Ask almost any witch or wizard and they will tell you that roses are magical. What else can be used for such a wide variety of purposes from protection to healing, even to eating? And those are mundane sorts of things! The potion and charms experts know that having rose petals and/or rose hips in the ingredients adds potency and strength to the least of charms and enhances almost all potions. (Putting some thorns from the rose "Mermaid" in your anti-theft potion will make sure that no one bothers what you want to guard.)

But say you want to eat something that has rose buds in it. What, you say, can you do with those petals that smell so lovely? How can you use the hips from Rosa Rugosa or Rosa Gallica or species roses? You know that you harvest them after the first frost — but now what?

Here are a few recipes^[1] that you can create:

Rose Petal Jam

Pick the flowers early in the morning before they are fully open. Remove the stems (for additional colour and sweetness, cut off the yellow base of the petals), then weigh the petals and place them in the same volume of water. Stir in a covered pan for half an hour, by which time it will have a wonderful smell but an uninteresting colour. Increase the heat and slowly add jam sugar (sugar with added pectin) weighing double the weight of the petals. The colour will change dramatically to a deep pink. Bring the mixture to the boil and keep it at a rolling boil for four minutes, by which time a drop poured onto a plate should form a skin. Pour into warm jars and allow to cool. Then place the tightly sealed jars in a dark, cool cupboard.

Rose Petal Sorbet

To make a delicious sorbet use three tablespoons of rose jam, a pint (450 mL) of water and the juice one or two lemons. Place in a sorbetière and turn to a smooth, creamy mixture. This can then be stored in a sealed plastic box in the freezer which will enable you to taste and smell your garden in the middle of winter.

Rose Hip Syrup

An easy way to produce rose hip syrup is as follows:

Slice 2 pounds (1 kg) of deep red hips (or pale orange if you are using hips of R. Gallica var. officinalis) finely into 3 pints (2 litres) of boiling water. Bring back to the boil, then stand the pan away from the heat for 15 minutes. Strain through muslin into a clean bowl, and return the pulp to the pan. (Straining through muslin is important since the fine strands inside the hips used to be dried and sliced to make itching powder!)

Add a further 1-1/2 pints (1 litre) of boiling water to the pulp, bring up to the boil and let it stand for 10 minutes. Strain into the first liquid and mix the two. In this way you will get as much vitamin C as possible.

Return the juice to the pan and reduce slowly to about 1-1/2 pints (1 litre). Add 12 oz (375 g) of sugar², more if you have a sweet tooth, and thoroughly dissolve it. Pour this, hot, into sterilized bottles and fill to the top. Keep in the dark.

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I notice that some folks don't really care to eat rose petals or rose hips but are very interested in that Anti-Theft Potion I mentioned above.

Anti-Theft Potion

Place your cauldron on the fire and boil 2 cups of well water for 5 minutes. Place in it 4 thorns from the rose "Mermaid," 2 dragon scales (any breed of dragon will do), a hair from your head, 3 drops of dog saliva or 2 kneazle hairs. Reduce heat to simmer and let simmer for 10 minutes. Strain the ingredients out of the water and let simmer for another 10 minutes. Decant into warmed glass container (one that has a tight top) and place in dark cool place. Let sit for 24 hours before use.

Place 3 drops of this potion on whatever you wish to make sure isn't stolen. If someone lays thieving hands upon it, it will bite (if dog saliva used) or scratch (if kneazle hairs used) anyone but you. Be sure that you put your hair in the potion because if you don't, you won't be able to touch it yourself.

1. These recipes are taken from Gardening with Old Roses, by John Scarman.
2. A substitute of honey works if you do not wish to use sugar. Since honey has a fluidness already, though, you must experiment to find the taste and consistency you want to have.