Hi beautiful Herb Enthusiasts!
I was excited to read the original challenge about creating an oxymel (ossimelo in italiano) - a cider vinegar and honey carrier for whatever herbs we want to ingest in a more pleasant form!
you can read about the contest hereI began a tad late, as my kitchen was upside down during stove installation - but thanks for the reminder @theherbalhive -
I already had good organic cider vinegar (though the original post got me fascinated with making my own: next kitchen project!) and some local honey from a bee/ organic woman who I know and trust very well...
It is a beautiful thing indeed, to know how to create powerful home remedies and medicines! I use herbs in tisanes and food, pelvic steaming and bathing, and am glad of a new way to use them, and a reason to learn more about the plants directly around me.
As my current interest and needs are around subtle core healing of sacred feminine and integration of sacred masculine - for my first oxymel, I wanted something for the heart of deepest self-care - so I added roses and lavender to the honey and cider vinegar... plants foraged from the abandoned gardens below my Italian medieval quarter abode.
Then I added a pinch of salvia/ sage to the mix...
The thick set honey took a bit of stirring to break it up!
But then I got to the lovely shaking part:
Now the jar is ensconced in my cantina (the central cellar) - out of the way of the new stove, which is billowing great clouds of glorious heat around the whole house! - it's there in the dark, exuding the herb qualities into the nectar, next to my baskets of walnuts...
And it's next to the fridge, which reminds me to shake it every time I walk by: this is an important part for me, of making things food-and-medicine-related, as it's easy in a busy kitchen to forget something on a shelf or inside a cupboard; I've found it powerfully useful to store all things precisely where I will see them, according to when I'll need to tend to them or use them!
Much LOVE and useful healing wisdom to you all!
Wonderful! I love your cantina! Is it very cool? I was a bit puzzled when I read your comment about the lovely heat that is billowing out of your stove. And then I remembered. While we're in summer you're in winter. I love the addition of salvia to your lavender and rose. I must say I use fresh herbs more than dried so thank you for the reminder. I need to prune my herb gardens and start drying again.
Thank you, dear @buckaroobaby !! This is such a beautiful response! :-D Yes, my cantina/ cellar is quite cool BUT the new behemoth stove is actually warming and drying it out - so I may have to move a few items further downstairs into a lower cantina, out of the heat from the stove! Yes, we're just turning to later autumn now, and proper cool settling into the stones of the medieval quarter...
I've lit the stove for the first time during the day, today... and am drying orange rinds on the top of it - perfuming the house gloriously. Mmmm: dried herbs sometimes seem to have more potent perfume eh, as the active components of the leaves or branches dries out: I tend to use many plants in dried form, as they are convenient in terms of not having to use them within a short time-frame, but also I intuitively sense that they are potent that way :-)
Blessings on your day!
That is true. Although when I say I like fresh it is usually in the impulse of making food and wandering through my garden to smell what would finish off the meal suitably. Oh those drying rinds are a wonderful perfume!
Where are you in Italy? It was one of my favourite countries to visit when I lived in England. Although sadly I spent less than a week there and 3 days of that time in Rome. I don't like cities, I much prefer the country and quaint old villages. I still have a friend who lives on the eastern coast
Ahh, me too, @buckaroobaby - I dislike cities enormously, and am excited at the prospect of never having to visit one ever again ;-D I live around an hour from Naples and two from Rome - inland in the foothills of the Matese mountain range: Guardia Sanframondi, BN - it's absolutely a quaint old citadel! If you're ever passing through Italy again, I'll get the kettle on!
Thank you for the invite. Your mountain range home sounds delightful!
Oh how WONDERFUL!!!! Lavender and rose are a perfect combination, and so feminine too. Isn't it a lovely thing to turn and shake, turn and shake? I always find it hard to resist opening up to taste. Now five weeks have passed, I'm almost ready to try my lover's oxymel but I decided to shove a few more rose petals and a few more berries in for good measure. I lvoe how adaptable and forgiving these are. This would be delicious over porridge or in tea! That kinda sounds wierd with the vinegar element but if you're a vinegar fan like me.. not so much :P
So excited you tried this! You'll be making tons now!
Aww, so beautiful, @riverflows... And ah, yes, I'm finding it easier lately, but have been highly averse to new tastes textures and combinations all my life! Things like this make it worth the initial discomfort, though!
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You seem to have conjured up an amazingly potent brew 🙂 I like the notion of placing the jar where you will see it. I do the same with my oyster mushrooms growing in the house - I walk past them at least twice a day so I don’t forget to spray them with water 🙂
Yes! Thanks for this encouraging comment, dear @exoexplorer ! It really helps, when delving into the world of reclaiming our health sovereignty and nutritional power and wisdom, to keep things simple, eh! I've felt a lot of internal tyranny and judgement come up, in many of my experiments with making natural things, and I know they relate to our deep wounding of separation from Nature - so coddling myself as I learn anew how to brew magical elixirs, it's better! ;-D
I really loved this part, I am sure your oxymel will taste amazing and will give you exactly what you want ❤️.
The shaking is really fun 😊, I like seeing how the herbs change their color with the time.
Thank you for the inspiration.
Aw, beautiful, thank you for this lovely comment, @didivelikova :-) And yes, I am enjoying the alchemy very much, of shaking and seeing how time is changing the quality inside the jar - the goodness moving from leaf to liquid... :-D So glad to be mutually inspiring each other!!