Everything Rosy Class

If you’re into crafting; indigenous or otherwise, history, art, or the natural world, I’d recommend checking out the Folk School Warroad. Last week, I had the privilege of teaching a class about roses,which I named Everything Rosy. Well, honestly, in preparing for the class I was wracking my brain pondering how I could share EVERYTHING about roses, being the genius that I am naming the class EVERYTHING Rosy….. and came to the conclusion (less quickly than I should have) that such an endeavor could take the good part of a lifetime. There’s too much history, legends, idioms, songs, poetry, medicinal uses, cosmetic uses, tidbits, factoids, and other secrets that the Rose family has than can be shared in a two hour slot apparently! So I settled it in my mind to be the “Something’s Rosy” class. It was an amazing group of women who showed up, and they represented every age of womanhood, which delighted me. We had a good time, learning and rabbit trailing ( in the most productive way of course!).  We started off sharing memories we had with roses. Many commented that roses reminded them of their grandmothers, others mentioned nasty encounters with the thorns, and others remembered eating the hips in various ways. Then I discussed some of culinary and medicinal history of roses, such as how they were utilized by the Ojibwe, how they saved the Brits during WW2, and how they along with honey, were used by the Vikings.  Next, we got our hands dirty….well oily I guess….and did the work of straining our infused oil to make lip balm and lotion. In our herbal preparations, we used oils, beeswax, glycerin, rose petals, rose hips, rose seed oil, and rose hydrosol. The class rounded off, as all should, with a snack (of rosy treats); dark chocolate with rose petals, pistachios, and pine nuts, rose and cardamom shortbread cookies, and hot rose hip tea. I love to share about the many amazing plants growing in our local area, and if you’d like to learn more, feel free to contact me! Have a great day!