I am being seduced by a thick, sweet, delicious substance. Honey has my heart these days, and it is well earned. Right now I think I am most enamored by the infinite varieties of honey. From buckwheat to wildflower, honey is a bit like wine; influenced greatly by the area in which the honeybees live and forage for pollen.
I have a fantastic buckwheat honey from Manitoba, which is dark and deep and delicious, and fairly runny. Then there’s the light gold honey from Spillimacheen, British Columbia, which is the lightest hue of gold, and so thick and sticky it’s just like candy. The sheer variety of colours, textures, and flavours of honey have me totally enchanted.
So, I suppose it’s no wonder I decided to start doing something with my honey. I’m working on eliminating refined sugars from my life wherever I can, and replacing them with honey, maple syrup (I am Canadian, after all), and other natural sweeteners. This rose scented honey seemed like the perfect thing to add to iced teas, or drizzle on shortbread. Just thinking about it makes me want to go have a Downton Abbey tea party.
The best part about this is how delightfully simple it is. We have a massive rose bush in our garden, so I started by gathering a few handfuls of beautiful, pink rose petals. I have them a good rinse to remove any dirt and insects (we don’t use pesticides on our roses, and this part is very important—make sure your roses are pesticide free!), and laid them out to dry.
Once dry, filled a 250mL mason jar with rose petals and topped it off with some Light Gold honey from Beeland (I warmed it in a hot water bath to make it pourable). I was able to get close to a full 250mL into the jar in addition to the rose petals—they compress down quite nicely.
Then, I waited. I placed the jar on a sunny windowsill and would flip it once or twice a day to keep things mixing. The rose petals candied quite quickly—honey is a strong humectant, meaning it easily vampired the moisture out of the rose petals, leaving them shriveled up and soaked in honey. Mmm.
The resulting honey is delightfully fragrant—roses plus the original honey, of course. It’s fabulous and classy, and I love it.
Rose Petal Honey
~1 cup lightly packed rose petals—organic, pesticide free, rinsed & air dried
1 cup lightly flavoured honey—choose a nice, thick one if you canWarm the honey in a hot water bath until it is easily pourable.
Pack the rose petals into a 250mL mason jar. Pour honey on top, stopping to rap the bottom of the jar on the counter to knock out air bubbles and make room for more honey. Once the jar is full, cap it and set it on a sunny windowsill. Flip the jar once or twice a day to combine.
Enjoy after at least a week, but leave the rose petals in the honey—they’re delicious, and the flavour will just get stronger!
Looking for more great infused honey recipes? Check out Everyday Roots’ post on 5 Healing Honey Infusions for more great ideas!
Sweet! I love flavored honey! I had fireweed honey on galliano island years ago and fell in looove. Have you been to that honey place out near Spruce Meadows. I think it’s called Chinook Meadery or Chinook Honey Procucts, it has Chinook in the name, anyways. Haven’t been there, but Mark’s parents told us about it and he bought some mead there.
Speaking of his parents, they are coming to Edmonton tomorrow and taking us out for dinner and giving Mark a gelato machine that they bought when they were in Vienna! Admit it! You are SO jealous of me! I am already planning to make a recipe for sugar free dairy free chocolate red velvet ice cream from chococolate covered katies blog 🙂 huzaa!!
I would love that red velvet recipe. When do you plan on doing the write-up? Sounds delish!! 🙂
I think this is the recipe Ruth was talking about 🙂
Oooh… I can’t believe I missed that fireweed honey when I was on Galliano! It sounds divine. I haven’t been down to that honey place, I honestly try to avoid faaaaaar south Calgary whenever I can, given that I’m somewhat centrally located and prefer to bike as much as I can (and I have no desire to bike that far down the Deerfoot! ACK! Death wish, lol. Also illegal…).
I need to get my ice cream maker going and make some ice cream STAT! Before the weather goes to shit again, lol. 🙁
Will have to try this as I use honey everyday in my smoothies. Manuka honey, organic, in glass jars are the best, most healthful honeys I have found! Yummm!! 🙂
I have both raw honey and a plethora of wild roses in bloom. Not that I need another excuse to go outside and enjoy the sun, make things, and eat things 😛
Well, if you ever need another one, I’m sure I can provide a few to choose from 😛
Yummy! I have yet to try manuka honey—I should have bought some when I was in New Zealand, but alas, I did not 🙁 What is it like, flavour wise? Can you taste the manuka?
I recently acquired manuka honey, and YES you can taste the manuka! And it tastes just the way you’d imagine honey plus tea tree oil would taste… but it’s supposed to have awesome healing properties, especially for the skin. I can get my son to eat it in oatmeal, but not straight up. (He’s almost 2 and has bad eczema) I also made a mixture for his skin with the honey, plus activated charcoal.
Honey + tea tree with the added benefit of not being poisonous like tea tree oil is! I made a mask with it the other day and love it. Have you tried shea butter for your son’s eczema? I’ve had really good reviews and reports from readers.
Oh! This is enticing. There is something so seductive about honey. Mmmmmmm
Ruth- the fireweed honey sounds amazing! I love the smell of fireweed but never knew it was an edible. You learn something new everyday!
Yes! I think we should all get together and go on a road trip out to Galiano for fireweed honey and pottery 🙂
I Experience flavored honey for the first time last summer solstice. Two wonderful beekeeping ladies had made rose,honey suckle and basil.honey(from dry herbs to insure a long shelf life)! They were all so good but the BASIL was the weekend hit.
Oh wow, those all sound amazing! I would have never guessed the basil would have been the favourite, though—how interesting! What did you use the basil honey for?
It was wonderful in tea or on bread
Oooh, yum!
Have you ever made rose petal jelly? A very delicious addition to scones or small biscuits or even in thumb print cookies.
I haven’t, but I may have to try it this summer when my rose bush is in bloom again 🙂