Waste not, want not. Eating rose petals and dandelions.

[Rizzo]

Rizzo note...this works great if you know the plants haven't been sprayed with pesticides. And red roses will have more flavor than a lighter rose.

Kansas Preppers Network: Waste Not Want Not, Roses

Here is my rose petal Jam from last year.

To use rose petals; Gently wash and drain rose petals. Carefully remove the white/yellow part of the petals.

Rose petal Butter

1 cup of fresh rose petals
¾ cup of butter

Set butter out at room temperature just long enough to soften up for mixing.
Once soft, chop rose petals finely and stir into the butter.
Cover, and refrigerate. Let it sit for 24 hours so the rose flavor can settle into the butter.

Home-made rose butter will last about 2 weeks in the fridge, or freeze for several months.

Crystallized Rose petals

1 egg white, room temperature
48 Red Rose Petals, washed and drained
3/4 cup Sugar

Beat the egg white until foamy. do not over beat. Use a small pastry brush, coat each petal with beaten egg white. Brush lightly removing any excess. Immediately dip in sugar and place on a rack. Repeat with remaining petals. Refrigerate overnight to dry.

Rose Petal Sauce for Poultry

2 cups water, plus 1 cup
2 tablespoons butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon aniseed
12 red or pink roses with open blooms, petals removed
1 peeled red cactus fruit or 2 red plums, skinned
12 fresh chestnuts
2 tablespoons honey
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Bring the2 cups of water to a boil, while in a separate large skillet, melt the butter and cook the aniseed and garlic together for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside. Place the rose and cactus fruit in a food processor and puree until smooth. Set aside.

Using a knife, cut an X over the flat ends of the chestnuts. Use a hot cast iron skillet to toast them for 5 minutes. Once the shells open, toss them into the boiling water and allow them to cook for 15 minutes. Drain, and allow to cool. When cool enough to handle, peel the chestnuts and add them to the pureed rose mix. Slowly add the remaining 1 cup of water while pureeing the mixture.

Reheat the skillet with the garlic/butter, add the rose petal puree and simmer for 10minutes. Whisk in honey, salt and pepper. Strain through a sieve or several layers of cheese cloth to remove any solids. Keep the sauce in a pan, and keep warm, drizzle over your pan roasted or oven roast poultry.

Rose Fritters

Use you favorite beer batter recipe, dip in rose petals, then fry until golden. Drain then sprinkle with powder sugar.

Rose petal Vinegar

2 cups white wine vinegar (heat to near boil)
1 cup rose petals
3 or 4 whole cloves

Gently crush the petals to bruise a bit.In a sterilized canning jar, place the rose petals and cloves. Pour hot vinegar over top, roughly mash the petals with a wooden spoon and seal. Set aside for 10 days at room temperature and in the dark. Shake one a day. Strain vinegar and discard the cloves and rose petals.

Rose petals can be added to every freakin' salad you can think of. Add them to just about any dessert, and so forth.

Dandelion Jelly

1 quart tightly packed ripe yellow Dandelion flowers
6 cups water
6 cups sugar
juice of one lemon
8 tablespoons Pectin

make sure your flowers have not been sprayed, pick and wash. remove the ends, and as much green as possible.

Place petals, water and lemon juice large heavy bottom pot, bring to a boil, then transfer to a bowl. Place a piece of waxed paper over top and refrigerate until morning.

Return to pot, and sugar and bring to a hard boil. Stirring occasionally. Boil for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool until hand able. Strain through a sieve, discarding petals.

Add pectin to the liquid and return to a boil for 5-10 minutes, until it begins to set.

Pour into hot sterile jars, and process in a hot water bath for 5 minutes.

It tastes a bit like honey

[Oregon Pioneer]

A lot of people don't know they can produce rose petal jam from what's growing in their front yard. Here's what Euel Gibbons says in his book, Stalking the Healthful Herbs. Now is also a good time to pick those rose petals. I've also continued on in his chapter on a recipe to make rose petal omelets. Bon Appetit!

"Gather freshly opened roses before the sun has distilled away too much of their ethereal flavor and fragrance. Wild roses are the best, but any fragrant rose, provided it has not been sprayed with poisonous insecticides, will do. The deep red roses give the color that I like best, but by using a different color for each batch you can soon make your jam cupboard resemble a well planned rose garden. >>

The base of the rose petal contains a bitter substance and should be clipped away. This is not nearly the tedious job that it sounds. Grasp as many petals as you can hold between your fingers and thumb, pull them from the rose and snip the white bases all at once with a pair of shears. Prepare one cup of petals and put them into a blender with 3/4 cup of water and the juice of one lemon. Blend until smooth, then gradually add 2 1/2 cups of sugar with the blender still running and let it run until you are sure all of the sugar has dissolved. Stir one package of powdered pectin (Sure-Jell) into 3/4 cup water, bring to a boil and boil hard for one minute, stirring constantly. Pour the pectin into the rose-sugar mixture and run the blender on slow until you are sure the pectin has been thoroughly incorporated with the other ingredients. Pour immediately into small sterilized jars with screw caps that will seal hermetically. Baby-food jars are ideal. I was amazed to find that fifteen minutes after I had gathered the roses, I was pouring the jam into the jars, and I hadn't hurried at all.

Allow the jars to stand at room temperature for about six hours and the jam will be nicely jelled. It will keep for a month in the refrigerator, but if you want some for next winter, store it in the freezer. Then when the wind is howling about the eves, and the sleet is peling against the strorm windows, you can bring a bright June day right into your kitchen by opening a jar of this rosy jam. >>

Don't think that rose petals are good only for making jam. When I want to impress an overnight guest with an unusual breakfast, I make a rose omelet. Break eight eggs into the blender, season with one level teaspoon of celery salt and a pinch of marjoram, then add 1/2 cup of clean petals from freshly plucked roses. Blend at medium speed until the eggs are fluffy and the petals practically liqufied. Every good cook knows that a perfect omelet lies fully as much in the cooking as in the ingredients. Even a slightly scorched omelet isn't fit to eat. Pour the mixture into a greased pan over medium heat. If you have the heat just right, the bottom will be lightly browned when the top is just set. Make a crease across the top with a spatula, fold the omelet over and slide it onto a plate without trying to lift it, and it won't break apart. Decorate the omelet with a bright trail of paprika, and garnish the dish with dewy rosebuds. The rose petals in this omelet not only give it a spectacular color, but are actually good and will be appreciated by anyone whose sense of taste is not overpowered by his prejudices."

[ChefTessBakeresse]

I love this post hun! Excellent! Rose petals are awesome for how they taste and how they help with calming nerves. One of my favorite! Make sure you use only home grown non-pesticide sprayed ones (most commercially grown roses are not safe to eat since they are treated with chemicals). If someone purchases dry rose petals, they must be labeled "culinary grade" to be safe for human consumption. . Be sure on the canning of the jam to follow the modern home canning safety approved by the FDA. Baby food jars are good only if frozen or used in the fridge. Just FYI. Reuse of the lids isn't approved as safe because the seals can have even a pin-hair of air allowed into the jelly and cause micro-organism growth. But the perfect size small "jelly jars" made for home canning are what I use.

[ChefTessBakeresse]

Oh I sooooo love this!! Xoxo! Awesome post!