Wednesday, July 15, 2015

sharab ward (lebanese rose water) - a delicious treat!

the person who owned Framboise Manor before we bought it planted a wide variety of herbs, flowers and bushes. those flowers, herbs and bushes had all overgrown by the time we bought the place as the land had been left on it's own for about 12 yrs (see pic to the right). when we got Framboise Manor, our friend Jimmy bulldozed the land around the house so that we could figure out what was where. Jimmy made sure to leave all of the trees!

anyway - because of all of the different stuff that the previous owner had planted - we have volunteer chives, oregano, marjoram, comfrey and mustard growing all over our land and in crazy places. and for example - this rose bush on the opposite side of our driveway!!!!


crazy huh? it has spread and gotten bigger every year since we have been here - it is beautiful and covered in roses! the previous owner did not use any pesticides, herbacides or other "acides" and neither do we (i know because i have all of his old hand-written gardening books)! so what to do with all of these beautiful roses???

make sharab ward of course!

sharab ward (lebanese rose water) is a delightful drink made from rose petals. it is refreshing/cooling and delicious. only ever make sharab ward from roses that have not been sprayed!

first - gather the petals of 12-14 roses.


i lay the roses on screens out on the deck in order to let any bugs get free. then i rinse them.

put 4 cups of cold water into a pot and add your petals. they will float in the water.


on medium heat, heat your petals and stir them until they wilt into the water. do not let the water come to a boil. you will know when they are done when they look like this.


strain the rose water into a container. it will be a pretty pink.


now we will make the sharab ward.

to make - put 2 cups of organic sugar in a pot with one cup of water and over medium heat, heat it to a boil. then add 1/2 cup of lemon juice. bring it to a boil for 10 minutes BUT DO NOT STIR IT. then add 1/3 cup of your rose water and let it boil for 3 more minutes. remove from heat, let it cool and then bottle it. below you will see the rose water on the right - ready to make more sharab ward on the left.


to serve - use 3-4 tablespoons for a light sharab ward or half a glass of syrup and then add crushed mint, ice and water, or carbonated water or fresh-made lemonade.



very refreshing on a hot summer day. and for me and Kirsty - add vodka - bahahahahah!



here's a delicious fajita with home-made salsa, greek yoghurt, avocado, grilled steak and grilled peppers and onions. with a ton of home-grown cilantro. deevine!


19 comments:

  1. I use rose water on my hair. I used to buy it in an asian shop that has since shut down. it doesnt have sugar in it though.

    You sure make a lot of interesting stuff. Do you make maple syrup? Cue a Homer Simpson moment.

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    1. Sol - you have roses in your yard right? keep them. you can make your own rose water from them and use that in your hair. just follow the directions in the first part of this post for making rose water.

      i love making interesting stuff! and i wish i made maple syrup but we have absolutely no maples in our area. however, jamie's stepdad makes the absolute best maple syrup in the world!

      TO TED: PLEASE SEND SYRUP. WE ARE OUT. WE ARE DYING!!!!

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  2. I made Turkish delight from scratch once with some roses (nice and sugery!). I like the sound of this drink, wonder if the girls would like it.

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    1. well...here we all thought that you were just a guy in his "wellies" and you turn out all fancy and stuff. teehee. i think your girls would like this drink as it is very refreshing and good for you and soooo much better than soda.

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  3. This I am going to try next year as the rambler roses at Cub Run are making hips now. My mother made candied rose petals with extra roses...I will see if I can find the recipe.

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    1. i would love your mother's recipe Fiona. and yes - do make this delicious rose water next year. do you know that you can also make rose-hip tea with the hips? let me know if you are interested and i will send you my recipe.

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  4. Sweet Kymber,

    I'm loving the volunteer herbs you have growing there on your property. There's so many things a person can do with all those awesome herbs..............the wheels are spinning in my brain thinking of things :-)

    I'm going to share with you a site I came across, the blog is called the Nerdy Farm Wife. She does all kinds of things, even writes some e-books. I thought you would get a kick out of her blog and one of her e-books on roses. If you have a chance check out her blog http://thenerdyfarmwife.com/things-to-do-with-roses-ebook

    I've never really had rose water before. As a kid I remember Mom having some on her dresser, she would use it as a natural perfume. It always smelt nice and very light.

    Natural remedies are the way to go in this life. So is making a wonderful lemonade with the rose water. I like that idea of adding a dash or two of vodka to the lemonade (winking at you now).

    Don't work to hard on your property this week. Remember to have so time to just take in some sun and the water:-)

    Sending hugs and love to you both.
    Sandy

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    1. Sweet Sandy - there are volunteer herbs all over our land and when we find a new one we scratch our heads because they spread themselves all over the place when Jimmy bulldozed the land. it's pretty funny to find oregano growing down at the river!!!

      thanks for sharing that blog - SHE IS AWESOME!!! i love some of her recipes and have done a quick perusal of her blog - i will spend the next several evenings reading through her blog. thank you Sandy.

      and yes - rose water used to be used as a face refresher and astringent and as a perfume by many ladies of your mother's age....they learned to make their own during and just after the depression.

      teehee. me, you and kirsty would get along fine. and i don't even like vodka but when it's mixed with berries or roses - i can't even taste it!

      we just put in our perrenial herb garden today and it was a fun job to do. it was also a beautiful full-on summer day! and we are expecting beautiful summer days for the rest of the week!

      sending much love to you and yours, as always! xoxoxo

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  5. Hmmm.

    1) I am very impressed that the rose bush comes back year after year, given the pictures I have of your winter. That is resilience.

    2) Is the rose flavor overpowering? I have had Turkish Delight but can only take it in small doses.

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    1. TB - the rosebush also self-seeded itself into another little rosebush further up the driveway! this rosebush is very, very hardy! as for the rose flavour - it is very light. if you use a ton of roses (say 30 roses), you will have a much more flowery, Turkish Delight kind of flavour. but if you only use the petals from 12-15 roses, you get a very light flavour which is the lebanese way.

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  7. You getting any Japanese Beetles up that way? They have pretty much destroyed the Roses around here by this time.

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    1. PP - we got Japanese beetles in ottawa but there are none here. *knocks wood*
      sorry they have destroyed all of your roses - that sucks!

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  8. Oooh this looks very tasty and it may even benefit form the vodka ;-)
    Can you make it with any rose petals?

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    1. Kirsty - it's a very lovely drink! and you can't even taste the vodka if you add some.

      as for any rose petals - i believe that you can use any rose petals as long as they are a fragrant rose and as long as you are certain that they haven't been sprayed with anything. if you can find some wild roses - those are the best.

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  9. It sure looks nice, Kymber. I have never heard of it. Maybe they had it when I was in Lebanon but I would never eaten or drunk anything a Lebanese gave me!

    I always enjoy the pictures of your place. It's so tranquil and calming. I hope all is going well for you and J and that he is back home from his contract work.

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  10. Harry - we had a ton of lebanese restaurants in ottawa and the rose water was always served as a first course - it was delightful to sit on a patio and sip the rose water. i have made it for years!

    i am glad that you enjoy the pics. i always enjoy the pictures of your place because the flora is sooo different. i think if i lived in the US i would want to live in the mountains.

    jam works every day on his contract remotely from home. he goes on-site 1-2-3 days a week while it is fishing season for meetings and such. but he does the majority of his work at home. it's a good set-up.

    sending much love as always!

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