(20 May 2007)
1. Town of Qamsar at dawn
2. Close up of Mohammadi flower, rose native to Iran
3. Wide of rose garden with villagers harvesting flowers
4. Gardener's hand picking flowers
5. Man picking flowers
6. Open Mohammadi rose
7. SOUNDBITE (Farsi) Abbas Momen, Rose farmer :
"When we come here in the morning we can smell the Mohammadi flowers which are really sweet-smelling and reminds us of our Prophet Mohammad and makes us praise and greet him. Highly scented flowers bring joy to our soul."
8. Flower garden with gardeners working
9. Abbas Momen placing picked flowers in a sack
10. Abbas Momen collecting picked flowers
11. SOUNDBITE (Farsi) Hossein Meysam, Gardener:
"Harvesting flowers is a difficult task because the thorns can hurt our hands and bees hiding inside flowers can sting our hands. Even walking in the garden is not easy because thorns might scratch many parts of our bodies but we don't feel the pain because of the lovely sweet smell of roses."
12. Hand placing picked flowers into a sack
13. Hossein harvesting Mohammadi flowers
14. Town of Qamsar
15. Collected flowers ready for processing
16. Various of girl taking pictures of flowers
17. Firewood and fire set to heat the Mohammadi flower petals, part of distillation process
18. Man preparing the fire under large iron pots
19. Small pool of water at distillery
20. Man connecting a pipe which takes steam from boiling flowers to the large jars of rosewater
21. Man attaching pipes to large iron pots
22. SOUNDBITE (Farsi) Hamid Zakeri, Worker in rosewater distillery :
"When the mixture of flowers and water boils, the highly aromatic steam comes out of the pipes connected to the large iron pots. The steam is taken to the jars placed in cold water and this makes the steam condense into a liquid."
23. Part of distillery with a basket full of picked flowers in foreground
24. Large iron pots used in process of extracting rosewater
25. Women pouring rosewater into bottles
26. Rosewater bottles ready for sale
27. SOUNDBITE (Farsi) Shahram Karami, Tourist :
"We had heard a lot about Qamsar so we decided to take a trip to this town and visit it by ourselves."
Reporter's Question:
"What is Qamsar famous for?"
SOUNDBITE (Farsi) Shahram Karami, Tourist :
The city of Qamsar is famous for its rosewater and other liquids taken from flowers."
Reporter's Question:
"How popular is it?"
SOUNDBITE (Farsi) Shahram Karami, Tourist :
"Its rosewater is popular worldwide."
28. People buying rosewater
29. Various of bottles of different types of aromatic liquids taken from flowers and plants
LEAD-IN:
Some of the most fragrant roses in the world are said to come from central Iran.
For thousands of years, farmers in the town of Qamsar have collected the nectar rich blossoms and each spring it is distilled into rosewater using traditional techniques.
STORYLINE:
As daybreaks over the city of Qamsar, some 280 kilometres from the capital Tehran, farmers are beginning to harvest these blossoms while their aroma is at its sweetest.
The highly scented Mohammadi flower is indigenous to Iran and has been used to create perfume, as an ingredient in Iranian foods and in traditional medicines for centuries.
Abbas Momen, a rose farmer from Qamsar, says the sweet fragrance of the flowers makes him happy.
Another rose gardener Hossein Meysam says here are some hidden dangers in working with roses.
Once collected the roses are placed in sacks that are taken to a distillery where they are spread out and sorted.
The best quality petals are selected to turn them into rosewater.
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