Rose water of Jebal Akhdar

Roses being stored

April 3, 2011

Always good for a road trip Leslie signed up for the Omani Heritage Gallery Tour up to Jebal Akhdar. Jebal Akhdar is about 2 1/2 hours inland from Muscat and the steep ascent up to 7,000 feet to reach the plateau requires still a hardy 4 WD with low low gear even through the road is now paved. The family had been up to the Jebal a couple of times previously before the road was paved and permission from the military was needed. As soon as the OHG notice for the trip came out Leslie contacted a few friends and had 3 other ladies joining her on the trip. Muna Richie, the director of OHG lead the group of 14 up past the military check point near Birkat al Mouz. The first village we went to on the plateau was Al Shareija. We walked through the village to a house where an older Omani man, Abdullah was making the rose water. He had a big basin of fresh fully opened rose blossoms with cool water sprinkled on them. Every morning during the rose season, which runs roughly from April to May, he is out there collecting his rose blossoms at 6 am and the again at 5 pm. He stores them in a cloth in his coolest room and freshens them with cold water as he gets ready to prepare the rose water.



Four pots for making rose water



The process of extraction of the rose oil is through condensation. A clay pot called a “Al-burmah”, or in this case 4 clay pots are sealed within a mud hearth over a fire. Abdulla used his hand to put 2 handfuls of rose petals into the pot and swish them around.  He said he does not burn his hands because of the water on the roses.  Then a smaller metal bowl is put inside on top of the rose petals to produce condensed vapor, followed by a lid and then some more water on top to cool the lid. The metal bowl on the inside then collects the condensed water as possible.  The liquid is then poured into pottery jars and aged for about 1 month before being sold.  The smoky rosewater is used for medicinal purposes and put in Omani coffee and sweets particulary halwah. Abdulla did a wonderful job of demonstrating the process and Muna acted as our translator of his descriptions and all our questions. His other job is as a Koran teacher in the school. Of course cameras were clicking away during the demonstration and the whole day.



traditional mud ovens called “Al-duhjan.”



The essence makers often labour in hot, clammy rooms simultaneously working several hearths at a time but one netted a profit of over RO1,000 in rose water sales last year - for just two months’ of hard work. As in the case of the date cultivation and harvest business, rose growers often hire out their bushes to professional essence-makers at the rate of about RO20 per bush.  Each bush yields about 15-20kg of petals during the season, while it takes about 2kg of petals to generate 750ml of essence valued at RO5. The traditional packaging is in Vimto bottles with newspaper wrapping. With the demand for Omani rose essence as strong as ever, the arithmetic works out in everyone’s favour - grower, extractor, seller and halwa-maker included.

After that we went out to see various rose farm areas and just walk around among the terraced garden areas. There are designated trekking paths through the area. As you walked through the rose garden's the smell was magnificant.

The roses of the Jebal Akhdar that are of such reknown in the area are the Mohamedean variety. I tried to get a rose bush to take home but couldn't make that happen. Muna promised she will get some for us from the supplier OHG uses for their shop. He had gone to Nizwa for the day so was not around.

We all had lunch at the Jebal Akhdar hotel.  After lunch the group split up and some headed back to Muscat but we decided to stay abit longer and explore.  We drove to Diane's point as Lady Diane had camped there over night in a visit back in the early 1980s.  The point had some lovely views and while admiring them we saw another building that we thought was a hotel.  We went and checked out the Sahab Hotel which was lovely.  An Omani gentleman showed us around the small but eco-friendly resort which had a fossil garden and lovely infinity pool.  The views at sunset would be spectacular. One of the staff took us to his Uncle's rose production site and he gave us a bag of rose petals to take home.