Rose Hydrosol Foraged And Distilled In California

This year with the extras rains and spring so cold and uncharacteristic of Northern California, the pink lotus and lilies weren’t keen to appear. They gave me perhaps two weeks and I was lucky to have even that. But while those rains drown my lotus and lily dreams, they brought the summer of roses, the kind of roses I connected with as my perfumer, rose water making eight year old self. 

Rugosa roses were my mother’s rose. It was her roses that perfumed a farm marred with the scent of cow and chicken sh*t. It made me feel pretty when I didn’t in the hand me down clothing that somehow never fit right. It was the flower that I pressed into lard from the pigs we raised and it was the flower I boiled to make rose water for my glycerine rosewater concoction. I ate Rugosa petals, carefully dregging with egg from our coop and rolling in fine sugar to harden. This was my ceremony, my connection to all things eternally beautiful. When I found rugosas outside of my city this summer while on a foraging excavation, I was once again returned to ceremony. This time with a still, well crafted technique and a genuine understanding at how marvelous this flower is. I’m devoted to small distillations, fractional even and I’m not interested in separating out the small amount of essential oil that naturally occurs.  I see the hydrosol as more of a bespoke perfume; a language for the fragrant rugosas I picked during the many sunsets of this summer.

Shelf life: approimately 12 months. Refrigerate to prolong freshness.

Packaged in 3.3oz/100 ml tamper proof refillable glass bottles.

Our hydrosols are kept in dedicated refrigeration until shipped.