My First Experience Making Hydrosols; A Surprisingly Easy How-To
It was my birthday on Mother’s Day, and I got to spend the day with my wonderful kiddo just lazing around the house and yard, laughing and playing with each other.
When my partner Justin got home, we opened presents and went for a hike in one of my favorite wildcrafting places near the river. One of the presents he got me was a book by James Green called “The Herbal Medicine-Makers Handbook,” which is just a wealth of information about how to make nearly every herbal solution I’d ever wondered about. Everything is in simple terms with several recipes in each section to choose from, in case one sounds a little too (or not enough) complicated for you.
The first recipes I was eager to try out were the hydrosols, also known as floral waters, as they’ve always had this air of complicated-ness about them. They often are fairly pricey, which somehow lends to the mystery, but I was pleasantly relieved to find that they were quite simple and uncomplicated. Yet another reason I am so in love with herbal healing! It’s so accessible!
It’s pretty much as simple as this:
Gather some Rose petals, or some other kind of fragrant flower or herb. Wild Rose (Rosa woodsii) is the most amazing smelling of the Roses in my opinion, but you can try with any you like.
~ Get an enamel canning pot, add 3 quarts water and your loosely packed quart of herb…
~ Place a vegetable steamer with the center taken out in the bottom of the pot…
~ Then place a bowl on top of that this will catch your hydrosol in
~Next, cover this, and slowly bring it to a boil, emphasis on the slowly.
Once it’s come to a boil, take the lid off and flip it upside down, replacing it back on the pot. This is going to help the gathered condensation drip into your bowl. You can place a bag of ice on top of the lid, which the book says adds a little something to the mix, and I did this, but it didn’t even last half the time, and I didn’t really have anymore ice to put on it again, as I’d used all the ice in the house and the newly filled trays took too long to re-freeze. So if it added that extra something, it added it in that first two hours only.
After about four hours later I had about a quart and half of Rose Hydrosol! And it smelled A-MAZ-ING!!! Put some in a spray bottle and use it to mist your face and body. Rose Hydrosol has been touted to help problem skin and reduce fine lines and signs of aging, as well as aromatherapy to help emotional and spiritual healing.
