• Note that the proportions given here are very rough—a few more rose petals or a little more or less sugar and it will all still work out roughly the same. So, be flexible while making this and be ready to innovate mid-stream.
• Note also that the quart jar is bigger than what is needed for a handful of rose petals, but better a larger jar than a smaller one for this preparation.
• Make sure the rose petals are well washed. Use a salad spinner to remove as much of the water as possible, then spread on a tea-towel and pat dry.
• Using a regular sized jam jar or equivalent, start layering the rose petals with sugar, sprinkling some sugar over each layer of rose petals added and gently packing them into the jar.
• Once the jar is full, pour the honey over the top.
• Cap the bottle and leave this to sit on a counter in a warm spot (filtered sun is ok) for a day, after which the rose petals will start to collapse and reduce in volume. Open and mix the petals and sugar with a clean, dry spoon.
• Add enough water at this stage just barely to submerge the petals (leave a good 1” headspace or more from the top of the jar). The petals will eventually float and the water will be below, and you will start to see the color seep down.
• Close the jar and mix daily until the water below starts to darken in color. At this point (about 3-4 days in), add 1/2 cup sugar--and another 2 days later, add the remaining 1/2 cup. Sugar will feed any microbes doing their fermenting thing, so make sure you don't cap the jar too tightly. You're burping it anyway when you mix daily.
• The syrup is ready when it’s a dark pink-red and very fragrant. It should be mostly ready by the time of the second sugar addition. Taste it – if it feels right after about a week, or a day or so after the second sugar addition, then decant the liquid. If it’s not yet ready, leave it out a day or two longer, continuing to mix periodically, and when it feels ready, decant.
• Bear in mind that this is a fermentation process, so if you see signs of things going wrong--mold growing or just a smell that isn't right--discard and start over. I've not had this happen, but it can. So be vigilant.
• The syrup may be less sweet or less thick than you like at the decanting stage; that’s completely fine. It makes a nice drink on its own, or with ice and a splash of soda.
• If you wish to sweeten it further, simply add more sugar (a 1:1 sugar to liquid ratio makes a simple syrup and there’s already sugar in your mix so this would be at least a rich syrup or a thicker syrup, which is equally desirable). Do NOT heat the syrup to dissolve any additional sugar as that will ruin the fragrance. Add the sugar directly and stir as long as it takes to dissolve, or make a sugar syrup separately, allow it to cool, and add it to the rose colored bottle.
• Transfer the syrup to a clean bottle and store in the refrigerator. The syrup can be stored outside on the counter, too, but bear in mind it’s a product of some fermentation and that’s likely to continue apace if it’s not refrigerated. That’s not a bad thing; the syrup makes for a nice drink when it’s slightly fizzy, too!

For the Gulkand

• Once the syrup is made and bottled, transfer the rose petals to the jar of a food processor and pulse a few times until they are roughly chopped.
• Add the extra sugar and honey, and mix well. Transfer back into the glass quart jar, making sure there’s always an inch or more of headspace.
• Leave this on the counter—indefinitely. The petals will darken considerably. When they have have become soft and lost some of their chewiness, they are ready to use in paan, in cakes (or on them), mixed in with rose syrup and soda, and any other uses you can think of.