Foraging wild rose petals to make jam. Fun way to be outside exploring the English countryside, sharpening our awareness and observation of wild plants along the way.
We read to only pick the petals of the roses so that they can still go on to develop their rose hips later in the season.
We then found through experience that the bigger, whiter petals were ready to leave the plant like ripe fruits and we could leave the younger pinker roses on the plants so that the bushes would not be bare for the bees.
In the midst of a lot of new activities, such as their first trip to the cinema and large supermarkets, I’m working hard to keep my kids grounded and interested in the natural world around us.
So many great conversations on this journey especially as we contrasted the monocropped wheat fields with the more wild bushes we were gathering from and discussed the domestication of both crops and people and our own journey of #rewilding and their roles in this transition generation. And then to get practical and make the jam!