Unending rose gardens

Those who have been following me here know about my Mysore trip. Mysore has a very beautiful climate that is perfect for gardening. The soil is rich and fertile making it a gold mine for farmers. The road between Hassan and Mysore is lush green with portions of land flaunting healthy paddy, rice, cucumber, cabbage, bottle gourd, sugarcane and what not. The roadside stalls sell what is grown in their farm all fresh.


Though my younger one is too young to understand, my elder one was awe struck when he saw those cabbage and bottle gourd plantation. When we were busy discussing how veggies are grown and what farmers go through to bring us nature's fresh bounty of veggies, we came across this unending rose garden.


Unending it was. It was all roses till my eyes could reach. Fresh red and pink kashmiri roses that filled the atmosphere with rose smell. Though it smelled divine, it was not something that people would want to have it in their flower bouquet. I hopped on to the vast garden along with my kids to get a few clicks. It was late afternoon and the sun was at it's mighty best. The clicks didn't come out as awesome as I expected them to be, but they surely are something that would explain you about what it actually was.


While I was still wondering what they did with these roses that had loose petals, my mom didn't waste any time and quickly gathered the information from the farm caretakers. Basically, it was a gulkand farm. They collect the petals of these roses and put them along with sugar to make a jam like thing that is tasty and healthy. They said, only these roses were perfect to make gulkand. The hybrid ones are good only for ornamental purpose and don't have any smell or taste.

I bought myself a bottle of gulkand from a near by stall and I must say it tasted better than fruit jam. They said that it is used for medicinal purposes and can cure stomach and mouth ulcers along with many other minor ailments.