by Solara Goldwynn, Hatchet & Seed
The start of summer is upon us and with all the warm weather we’ve been experiencing, the abundance of local food is in full swing. This month I wanted to share with you all a simple, delicious, local food treat that can be eaten in many ways.
Let’s first start with the rose aspect. As I write this in our garden in North Saanich, the hedgerows around us are in full bloom with the wild Nootka rose. An incredible food source for pollinators and humans alike, the rose should not be overlooked in the garden or the kitchen! For this recipe I harvested some wild rose and some of our organically-grown cultivated roses from the garden. A word about wild harvesting: never take more that a third, making sure to leave plenty for the bees and other foragers, and always ensure you’re harvesting from an unpolluted area.
Rose Syrup
2 cups rose petals
½ cup sugar (I use Level Ground Organic Cane Sugar)
½ to 1 cup water
Rinse rose petals and pat dry. Combine sugar and water in a saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Add in rose petals and remove from heat, stirring so that all of the petals are immersed into the sugar water. Let cool completely, and then strain off the liquid, keeping it close by for the next part of the recipe. If you used cane sugar the liquid will be a dark caramel colour. This syrup can be used to flavour drinks, or for baking, but here we’ll use it in the compote.
Rose & Rhubarb Compote
2-3 large stalks of rhubarb
½ cup rose syrup
½ cup water
½ teaspoon pepper (optional)
Rhubarb is a perennial vegetable that is a stunning feature in the garden. Grown best from crowns, give it a few seasons to establish and you will have rhubarb for many years. The part you eat is the stalks (coming in red, pink or green varieties) and the leaves are poisonous to humans, but are excellent in the compost pile.
For this recipe, cut up the rhubarb stalks into ½ inch pieces. Put into a saucepan and add in the rose syrup; bring to a boil. If the syrup is too thick, add in a little bit of water. Towards the end put in a dash of pepper! This spices up the compote and pairs nicely with the rose flavour. Cook the mixture to a thick jam consistency and eat hot, served on ice cream, or put in a jar and keep it in the fridge (up to a week) to be eaten later. I ate this batch with homemade oatcakes (and maybe a bit of ice cream).
