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DISTILLING ROSE WATER
Get an ordinary tea pot with spout (preferably made of glass), about 3 feet of plastic aquarium tubing (make sure the diameter of the tubing is nearly the same as the hole in the spout of the teapot). Stuff one end of the tubing securely in the spout (the fit should be airtight). This is your still.
Fill the kettle halfway with fresh, clean, fragrant rose petals. Add enough
pure or distilled water (no chlorine) to completely submerge the petals, and keep them from scorching. Place the kettle over low heat on the stove.
Take the tubing, and run it around a metal or heat resistant glass tumbler
filled with ice water, spiraling the tubing down ward (it helps to position the tumber on a table or other surface slightly lower than the kettle to allow gravity to pull the distillate down through the tube). Make sure the tube isn't pulled tight, and have the end of the tube in a bowl or other container large enough to hold most of the liquid in the kettle.
As the water in the kettle comes to a boil, the steam rises and passes through the tubing, then cools and condenses back into a liquid as it passes around the tumber. This runs into the bowl (called a receiver).
Watch the kettle and make sure it doesn't boil dry. Don't turn up the heat
trying to get the liquid to distil faster, as you might wind up scorching the
roses (they are very delicate!).
Let the distilled liquid cool, and you may notice tiny droplets of oil on the
surface... this is the essential oil or attar of rose. This should be gathered
up with a small amount of cotton on a toothpick or eyedropper and bottled separately.
The distilled rosewater should be bottled in dark glass and stored in a cool, not cold place, away from sunlight.
This process can be used for other fresh flowers like lavender, cornflower and chamomile.
Now and then it is a joy to have one's table red with wine and roses.
~Oscar Wilde
To rejuvenate and fluff up feather pillows, place them one at a time in the dryer on a warm setting for 10 minutes with two clean tennis balls. For a pleasant scent, sprinkle three drops of an essential oil, like orange or rose onto a cotton ball, tie it into a handkerchief, and add it to the dryer along with the pillows.
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