Rose Water

A few weeks ago, I read a book entitled 'The Fever and the Flame' by Mary Hooper and really enjoyed it. It's about a girl who lived during the time of the Black Plague and the great fire in London, from about 1665 to 1666. I found it extremely interesting and well-written. The girl goes to work with her sister in London in a candy shop; it's really fascinating to read about how they made the candy. At the very end, there are a few recipes that tell you how to make some of the delicacies you read about in the book, and I thought it would be fun to make frosted rose petals. I have to wait for a sunny day, however, so I decided to make rose water, which I will need anyway.
You need about three to four roses that have not been sprayed with pesticide. Remove the petals from the stem and rinse them carefully, looking for bugs. I discovered a few creepy crawlies myself, earwig included, and shuddered to think what might have happened if I had accidentally cooked him along with the petals.Then you add the petals to 2 cups of water in a saucepan and slowly heat, but make sure that it doesn't boil. The petals may seem to be a bit too much for the amount of water, but they shrink as they become softer and smaller. I used a spoon to push them around gently, just to make sure they all were submerged in the water. Once they become transparent (which, by the way, looks beautiful in its own fairy-like way), you strain the water, squeezing all the excess juices out of the petals as you do so. After that, you can put it into a pretty container (unfortunately, I didn't have an extra special one, so I just used an old Mason jar and tried to make it look better by pasting a blue label on the top) and put it in the fridge. It will stay good for about a week or so.