Hillside harvest of sweet petals
Flowers are gathered on a Welsh farm to make rose water, used to enhance food with its fragrant flavour
E ARLY ONE MORNING in late May, on a hill above a Welsh valley drifting with mist, a field of roses comes into bloom. To the sound of birdsong, bleating sheep and droning bees, two women move along the rows of bushes, gathering the delicate petals. Here, in the rolling Monmouthshire countryside, Desdemona Freeman and Denise Jones rise at dawn to pick their precious crop. Between May and July, it is a task they will perform daily, whatever the weather. Accompanied by Desdemona’s two-year-old greyhound, Jupiter, they walk between the bushes, dropping the fragrant pink and white rose heads, their petals damp with dew, into wicker baskets. This is the first stage in producing rose water. Originally a by-product of the rose oil industry, rose water is used in cooking, beauty products and for medicinal purposes. Desdemona and her husband, Jonathan, bought Tregout Farm and its 19 acres in 1995. It was love at first sight but someone had already made an offer on the property. Six months later, the couple received a call to say it was back on the market, and they seized the opportunity to buy it. Initially, the land was used to graze sheep, but a conversation at the school gate in 2006 changed all that. “I got chatting to a lady who ran her own skincare products company,” explains Desdemona. “She said: ‘Do you know the cost of organic rose oil is exorbitant, and it’s really hard to get hold of?’ I came home and looked at the acres of clay soil and thought: ‘I could grow roses and make rose oil.’ My birthday was coming up, so I phoned my mother and asked her to give me six rose plants as a present.”
At the time, Denise was working on the farm for the Freemans, providing administration support for Jonathan’s financial business. “Desdemona mentioned the rose oil idea. Her enthusiasm just rubbed off on me, and my mind exploded with ideas,” she says.
Change of direction
The first roses were planted in spring 2010. In addition to the six gifted bushes, the women also planted between three and 12 bushes of six different varieties, to see how they fared and what they produced. However, it takes very large quantities of highly fragrant rose petals to create sufficient oil for a viable business. Desdemona and Denise knew it would take a few years to be able to produce enough roses for this. In the meantime, they planned to build the business around fragrant companion plants, such as lavender, calendula and chamomile. These had been planted to encourage beneficial insects which would keep pests away from the roses. “We made the most beautiful pot pourri, with 20 different ingredients, herbal bath bags and sleep pillows filled with hops and lavender,” says Denise. Eventually, they realised they could not produce the volume of petals needed to make enough oil to make a business work. “If we had increased the number of bushes a thousandfold, we would possibly have had enough,” says Denise. Instead, they decided to focus on making the highest quality rose water. Over a two-year period, through trial and error, the determined pair developed a select range of beautiful products. Rose water is the by-product of the distillation process which produces the oil. Rose oil producers will distil several times to make sure they have captured as much oil as possible. This means very little oil is left in the rose water. “Mass-manufactured rose water can suffer from overexposure to heat during the re-distillation process, which can affect the flavour,” says Desdemona. “Also, some of the products being sold as rose water are synthetic flavourings, and some are just spring water with a drop of oil added.” Desdemona and Denise decided to make a rose water which captured more rose oil, creating a product with a superior flavour. “There may be herbalists who make their own rose water for lotions and potions, but I believe we’re the only food-grade producer in the UK,” says Desdemona.
Planting and growing
They currently grow approximately 200 rose bushes. The two main types are Rosa gallica var. officinalis, also known as the apothecary’s rose, with highly-scented crimson blooms, and the classic rose-pink flowers of the damask rose, Rosa x damascena ‘Kazanlik’. Damask roses, a cross between Rosa gallica and Rosa moschata, are renowned for their strong
fragrance and oil producing properties. There are also a small number of Rosa alba maxima, a pure white rose that produces a fresher, lighter fragrance. These roses like cool nights and dewy mornings, and need a lot of heat to produce more of the oil. As they are focused purely on rose water production, this is not an issue for Desdemona and Denise and the plants are happy growing on the Welsh hillside. Planting and care of the roses follows a seasonal pattern. “We buy in our plants bare-rooted and plant them in October and November. We tend to prune in February and may mulch then, if needed, followed by another weed and mulch in April or May. We continue to weed around the roses all year,” says Desdemona. While they are not registered as organic growers, they adhere to its methods. “The idea is to work in harmony with nature and the seasons in a sustainable way,” says Denise. They practise the no-dig method, using mulches, such as manure from Denise’s horses, directly on the surface of the soil. This allows worms to incorporate the goodness into the ground rather than digging every season. The shells from the eggs laid by Desdemona’s ducks are scattered on the soil or in the compost heap so their precious nutrients are not wasted.
“What would the rose with all her pride be worth, Were there no sun to call her brightness forth?” Thomas Moore, ‘Love Alone’
Blackspot, a fungal disease that causes blotches on the leaves, and in severe cases defoliation, was an issue for the first time last year. “Up until now, we’ve been extremely lucky,” says Desdemona. “We tend to pick off any infected leaves, but we’ll possibly look to use some natural sprays, such as milk or garlic. However, we’ll wait until all the flowers have been picked by the end of July, as we wouldn’t want anything to affect the flavour.”
Picking and distilling
The rose heads must be picked as soon as they bloom, over a six-week period from the end of May to mid July. Dawn starts are essential. “I need to pick as the sun is coming up, as I want the roses to be dewy and fresh. The sun causes the temperature to rise and burns off the rose oil, and the flowers go over very quickly,” explains Desdemona. As the flowers are collected, they are checked to ensure none are brown to taint the water and that no bugs hide in the petals. The roses are stored briefly in a freezer, to keep them fresh until Desdemona and Denise are ready to start distilling. Then they are added, along with spring water from the farm’s borehole, to a shiny copper pot still, which is located in an old stone outbuilding. The still came from Scotland and is a thing of beauty in itself, its bulb-shaped lid giving it the appearance of an Arabian lamp, in contrast to the bright, white interior of its surroundings. A gas ring sits below the still to heat the mixture. As it comes to the boil, steam travels up and round a coiled pipe surrounded by cold spring water.
This cools and condenses the steam back to water. It drips into a 4.5-litre demijohn, which is sealed with a stopper. It takes approximately 1kg of roses to make 1 litre of rose water. Fresh rose water has a grassy taste, so it needs to be matured in the demijohns for at least six weeks, sometimes for six months or longer. This allows the flavour to develop before it is transferred through a filter into bottles made from violet Miron glass, used in the food and cosmetics industries. This stops much of the light spectrum passing through, which would cause products to deteriorate, making it better at maintaining the quality of the product inside. No preservatives are added, so it is recommended the rose water is used within six months of opening. When they launched their rose water at Abergavenny Food Festival in September 2014, they had approximately 500 bottles. Four years later, Desdemona and Denise produce enough rose water for 1,000-2,000 bottles a year in either 30ml or 100ml quantities, which are sold at fairs and festivals as well as from their online shop.
Building the business
“The seasonality is the real joy of something like this,” says Desdemona. “You pick like mad for six weeks, then it’s over. You distil like mad, then it needs to mature, and you can go on holiday. Then you fill in time for the Christmas markets.” There are plans to plant more rose bushes and introduce both workshops and new products, such as room and pillow mist. “We want the business to grow organically and sustainably,” says Denise. It means plenty more dawn awakenings to gather rose petals on a Welsh hillside.