At the end of May, the roses of Patina Farm put on a brilliant show. Shades of pink, apricot, yellow, and white blanket the garden and bring with them the most magnificent scents.
Every year, I walk around the farm and fill my basket with blooms to display around our home. This year, in addition to arranging the roses in beautiful bouquets, I wanted to showcase their powerful beauty in another way.
In a recent blog post about my favorite natural skincare line Earthtonics, started by my wonderful friend Daron, I shared my passion for botanicals. Last year, Daron came to the farm to teach us how to make hydrosols, like rose water, with a copper still. This year, with the knowledge she gave us, we were able to make a heavenly batch of rose water for something very special (more on that later in this post!)
MAKING THE ROSEWATER
The process requires patience, which I think is often true of anything worthwhile.
We began by collecting our roses — a mixture of all the different varieties here at Patina Farm. (You can find all of our rose varieties listed in our book, Patina Living)
Then we set up a distilling station with our copper still over our outdoor camp stove in front of our fountain and filled it with the rose petals...
...and water from our well!
We then added more rose petals to the column of the still, added the top, and sealed it with a rye flour dough to make sure none of the steam escaped.
As the camp stove heats the water inside the still, steam passes through all the rose petals and begins to extract the essence of the flower. We use the running water from the fountain to cool the steam in the condenser (shown on the right) to convert the rosy steam into rose water.
Leila’s middle name is Rose and it was only fitting that she helped us by tending the still, which needed to be constantly watched for safety reasons. The process took the entire day, between 6-8 hours, but the result was incredible.
ROSE WATER BENEFITS
This ancient distilling process allows us to harness the power of plants.
Rose water has been known to have many benefits (besides smelling divine and feeling incredibly refreshing on the skin) It...
• Improves skin health
• Reduces headaches
• Soothes skin irritation
• Calms redness
• Contains antioxidants
• Helps wounds heal faster
• Reduces anxiety*
PATINA FARM GARDEN MIST
We wanted to share the magic of this rose water with you as well, so we decided to make one final batch of the Patina Farm Garden Mist!
I worked with Daron at Earthtonics once again to create the perfect blend of our rose water and lavender hydrosol, plus other skin-supporting botanical ingredients. This ancient alchemy is incredibly powerful for restoring your skin because of the liquid nutrients that heal and soften. You might even feel a boost in your mood and a shift in your energy after a spritz or two of the mist.
For me, distilling the plants here at our home is another way to be deeply connected to the gifts Mother Nature provides us, as well as deeply connected to the wonderful gift Patina Farm has been for us over the years.
If you’d like to have the essence of Patina Farm in a bottle, be sure to order the limited supply of Patina Farm Garden Mist when it’s available on June 28th. We sold out pretty quickly last year, so make to follow @giannettihome on Instagram if you want to know when it goes on sale!
Here's to the power of plants!
xo,
Brooke
*Sources:
