Garden therapy – VintageTrish

Imagine the luxury.

You bring in an armful of organically grown scented roses from your garden, and instead of putting them into a vase, you make your own non toxic clear rosewater spritz.

This is one of the easiest and most enjoyable benefits I reap from my plentiful garden roses in Autumn. I choose light shades of scented roses for my rosewater spritz, to avoid staining.

I use the resulting rosewater as a gentle cooling facial and body spritz, as a mood lifter, light scent or room spray. Some use it as a final scented rinse when washing their hair.

With just two ingredients it’s very simple to make. The ingredients are organically grown, no chemical rose petals, and water.

If you’re allergic to roses or citrus, do not attempt this recipe or use it. Even if you’re not allergic, always do a small patch test of rosewater on your wrist, before you use it on your face or body. Always avoid the eye areas when spraying it. If you’re using it as a room spray, make sure no one is allergic to roses where you use it.

Roses sprayed with chemicals are obviously unsuitable for this recipe..and if your roses are from a florist, can you be sure they haven’t been sprayed? If you don’t grow your own roses, shopping at a local organic flower supplier you trust to know the background of how their roses are grown, is one way around that.

While there are many ways to make rosewater, this spritz is simple and won’t last long. That’s because it has no preservative. It should be made in small quantities, kept in the fridge and used often, while fresh.

You’ll need :

0.5 cups organically grown rose petals washed thoroughly 3 times

1.5 cups pure or distilled water

A pot with fitted lid and a stove to boil the rose petals

A strainer and glass bowl to strain the finished rosewater liquid into

A sterilised clear glass bottle to decant the rosewater into, for storage in the fridge

A small brown spray container bottle to fill with your rosewater.

A funnel and perhaps a jug, to use in the decanting steps

Preparation:

Step 1: Wash the rose petals very thoroughly

Step 2: Bring 1.5 cups pure or distilled water to a boil in the pot on the stove

Step 3: Add 1/2 cup of rose petals

Step 4: Reduce heat to simmer, put the pot lid on and simmer until the petals go see-through

Step 5: Remove pot from stove to cooling area. Let cool.

Step 6: Strain the clear petals from the now cooled rosewater into glass bowl

Step 7: Using the funnel, decant the rosewater into a sterilised glass bottle and spray bottle

Step 8: Store all filled rosewater containers in the fridge, let sit for 1 week

Step 9: Enjoy your rosewater, remembering it won’t keep too long

While I know admiring roses in a beautiful vase is satisfying in itself, using a rosewater spritz that cost you nothing, or very little…..is luxury.

Disclaimer… Please do your own research for your own needs and context. The author assumes no responsibility for any outcomes of anyone using this well researched and documented blog post. Enjoy making and using your Clear Rosewater Spritz. 🌸

Tahitian Limes in a vintage Grindley Petal Peach Bowl on an autumn morning…

Some limes from your own Tahitian Lime tree in a vintage Grindley Petal Peach bowl is definitely a very simple thing.

I’ve taken longer to describe it in words than the fleeting thought it might gain from a ‘sleepy head’ wandering past it on an Autumn morning.

But taking some time to really think about what that bowl of limes means to me this morning, I realised it’s the same simplicity that helps me live like a king.

Let me explain. All the money in the world can not buy the quality of fresh fruit and vegetables I can pick straight from my garden.

I do not have all the money in the world.

But by planting a food garden, my family and I have the absolute audacity to live like Kings. That’s gold!

The fresh air and general mental wellness a daily garden visit can provide anyone (mobile or non-mobile with assistance) is just one benefit.

Let me tell you a story.

When I was 22 years old I had to have half my thyroid removed because of a tumour that had formed on it, making it hard for me to swallow. I was newly married and a Health Information Officer, with all the latest information at my fingertips, for my condition. It was still scary. The big C was a possibility according to the tests.

That tumour was a turning point for me, which came early enough in life to shock me into what was important. It gave me the gift of years ‘head start,’ into realising my life priorities.

When you face a possibility of no tomorrow, it makes you appreciate today.

I had decided prior to this health crisis that my fledgling garden (then in boxes on our apartment balcony) would be a productive garden once we bought our new home and had a yard. Herbs, fruit and vegetables that would help me supplement my future family’s diet, since we wouldn’t be able to produce everything we ate, on a suburban block.

With half a thyroid gland and an all clear given after surgery, I set out on a grateful life, where I would choose a natural approach to my health, wherever possible. I hoped to avoid the need to rely on supplementary thyroid balancing hormone drugs.

I am 50 later this year. I have not taken any thyroid hormone balancing drugs since that surgery. I credit a great deal of this to the fresh food enzymes contained in my food, from my food garden.

My garden has served a ‘food as medicine’ benefit for me, as well as the usual benefits.

Yes the garden has been a lot of work… but it’s also been great exercise for me. Yes we’ve had monetary costs setting the garden up, that other families without a garden, have not. But what cost do you put on your family’s physical and mental health?

In my opinion, a natural food garden is true health insurance.

So back to my morning’s thoughts of simplicity.

A tahitian lime is a gift of vitamin C from a tree that has produced bountifully for me over the several years since I planted it. I’m talking between 50-100kgs of fruit from one tree (in recent seasons).

The juice of one lime can provide up to 22 percent of the adult daily requirement of vitamin C. You don’t need a vitamin C pill if you’ve got limes…or whatever citrus is in season. And the vitamin C you take into your body in food form, will be absorbed efficiently and naturally through digestion.

The studies have been done. Read about them here if you’d like to know more.

My lime tree and I have done harsh and good seasons together over the years.

It stands firm…so do I. We’re simple.

So, back to morning thoughts of life giving you limes…

I say four words… thank you very much!

Tag: Garden therapy

Clear Rosewater Spritz…No Chemicals

When Life Gives You Limes!