ColorChallenge - How to Preserve Rosebuds for Food and Crafts - Wednesday's Yellow
Rosebuds are so temporary! Have you ever wanted to keep them for crafts, for tea, or even cooking? Here's how I dry my rosebuds.
I clip the rosebuds off from the rosebushes with scissors. I pass by the youngest ones that are a few days away from opening. They won't have the scent or flavor of more mature rosebuds. I'm looking for buds that are on the verge on being open, or buds that have just opened up. If the rose has opened much more than that, the petals won't stay attached when they are dry. Those petals will still be useful, but not in bud form.
I lay the rosebuds on a dehydrator tray. The ones on this tray are a mix of buds from the old-time yellow rose bush I posted about earlier in A Yellow Rose, a white climbing rose called White Dawn, and a little pink miniature rose.
I set my dehydrator to a low temperature, around 100 degrees Fahrenheit (~38 Celcius). It takes a couple days for the buds to get completely dry. I don't want any to mold from the inside because I was too impatient!
Once the rosebuds are dry, I put them in jars. I store the jars in a dark pantry. I dry rose petals, too, like in the left jar. I'll make another post about that pretty soon.
What do I use these rosebuds for? I'm not a potpourri-type person, but I'll admit they would be nice for putting in a bowl with dried flowers and spices. If these dried rosebuds are heated, they do give off a nice floral scent. Without heat, though, they don't have much fragrance, so you'd be better off adding a few drops of an essential oil in that potpourri.
I use rosebuds for tea, for cooking, and for crafts. I'll have more to say about that in future posts, so stay tuned! In the meantime, here's a better look at that first yellow rosebud.
Camera: Sony DSC-RX-10, Lens: 9-73mm f/2.8 @ 22m, Shutter Speed: 1/640 sec, Aperture: f/2.8, ISO: 125
What Do You Think?
- Do you grow any roses?
- Have you ever dried rosebuds?
- What would you do with these dried rosebuds?
- Do you dry any other flowers?
Here are some other posts about roses that you might enjoy: Do Red Roses Taste Better? // Can I Eat Any Rose? // A Fantastically Delicious Rose. And here are some other Haphazard Homestead flower photos you might enjoy: Eat Flowers! // Pink Flowering Trees // Meditation Rose // The Edible Lawn Daisy // Bearded Iris: The Hall of Valhalla // Tropical Conservatory Tour
I have never dried any flowers but I'd like to see what roses in tea would taste like. Interesting and thanks for the post.
Glad you enjoyed my post about dried rosebuds. The more fragrant the roses, the more taste they will have. The flavor comes from their petals and their aroma. I hope you get to try some rose tea!
They look so pretty dried like that, but in the other hand it is such a shame not to see the roses fully open.
When I was a kid I used to dry all kinds of flowers between sheets of paper and stuck in some big book. But just for crafting purposes.
It is a shame to keep a rose from opening. But there are so many of them on the White Dawn at least -- you can see it in this post about the Big World for a Little Snail. Usually I harvest the buds when a big storm is forecast a few days out or when I'm headed out of town for a day or two. That way I really won't miss the flowers, because they will fall apart in the storm or bloom while I am gone.
Drying flowers in a big book like you did, is fun. It's a good way to deal with flowers that aren't too thick.
That's different. When you know they would be destroyed anyway. At least you have the buds now :)
A dried rosebud in the hand is worth two fallen apart out on the rose bush, lol!
Thanks for resteeming my rosebuds, too, @ewkaw!
You are very welcome :D
Lovely yellow roses! It's very interesting that you can use rosebuds for many purposes; for tea, for cooking, and for crafts. Thanks so much for sharing! Great!
Even if a rose doesn't have a good fragrance, it's still good for crafts. But the ones that smell so good, really have some good uses in the kitchen. Thanks for commenting, @tangmo!
With my pleasure! Thanks for your useful information! I gained so much experience from you! ;)
You're very welcome.
Love the muted colors of the roses on the right in the jars. Photo op's! And thanks for the info on drying them in dehydrators. That is a cool thing to do.
I always want the dried roses to have more color, but the muted colors are nice. Kind of Victorian. I just need some lace, but I'm not much of a lace person, lol. Drying them isn't hard at all, with a good dehydrator.
I really like the muted colors.
: )
Another beautiful post! I really should invest in a dehydrator too.
Thanks, @amy-goodrich! Dehydratoris are worth the money, if you have a lot of produce at one time. In the summer, our climate is really dry, so I can dry things outdoors, naturally. But when it's rainy here, or with high humidity, a dehydrator really helps. I have about 10 of them -- and all of them are running sometimes. There's a lot of produce here sometimes, lol. I've collected them over the years at yard sales and thrift shops, for about $10 each. But fresh if best, like you have with all your smoothies! :D
That's a nice equipment, dehydrator!! Never seen one of those. It must be great, no only for roses, but maybe apples too? Tomato? What else do you dehydrate (just curious)?
Hi, @liliana.duarte! Glad to see you here! I use dehydrators for a lot of things! Apples, tomatoes, peppers, pears, grapes into raisins, greens (wild and garden greens), leeks and onions, cherries and berries, redbud flowers and other flowers, currants, plums, peaches, persimmons, squash and pumpkins, wild mushrooms, hops, and I'm probably forgetting other things off the top of my head. I have collected a lot of them over the years, at yard sales and thrift shops. They costs a lot more new. But they are worth it. Sometimes I have 10 going at once -- there can be a lot of produce to process here sometimes, lol. I have quite few different makes and models. Maybe I should do some reviews. Hmmm..
So many things!! Guess I would love to prepare my own apple snacks and tomato too, not to speak about mushrooms. A review would be great (if you have the time). I don't remember to have seen one on selling here in Portugal, but never looked for it. How much can it cost?
You read my mind! The second I saw the pic of the jars, my brain was yelling potpourri! lol
But was that an enthusiastic yell for potpourri, or a warning shout to run the other direction? ; )
Woah nice picz right there!
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed my yellow roses!
I have to say I prefer fresh flowers .... I do not really like dried flowers
I'll agree that the fresh flowers are better, by far! But sometimes the dried ones are better than no flowers at all. ; )
Great work! thanks for pleasure!
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed my rosebuds!
Thanks for resteeming my rosebuds, too, @olga.maslievich!