Obviously there’s a lot of shit going on in the world at the moment, I’m quite sure I don’t need to go into it. I just want to note though, I’m terribly gutted I’m going to be missing the Violent Femmes concert next week, at least its postponed and not cancelled, there’s hope yet!

The kids and I made fire cider today. Something I’ve been meaning to do every year but just never quite get round to it, today felt like the day though. Tell you what, I now feel more prepped than what a roomful of toilet paper would make me feel..here’s a (what I thought at the time) funny/interesting article about the whole toilet paper thing from the NZ Herald.

I didn’t follow any recipe but many ideas. Basically, we just walked around the property and collected anything and everything that we know have great/wonderous/many properties. Then raided our apothecary for dried goods and freezer for ginger and chillies.

Here’s what’s in our witches brew…
- Dried elderberries
- Dried Orange slices
- Dried Horopito
- Dried Motherwort
- Dried Bay leaves
- Cloves
- Powdered tumeric (would’ve used fresh but really wanted to make it NOW)
- Sliced red onion
- Sliced fresh ginger
- Chillies
- Garlic, lots
- Fresh herbs…..
- Sage
- Nettle
- Nasturtium leaves
- Rosemary
- Yarrow
- Thyme
- Peppermint
- Oregano
- Lemon verbena
- Chive flowers
- Lemon peel

I wasn’t thinking about flavour at all, just potency and what I had available! Oh, so this was all topped up with my homemade apple cider vinegar. The kids have always loved making potions so it was fun for them to be part of a real life process (tinctures aren’t too much of a process).

I’ll steep it for 6-8 weeks (in a dark warm place, so it’s sharing space with my brewing fruit wines), sieve it, bottle it and proceed to take a tablespoon of it everyday..hope like hell it’s a little palatable!

Do it people, I highly recommend it, I know I haven’t gone into a whole lot of detail but I also know that Instagram and probably a whole host of other social networks are riddled with fire cider recipes right now, no shame in jumping on the band wagon with this one! If you do want more details from me just comment below..
Stay healthy beautiful people, grow more herbs and eat more herbs. I am actually going to have herb plants to sell throughout the year now, that’ll be my next post and I’ll let you know what I’ll have available… Xx