Culinary and Horticultural Delights

[felis_lupus]

So... two years ago, I bought an Attar of Roses scented geranium from a wonderful gentleman at the Windham Farmer's Market. It has a beautiful rosy scent, lovely soft fuzzy leaves, and if I ever get it in enough sunlight for long enough, will have tiny little lavender flowers. That bit hasn't happened yet, but I've managed not to kill it with not enough light or ignorance of water in the last two winters, so that's something...

It continues to put out lots and lots of foliage, though a bit leggy. Nice big leaves, though, on the end of long petioles that tend to get tangled in each other. So decided yesterday to do some pruning and repot the poor thing. I have a lovely pink pot that was going to be home to my 'Pink Princess' philodendron, but she is currently in rehab... having some difficulties with the whole 'growing' thing... need roots for that... yeah. So I chopped 3/4 of the geranium back, back to strong stems that are showing plenty of new buds and growth, repotted it into the new, larger pink pot, and pondered on what to do with this mass of green that smelled so lovely.

Remembering things that Mark said when I bought the plant, I went to the internet... Attar of Rose geraniums are lovely to use in cooking. I baked a rose-flavored cake. It is amazing. Take leaves, lay them on the bottom of a greased and floured cake pan, and pour over them your favorite white cake recipe. I used the boxed mix. The oils and scents and flavor of the geranium leaves infuse into the cake, making it light and flowery and springy and delicious. Can't reliably find if the leaves are actually edible or not, so I peeled them off the cake just in case...

The rest of the leaves were added to a pot of water and simmered for about an hour on the stove, making rosewater. Not sure how that's turned out yet, and not sure how I'm going to store it yet, but there it is in a bowl in my fridge...

And spring is truly here. The snow is nearly gone (though quite a difference from last year... last year, the forsythia was blooming, and we'd been a month without snow...), and maybe I can even rake all the leaves away some night after work. I am ready to start ripping things out of the garden again! Death to the wintercreeper and sumac and mostly dead azalea!

Comments

[fairestyarrow.livejournal.com]

Now I want your geranium! :) (where I'd put it- no idea, maybe send it to the farm, where they have lots of windows/light) It sounds delightful!

[felis-lupus.livejournal.com]

I am trying, desperately, to root several cuttings. I have tried before. I have not yet been successful. Trying a different way (vermiculite vs water) this time. Once I finally get some roots to grow, you will be first in line for a lovely, lovely geranium!! It really doesn't need much light, I've found. Put it outside in the summer, and in winter, half a day sun is happy. It gets really tall and leggy, but still puts out all kinds of leaves, and is quite happy to be chopped back severely in the spring. :)

[fairestyarrow.livejournal.com]

Yay! I'm rooting for you! :)