USA in a diplomatic satchel, on the last flight out, survived!  After the Fall of Berlin, it was named Peace Rose.
      


When the United Nations first opened, the 49 U.N. delegates were each presented with a Peace rose, and a message which read, "We hope the 'Peace' rose will influence men's thoughts for everlasting world peace.

The more colourful descendant of the Peace rose, Chicago Peace was discovered in the Castigny Botanical Gardens in Wheaton, Illinois in 1962.  It is described as having pink edging which is richer, brighter and deeper than the Peace Rose, although the colour varies with weather and the season.

As Francis Meilland would later write, "How strange to think that all these millions of rose bushes sprang from one tiny seed no bigger than the head of a pin - a seed which we might so easily have overlooked or neglected in a moment of inattention".

Photos copyright of:  Ruth Adams, Widow's Endorphins Photographic Images Incorporated.

Brande's Roses

It was bitterly cold that sunny day in late November, when my husband's best friend and I scattered Brande's grey ashes over a snow covered rosebed.  The wind blew his ashes into my face - a final kiss goodbye.  As one of his friends would later remark, "nice one, Brande!"  

I promised myself that I would return in June, when the roses were in bloom.  My heart skipped a beat when I saw the vibrant, red roses thriving where his ashes had been scattered.  

    

Photographs copyright of:  Ruth Adams, Widow's Endorphins Photographic Images Incorporated.

Widow's Endorphins: Straw Hat and White Peonies

Widow's Endorphins: Straw Hat and White Peonies: Nothing says Summer like a big wide brimmed straw hat.  My handmade "schoolgirl" style straw hat, which I bought on a ...

Straw Hat and White Peonies

Nothing says Summer like a big wide brimmed straw hat.  My handmade "schoolgirl" style straw hat, which I bought on a day trip to Niagara-on-the-Lake, a dozen years ago, always reminds me of Anne of Green Gables.  School days are drawing to a close, and straw hats are making their annual appearance at the beach, on the docks, and in backyard gardens.

The white Peonies and pink Sweet Pea are so beautiful and fragrant.  Like the days of our youth, they are here for a glorious and all too short a time.  Enjoy the Summer!    

Photographs copyright of:  Ruth Adams, Widow's Endorphins Photographic Images Inc.

Straw hat made by Bonnielle of Oakville, Ontario, Canada.