Behind the Scenes
The Journey of a Temple Flower
From the feet of a deity to a landfill, or from the feet of a deity to your home. The difference is a van and about six days.
A temple in a mid-sized Indian city can receive more flowers in a week than a florist sells in a month. They arrive as offerings, they are placed, and by evening they are swept into a corner. Most of what happens next is unglamorous: a municipal bin, or a river.
Day one — collection
We collect the same evening. Flowers left overnight begin to ferment, and once that starts the fragrance is gone and the batch is only good for compost.
Days two and three — sorting and drying
Sorting is entirely by hand. Thread, foil, plastic wrap and the odd coin all have to come out, and different flowers dry at different rates so they are separated before they go out in the sun. Marigold takes the longest. Jasmine takes barely a day.
Day four — grinding and blending
Dried petals are ground to a coarse powder and mixed with gum and water into a paste roughly the consistency of dough. Oils go in at this stage so the fragrance sits through the stick rather than on its surface.
Days five and six — rolling and curing
Rolling is done by hand, one stick at a time. A practised roller manages a few thousand in a day, which is a number that still surprises us. The rolled sticks then cure in the shade — sun at this stage dries the outside faster than the inside and the coating cracks.
And then it starts again
The flower was offered, and it is offered again in a different form. That is the whole idea, and it is where the name came from.
