The Sweetness of Summer

Radio Record, Volume II, Issue 21, 7 December 1928, Page 12

The Sweetness of Summer

Distilled £ ragrance

"[‘HERE are many methods of making pot pourri, all more or less successful. Here is one which, if followed carefully, will give complete satisfaction :- Although roses are the favourites, any sweet-scented flowers can be added with advantage. Carnations, stocks, syringa, perfumed violas, heliotrope, and scented peonies are admirable. The blossoms should be picked early in the morning with the dew on them, the petals stripped from bigger ones, little ones having their heads nipped off, for stems have no ‘part in the scheme. At the same time, lemon verbena, lavender with some leaves as well as flowers, rosemary, scented geranium leaves, and sweet briar should be picked, dried, and kept separate from the blossoms; in closed tins does very well.

Pick the petals and tiny flowers over, so that any faded or diseased ones are rejected. Spread the perfect. ones on white paper in the sun to dry while they are fresh. Much pot pourri is ruined because flowers half dead to begin with are used. "Pickling" Blossoms. HEN quite dry put them into a jar, covering the bottom. to 4a depth of three inches. Then sprinkle on a handful of salt, more or less according to the size of the jar; and go on filling it with three-inch layers separated with salt, morning by morning, until the jar is quite full. Its contents then should be pressed well down. Keep it covered all the time, so that the sweetness may be kept in and the dust out, and when it is full cover carefully, and leave for ten days, stirring the flowers and salt about every day, so that they mix well, It is by this "pickling" that the pot pourri becomes immune from damp and heat and cold. At the end of the ten days turn the pickled petals out on a big tray so that they are roughly an inch thick, and leave them in a very dry place to allow any moisture from the salt, etc, fo evaporate. *Seent and Spice. HEN comes the time for adding the spicy and scented ingredients. There is considerable latitude here for individual fancy. An excellent mixture is made by shaking together 2072. each of the scented verbena, of sweet priar, of crushed cinnamon bark, and of powdered orris root; loz. each of

myrrh, roughly ground allspice, scented geranium leaves, and rosemary mixed; add half-a-pound lavender. Put the flowers on to a coarse sieve to shake out some of the salt, and mix with the scented leaves and spices in ‘a big basin, Then press closely into a jar, or jars, cover véry closely (fill any space which may occur between the top of the mixture and the cover with tightly-pressed tissue paper, so that all air is excluded) and leave well tied down for six or eight weeks. The Final Touch. HEN comes the final touch, in the form of some favourite essential oil-lavender, violet, or what notadded drop by drop while the mixture is being stirred about, so that it is evenly distributed; and the pot pourri is ready. Quantities are rather difficult to dic tate; but a good guide is to use the seented leaves and spices suggested with sufficient flowers to fill an ordinary washing basin, adding to it a large teaspoonful of the essence, Pot pourri made like this will keep for years, distilling its fragrance when the cover of its jar is lifted. If it begins to lessen, turn it into a basin, and stir it about in the sunshine for a few minutes, when its perfume will return. 7 But do not add fresh leaves, ete, Pot pourri should always be made fresh in one instalment, as it were, though' the making extends, as we have seen, over several weeks.