More Wood Craft : Rugosa Roses

Here’s a little something that I had to learn about being in Maine these last 20+ years. Rugosa Roses. These plants are generally not found in North Carolina where I grew up, but they sure are all over coastal Maine. Believe it or not, these roses are considered an invasive species. They came to North America from Japan about 1845 or so. The Rugosa rose grows in dense bushes about 4 - 6 feet tall and are very dense. They were first used to control soil erosion along the sandy beaches in New England. Because they grow in such thick bushes, they tend to blot out the normal grasses and plants that grow on the beaches here in Maine. This is why they are considered invasive.

This time of year (June) they are in full bloom. They’re a simple rose with 5 radial petals that don’t grow in multiple wrapped layers like normal roses do.

In late summer and early Fall, they grow thick bulbous rose hips that look like tiny tomatoes. In summer I like to pick fresh petals and unopened blooms for a tea. I’m going to run a bunch of them through my dehydrator and see what I can come up with.

I steep the fresh petals in a bowl of hot water for about 10 minutes, then strain. The water becomes a pinkish color. The more petals you add the more pink the water gets.

After letting the water cool, I mix it 50/50 with fresh brewed green matcha. Not only does this give me the benefits of strong antioxidants, but rugosa roses are very high in vitamins A and C.

My green tea is the loose gunpowder type that I brew using a method known in the south as “Sun tea.”

I’m not really sure how many northerners use this method, but basically in a nutshell — you simply put the tea in a glass jar on a hot sunny day, and let the Sun warm up the jar until the tea is ready to go. You can add any sweeteners to your taste…. Honey is pretty good…but I seem to like it as is. The natural sweetness of the tea doesn’t have the bitter tannic acid taste most tea plants have.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/afb12c_078cd16a560648f29b07772534c73cb0/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

Here’s a short video for you to enjoy. Watching a bumblebee flitting between the roses gathering pollen.