A Rose Gets in a Jam

Remember our discussion about edible flowers? In the post "Please Don't Eat the Daisies," Jeanne told you which flowers are safe to use in foods. If you raise your roses organically, without synthetic fertilizers or herbicides, why not play with them? I said I would ask a certain woman I was interviewing as to whether she ate the flowers from her garden.

To my delight, Nell Newman gave me a wonderful tip.

"I do refrigerator jam, where you make a sugar syrup. I cut up strawberries, I put them in a pan, I put some sugar in, I put a little bit of water and maybe a little tiny bit of lemon juice in, and I just simmer it, I don’t jell it, and I turn it off. If I’ve got a good rose, I’ll take one rose bud and pull the petals off and just chiffonade them into the warm jam and push it under and mix it up. It makes the color even more red with the essence of rose, and it’s so delightful. It's lovely."

She makes it sound so beautiful, like life in an English tearoom, somehow. Nell is the president and co-founder of Newman's Own Organics, and she's chief taste tester for the more than 150 products her company makes, all with certified organic ingredients. She spends a lot of time visiting farmers markets and talking with growers; she's passionate about the natural world and living a "slow food" lifestyle, taking the time to sit down with the family and have a nice meal - cherishing the food as much as you cherish the people you serve it to. (By the way, you can learn more about "slow food," there's an organization.)

We talked about roses in particular, and she is old school when it comes to a good rose.

"I only plant roses that smell good. I am appalled that the rose industry has bred the scent out of every rose. It’s mind-boggling. They’ve actually finally now bred the scent out of the purple rose. It’s taken them 40 some-odd years."

Bloomin' idiots.


(Photo by John H. Ostdick)