An avid aromatherapy enthusiast, I researched recently created my own rose hydrosol using rose petals (from a health food/herb shop.) This is the same organic rose petals that you add to herbal teas.
Hydrosols are simply floral waters that are created through a simple distillation process that you can do at home on your stove. You can make facial and body care products with hydrosols.
I had learned how to do it using the stovetop method, which works okay, except that you have to pretty much stand there with it the whole time (and it takes a couple of hours.)
I came up with a much easier way! I used my crock pot as the double boiler. This way, I didn't have to keep turning the heat up and down so it wouldn't boil too briskly. I started with the crock pot set on the 'Low' setting and then turned it up to 'High' so the water would boil faster. It boiled at a vey efficient and constant rate that made the job of tending the pot so much easier.
As you can see in the pictures, I placed a small silver-plated bowl (it was the perfect size and had a foot on the bottom that acted as a trivet.
I just used tap water and just used enough to about cover my 3 cups of rose petals with it. I turned the crock pot's lid up-side-down to catch the condensation and because it is angled inward, the condensation drips down into my silver bowl.
You can see ice cubes on top of the lid. The ice is what creates the condensation under the lid. I'm using an empty medicine jar (it was small enough) to remove the water that is produced by the steadily melting ice. I used about 12 cups of ice by the time I was done! You have to keep up with water removal and ice replacement the whole time.
Be careful to sop up all the water and remove the ice cubes before lifting the lid to check your progress! Otherwise water from the melted ice will drip into your bowl of hydrosol and contaminate it. When the rose petals have lost their color, you are done!
You can then bottle and store your hydrosol in the fridge for longer life, but use it within a few weeks because it has no preservatives in it.
I had fun making this hydrosol and you can see my process below. It make about 4-5 ounces of hydrosol. I plan on trying this process with lavender flowers next!
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