![]() I have a PADI Advanced Open Water scuba diving qualification and have done about fifty dives around the world, including some wrecks. I spent most of my childhood summers in pools, lakes and oceans in Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. As a child, I consumed every book and documentary I could about the oceans and I swam from an early age. I have had a lifelong fascination with the sea. Spearfishing has its roots in freediving, too. Freedivers were also employed for the salvage of valuable items from sunken ships and to sabotage enemy vessels or ferry supplies. Greeks collected sponges off Kalmynos island and the Ama divers of Japan gathered pearls. Common among ancient cultures around the world as a means of gathering food and resources, the first documented dives date back to 5400 BC. I think life must have begun in water: I believe we were born of the sea.įreediving is the art of diving underwater on one breath without the aid of mechanical devices. There is a richness to the underwater world that amazes me. An aquatic microorganism may be the common ancestor to all living things. There are scientists who think that life began more than three billion years ago in deep-sea hydrothermal vents. But most often, I feel a deep connection to nature and life itself. Sometimes, the experience is intensely physical-I sense the movement of my limbs through water. Sometimes, I feel as though I’m travelling into space, into a great expanse of unending blue. It has much in common with Buddhist meditation, another important part of my life.Įvery time I dive, I take a journey. ![]() To me, freediving is a form of meditation in movement: it’s about the synergy of mind, body and spirit. To get ten scallops took us repeated dives ten metres down over three hours. My partner and I recently tried underwater foraging for scallops, crabs and lobsters with our hands, as ancient divers did. The sport marries many of my interests-exploration, history, science and nature. Freediving also allows me to indulge my passions for photography and film. My goal is to swim with large aquatic mammals and pelagic fish such as seals, dolphins and whale sharks. I became a freediver to connect with the underwater world in the purest way. Its popularity with food quickly spread throughout Europe and made its way into both sweet and savory dishes, many of which are still popular today.Freediving requires that you enter into a state of total, meditative calm. To preserve oxygen, every single muscle relaxes, the breath slows, all thoughts become still. It wasn't until the 10th century that Avicenna, an Arab physician, discovered how to extract the essential oil from the flowers and invented rosewater proper. The trick with both orange blossom water and rose flower water is to use very little, to give the merest hint of fragrance.Īs early as the third century, essences were made from rose petals using fairly crude methods. It is also used in numerous savory dishes. It's divine incorporated into sweet Middle Eastern pastries, and a little swirled through Khoshaf, a salad of dried fruit, pistachio nuts and almonds, is heavenly. Moroccan Rose Water for Food: Suggested UsesĪ few drops streaked through cream, crème fraîche, custards, creamed rice puddings, ice cream, baked semolina sweets (popular in Morocco and throughout North Africa), fruit fools, sugar syrups, and fruit salads add an element of surprise. In fact, Morocco is especially known for its fields of roses that are used to produce some of the most fragrant rose water available - indeed, some "French" rose water is produced in Morocco.Įxotic as Moroccan rose water seems today, many people forget that it was a common and popular flavoring in this country as well, until vanilla extract became readily available a century ago. Until that, lemon and rose water were used to flavor baked goods, which were often made with ingredients like pork fat and maple sugar (cheaper and easier to obtain than butter and white sugar) - strong flavors that needed the strong scents of rose or lemon. It has the intense perfumelike flavor and fragrance of its source. Rose water has been a popular flavoring for millennia in the cuisines of North Africa, Middle East, India, and China. Rose flower water is, to put it simply, a distillation of rose petals. Essential Pantry Rose Flower Water - 3.0 oz - Morocco
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