Learning & preserving the traditional knowledge of your ancestors, going back to your roots to replenish your soul and nourish your body and feeling that connection again is important.
I was blessed this week to have a chance to sit down with my husband's grandmother Elsie, also known as Baba & great Baba to all those that adore her.
Elsie's grandparents were from the old country (the Ukraine) and settled in Saskatchewan, Canada sometime in the 1890’s. They brought with them traditional folk medicine.
She was taught many of these traditional skills, many in which were important for the families well-being. Times were tough and many people relied on these skills to remain healthy and to heal the sick. Her earliest and happiest memories are of foraging and gathering from the wild with her family. To this day, at 87 years old, she will climb down into a ditch to collect sour leaf (sorrel) for her favourite soup. It means a lot to Elsie that her grandson (@xwalkran) and I are taking this treasured knowledge and using it.
Nasturtium Seed
Cornucopia of Goodness challenge
For the Cornucopia of Goodness challenge by @naturalmedicine I've decided to share my own recipe for fire cider and the important ritual that goes along with it.
Spending time with Elsie, talking about the rituals and natural medicine of old made this recipe the perfect one to share for this challenge.
She has been concocting her own healing remedy with similar characteristics. In fact, she's been doing this for a year and has not had a cold or flu once. Even more impressive is the fact that this is an old family recipe that her close friends shared with her. The gentleman that shared it is 94 years old. He and his wife takes a spoonful of this remedy daily and has done for decades.
The recipe they use is lemon juice, garlic and honey blended into a syrupy paste. Fire cider takes this one level further by using raw apple cider vinegar and a few more ingredients.
I don't know about you but when a 97 year old is still going out dancing on a Friday night with his lady, I am rather inclined to believe in the magic of these ingredients.
Crab Apples & Rose Hips
Sun Kissed Ginger, Garlic & Horseradish
Mindfulness, Gratitude & Rituals
Brewing up magical concoctions in the kitchen is my passion. When creating your own medicine the ritual and mindful way in which you interact with and gather the ingredients really adds to the overall experience. I tend to think that if you aren't happy when you are working on a project like this you will end of bottling some of that negative energy. So yes, dance, sing and feel gratitude for these beautiful healing ingredients.
Summer Fire Cider with a not so common ingredient: beetroot!! It turned out great and the colour was beautiful.
I like to concoct fire cider during a full moon. I just missed the most recent full moon because I was travelling so this does not always work out but I try. While gathering you should try to take time to observe, appreciate and thank the plants. This is a time to be mindful and not rushed.
If you make the fire cider during the full moon you could set the jar out under the night sky for a while so that it can absorb some of that wonderful moon energy.
Ginger, garlic, horseradish, onion, rose petals, nasturtium seed and flowers, crab apples, rose hips, oregano flowers, basil, rosemary & raw apple cider vinegar.
A Fire Cider For All Seasons
The home remedies that we craft usually involve ingredients that grow on the land around us. We make fire cider at least three times per year. Although the base is always the same, each version is unique with the addition special seasonal ingredients.
In the spring we gather items such as spruce tips, chaga and dandelion root. In the summer we'll move to things like rhubarb, burdock root, herbs, hot peppers, rose petals and other edible flowers. When weather cools and autumn arrives we'll gather items like crab apples, rose hips and nasturtium seeds and whatever else is still growing. This recipe is so versatile!
Nasturtium Seed & flowers, rosemary, basil, jalapeño, rose petals & oregano flowers
The basic ingredients in fire cider are:
raw apple cider vinegar, garlic, horseradish, ginger, onion, lemon, honey. There are no set rules when making fire cider. If garlic is an issue for you, try other powerful ingredients instead. This recipe is just a general guide. You can be as creative as you like. I've never had a batch I didn't like.
- 10-15 cloves of garlic, crushed
- 2 cups fresh ginger root, grated
- 1/2 cup fresh horseradish root, grated
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- Assorted other ingredients (herbs, roots, flowers, etc)
- Juice of one lemon
- Raw apple cider vinegar
- raw honey to taste
Directions
- Wash and prepare all of the items you have gathered and fill your jar 3/4 full.
- Cover the ingredients with raw apple cider vinegar. You might need to weigh down the ingredients with a stone or fermenting weight if they keep floating above the vinegar.
- Affix a lid, shake and store in a dark place at room temperature and allow the mixture to steep for one moon cycle or several months.
Don't refrigerate as this will diminish some of the beneficial living cultures and flavours of the ingredients.
- Strain out the solids, mix with honey and store in a clean jar.
To use the fire cider take a spoonful or a shot glass daily. You can also use it as a base for a vinaigrette dressing, a marinade and other delicious food creations.
Building a greener, more beautiful world one seed at a time.
Homesteading | Gardening | Frugal Living | Preserving Food| From Scratch Cooking|
You can also find me at: walkerland.ca | Facebook
Photo copyright: @walkerland
"at 87 years old, she will climb down into a ditch to collect sour leaf (sorrel) for her favourite soup"
I love her and I hope I will be like her :)
I think I can do this, but not with such hand gathered ingredients. I have the acv, garlic, onions, and ginger as well as turmeric root. I will use lime instead of lemon. My biggest problem would be the honey that they filter here in SE Asia. I have not found any non-filtered I could afford.
Thank you for the recipe and for keeping the old ways alive. We need to do this :)
She really is a determined woman. I too hope that I will be like her when I age. The honey sweetens it but I don't always used honey in mine. It is perfectly good without. I like to add a table spoon of honey free fire cider to a glass of water to make a healthy drink. If you have access to pure maple syrup that is also healthy/beneficial.
Hi walkerland,
Visit curiesteem.com or join the Curie Discord community to learn more.
Thank you so much!!
Woo! Love your post - we've given you a 100 percent upvote and hope it helps you continue to write such amazing posts. We're also resteeming, and adding you to the contest curation which will come out on August 5th. Thanks for using the natural medicine tag so we can more easily find you.
If you're a supporter of all things natural healing, and haven't already got on board our collective, you might like to read our introductory post here. We'd also love to welcome you on Discord here!! Delegations appreciated in order to support our growing collective - to do so click here.
How cool! I have almost all the ingredients (not horseradish). I wish I could do this right now, but we are gearing up for Freezer Camp this weekend. Then I spend the week recovering, packaging chicken, and making chicken bone stock. Then off to the fair for the 44th time. If I can remember, I could try to do it the week after the fair....
well sure! A lot of these ingredients store well so you can do it any time you are feeling in the mood to do it! Enjoy the fair! Good luck with freezer camp - that is one thing about homesteading that I have not taken to.
Natural herbs and medicine always amazed me, they are very natural that contains lots of magic.
Beautiful, what an awesome to live applying nature to your life.
Thank you for sharing.
Glad you liked it! I am continually in awe of it all - this world is filled with such magic.
Congratulations @walkerland! You've got an upvote coming from the @ecotrain thanks to @eco-alex! This upvote is part of the Community Support Initative to help encourage you to keep writing great posts! Thank you for being a positive part of the Steem Blockchain!
This is very useful, thanks for posting! I imagine that there are a lot of old medicinal recipes that are being lost to time. It is good to get this stuff published so that it can be of benefit to society.
I have bookmarked for future reference.
Glad you appreciated it. I am sure that is true. There is so much tried and true wisdom that's been discarded for modern methods. The digital age is certainly making it easier to learn, share and preserve this treasured knowledge!
Dancing at 97?! Wow. This is a stunning recipe. Don't you just love how you have learnt from the older generation? It's wonderful when special family secrets don't get lost when they are gone. Great pictures @walkerland
I know right? This guy is peppy and full of energy and still living independently in his own apartment. There must be something extra special in Ukrainian blood because healthy old age is so common in Saskatchewan throughout the Ukrainian community. My husband is so lucky to have these good genes.
My grandparents died young so I love that she has taken me under her wing and is entrusting me with so many special family recipes and stories. I feel very fortunate.
That is really special!
@walkerland It's wonderful that you learn all these amazing natural recipes. I really enjoy most of the ingredients you used but in infusions. But I have consumed them separately and sometimes mixed for a delicious tea. I'm happy to have your recipe for fire cider 🔥 to prepare as soon as I have all the ingredients. I like all the ingredients. I love ginger, honey, lemon and garlic, all of them. Thank you for this interesting publication. Happy night. Happy night.
I'm glad you like the recipe, they really are wonderful ingredients!
Super good friend ingredients. In the recipes and in the meals too. They give it a peculiar touch and flavor. Nature rewards us with all these good ingredients.
I agree, fresh is always best! I am glad you like the recipe. :)
In India too there are quite a few natural medicines and they really work, we call it Ayurveda / Ayurvedic Science. If possible try to add Tulsi (Holy Basil) which will also increase immunity and add flavor.
Ayurveda / Ayurvedic science is fascinating. I've been reading a lot about it lately. Thank you for the wonderful recommendation. I really hope to start growing Tulsi, I would love to try it! :)
I am always amazed at how powerful and healing natural plants can be. Having someone of the older generation to teach you these powerful (but most times forgotten) recipes must have felt really great.
A tonic that can make a 97years old go out and dance or an 87years old go down the ditch to get leaves for her own soup sure is a keeper. I want to be that strong when I reach that age, really.
Thanks for sharing this awesome recipe with us.
We are really focused on food health because as you said, we too want to be that vital when we get old. The idea of being confined to a room or chair in old age frightens me. I think the secret is good food. Elsie always cooked from scratch and had her own garden for decades, they also raised a lot of their own meat. That healthy country living and using food to boost their immunity has clearly played a big role in their longevity.
I also do get terrified by the idea of being confined in a wheel chair, that idea has never settled well with me. Making healthier and better choices when it comes to what we consume and how we treat our bodies is key to living long and energy filled life (even at old age).
Most times, we simply aren't being mindful of the sources of our food or how well it is being prepared and we just end up feeding our body with "food" that the body doesn't need, contribute nothing or little to it (and might even be harmful to it).
Cooking our food from scratch and using whole foods, definitely has an impact on how good and healthy our food turns out to be.
I agree! :)
Hey @walkerland , awesome colors in your cider ! Im asking myself the whole time if your "drink" idea has alcohol in it, and when how much? :-)
But otherwise your drink looks really good! I love most of the ingredienst, really good idea to mix them up. Baaam never had seen something like this one steemit ! And the flowers tops it all ! Perfect mixture buddy ;-)
Shrubs (sweetened vinegar infusions) are quite popular in alcoholic beverages but I have not tried it! I think you are onto something - I'll have to give it a try tonight. :)
Hello foodie steemians!
You get an upvote from SteemKitchen! 👍
This was given by hand and not by a bot.You have received this as motivation from us, so you can keep going on with your great dishes.
-Flowers Cider and good stuff like garlic, this post have all! Great mate!-
We are looking forward to see you soon on our discord server https://discord.gg/XE5fYnk , so we can exchange fresh new recipes and delicious meals with each other 🌮🍔🍩.
With friendly regards, your curator of today @avizor
howdy from Texas walkerland! wow I've never heard of Fire Cider before tonight but the ingredients look super powerful and your husband's Grandmother is a testament to it's power at 97! That's remarkable.
I'm new to your blog, do you have other home made tinctures and things that you make from plants?
Hello! If you search under the tag #naturalmedicine you'll start to see a lot of great natural health recipes. There is a challenge going on right now so there are a lot of fantastic ideas being shared! :) I have not shared a lot of natural health recipes (I will be writing more of them going forward) but I do have a few posts you might like
https://steemit.com/food/@walkerland/the-forgotten-art-of-using-roses-in-the-kitchen-recipes-included
https://steemit.com/gardening/@walkerland/how-to-harvest-dry-and-store-rose-hips-for-tea-culinary-and-medicinal-uses?sort=author_reputation
https://steemit.com/naturalmedicine/@walkerland/the-treasured-traditional-medicine-of-fireweed-chamerion-angustifolium-onagraceae
thank you so much walkerland for sharing all this great information!
Well if definitely looks amazing so if it tastes anything as good it must be delicious. I've never seen a drink like this before and the ingredients seem a little strange to me but i can respect the recipe handed down through the generations. There is so much knowledge from our elders that is in danger of being lost due to modern techniques so it's nice to see when something survives.
We have a whole generation of history in this country that is going to be lost soon as it was never written down and rarely spoken of due to its severity. Unfortunately when my grandparents generation passes away all of the history will be lost to the world.
I'm glad that you have shared this here as that will ensure it's survival for one more generation at the very least.
I should clarify that the fire cider recipe is newer (the addition of vinegar and other wild ingredients is a twist on the older original one that did not include vinegar) But it is interesting that it is so close to the older traditional version that our grandmother uses.
It seems like every idea I have, Elsie has done it already and knows how it is done. I wanted to ferment whole cabbages and she was able to tell me the whole process from memory.
I think some knowledge has been lost but with the internet it seems like a lot of information is being unburied and shared - which is so cool!
It's still very impressive. And it's cool that you can change and adapt the recipe to make something unique. The internet can be very handy to find stuff like this but i know from my own experiences that there is a lot that will never be put out into the world. But at least there will be so much that can be saved and shared.
This is beautiful @walkerland - the story, the recipe, the photos. Thank you so much for sharing them with us. I am so happy that you got to learn from your husband's grandma. It is not everyday that anyone gets to sit down with their grandmas or grandpas to learn a good family recipe that you will remember and cherish for life. I miss my grandma and I do have regrets for not learning all I can from her before she passed away. This is a wonderful write-up. Your story reminded me of her. Thank you again.
Thanks @marbely, I appreciate the thoughtful comment. I found myself thinking of my gran as I wrote this as well. I have the same regrets but thankfully I've learned that there are many elders with great knowledge ready and waiting to share it with anyone who asks.
:) I agree. Elders have so much knowledge and stories to share. All we need to do is to ask and they will tell it all :)
Thank you for sharing the recipe. Looks promising to try and make a local version. Some ingredients are not available from the country where I live in but I'm going to experiment with whatever herbs I could locally substitute this with. It's nice of you to post some shots on the finished product, it adds to the enthusiasm of testing the recipe :D
glad you like it - I am sure your recipe will turn out beautifully! I'd love to know what you end up using. :)