Rose Castle Cottage…2020…& A Garden Tour

The kiss of the sun for pardon, the song of the birds for mirth, one is nearer God’s heart in a garden than anywhere else on earth-Dorothy Frances Gurney

Hello, sweet friend…

For several reasons I thought today would be a perfect day to share our garden. As you know shortly after moving into our home last September we were asked to participate in the 2020 garden tour. I felt honored & excited since the date of the tour coincidently marked 5 years since moving from California to the Oregon coast…

With the concerns over the pandemic this year’s tour has been canceled…however our experiencing the joy & love of a garden hasn’t…and for many of us this has been a saving grace.

So today I’m grateful you are here so that we can share and experience the love & joy of strolling through the garden paths…together-apart

Enjoy…

👩‍🍳

What’s Cooking?

Enchanting Floral Ice Centerpiece

Recently I invited a few friends over for a socially distanced garden tour and served ice tea with a decorative block of ice infused with colorful edible flowers and sprigs of summer herbs to make for an enchanting floating centerpiece. I really had fun creating it using the flowers from my garden.

To preserve your preferred arrangement of edibles at the top of the ice block, I like to use a special, two-part freezing process that requires 14 total hours of chilling time—so the trick is to make sure you start early the day before you plan to serve your punch.

You will need:

Edible flowers (I used sweet peas…(a lot) pansies, and daisies for a colorful mix)

Citrus (lemon and lime, but oranges, grapefruit, or tangerines are equally good)

Herbs (try mint, lavender, rosemary, perilla, or lemon balm)

4 cups of water (depending on the size of your container)

2 cups of ice cubes or crushed ice

Ring cake pan, round cake pan, or round plastic container (almost any container will work—even a bundt pan or a mixing bowl- just make sure you have ample space for it in your freezer)

Step 1: Prep your produce

Step 2: Arrange artistically

Step 3: Weigh down decorations

Step 4: Remove, refill, re-freeze

Add a few inches of water to that same container, flip the ice block over so the decorations are on the top, and float it on the water. Place back in the freezer for at least eight more hours, or overnight, to create a thicker ice base. 

Step 5: Put together your punch

Once the second freeze is complete, run warm water over the bottom of the container to loosen and remove your ice, and place it in a pretty punch. Add your beverage of choice, and garnish with extra citrus slices.

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