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Roses

We're so accustomed to admiring flowers for looks and smell we're apt to overlook their taste. But the Romans leaned heavily on them for all sorts of culinary quirks, one of which was flavoring wine, and it's said that after the battle of Cirrah the Spartans themselves refused the wine offered them because it was not perfumed with roses. In any case, roses should be brought right into camp, roses both wild and tame, but preferably the damask rose, for making lively preserves, fruit tarts and ice creams.