A summer garden is not only beauty but also vitamins and trace elements that we can save for the whole winter. There are many ways to do this: everyone knows drying, freezing, and even jams and jams. But there are less popular, but no less healthy ways. Flower and herbal canned food and fermentation with honey.
Fermentation with honey
One of my favorites is fermentation with honey. We simply transfer the raw materials in layers with honey 1:1. In this way, you can prepare dandelion flowers (they clean the kidneys and liver), young spruce shoots, pine arrows, and young cones (coniferous ones help well with any cough, and bronchitis) and any edible flowers and berries (according to the indications, study the action of each plant, so you will use it with maximum benefit).
Honey preserves and” pulls ” healthy properties from the plant. To do this, leave the jar with the raw material for about a month in a dark place. It can be longer. This method can be used all year round, preserving in this way: lemons, garlic, hot pepper, ginger, and various spices.
Honey with mint, cinnamon, and lemon
The delicacy is great for the nervous system, relieves headaches, strengthens sleep, and helps to cope with stress.
Ingredients:
Honey 17.64oz
Micro-mint 1 tablespoon
Lemon zest 2 tablespoons
Cinnamon 1 teaspoon
Mix the mint with honey, let it brew for 3-6 hours, then add lemon and cinnamon.
Honey with ginger and orange. Flower and herbal canned food and fermentation with honey.
The mixture contains a lot of vitamins, promotes rejuvenation of the body, and strengthens the immune system.
Ingredients:
Honey 17.64oz
Ginger root 4.23oz
Oranges 2 pcs
Grate the ginger on a fine grater. Do the same with the orange peel, having prepared the zest. Mix everything with honey. If desired, you can add freshly squeezed citrus juice. Spices will add spice to the dessert: cinnamon, cloves, star anise, and cardamom.
Honey with lemon and dried fruits
This is a nutritious and delicious mixture that has long been used to stimulate the immune system in winter, for colds and other diseases. However, it is precisely because of the high content of vitamins and trace elements that you should not exceed the daily dose – 3.53oz.
Ingredients:
Honey 17.64oz
Raisins, dates, dried apricots, prunes 5.29oz
Large lemons 3 pcs
Wash the dried fruits, and remove the seeds if necessary. Pass it through a meat grinder or chop it with a blender. Rub 3 teaspoons of lemon zest, and squeeze the juice from the available citrus fruits. Add all the ingredients to the honey, and mix.
Viburnum on honey
Viburnum on honey is one of the best recipes with berries for health. We grind 17.64 viburnum berries in a blender, then carefully squeeze them through cheesecloth. We need to completely get rid of small bones and hard skin. But do not rush to throw them away: the pomace will make an excellent vitamin juice. So, we combine the purified berry mass with 7.0 honey and mix vigorously until completely dissolved. This tool will help you to say goodbye to a cold faster, and just lift your mood.
Natural apple cider vinegar. Flower and herbal canned food and fermentation with honey.
The next product that can preserve raw materials and become even more useful is natural apple cider vinegar (it is better to look for farm cider vinegar).
Here, too, everything is very simple: fill the raw material with vinegar so that it completely covers it, and put it in a dark place for a month. This can be, for example, a dandelion, dug up by the root, thoroughly washed, and cut.
It is very good to insist on aromatic herbs, and edible flowers on vinegar: for example, violets will give a rich, beautiful color.
Switchel
From such infused vinegar, you can prepare a switch.
For a glass of carbonated or plain water, add 1 tablespoon of infused apple cider vinegar and 1 tablespoon of fermented honey (you can use ordinary honey or any other sweetener). You can flavor it with ground mint, ginger, berries, or fruits.
This drink is suitable for everyone who works in the heat (no wonder farmers took it with them to the fields in large quantities), after sports, or in the morning to wake up all body systems. It gives strength and energy and acts as an isotonic, quickly saturating the body with trace elements and vitamins.
Flower syrup. Flower and herbal canned food and fermentation with honey.
Instead of honey, you can add flower syrup to such a drink.
To prepare it, we will need:
Flowers (dandelion, lilac, elderberry, rose, rosehip, violet 2 cups
Honey or sugar 1 cup
Water 1 cup
There are several ways to prepare syrup, I like this one more:
Mix the water with sugar or honey, bring it almost to a boil, and remove from the heat. Immediately add the flowers, mix them so that they are all covered with syrup, and leave to infuse overnight.
In the morning, bring it almost to a boil again, cool it, and strain it into a clean bowl. You need to store this syrup in the refrigerator or you can freeze it in a plastic bottle.
Suritsa
If you do not want to bother with the preparation of syrup, vinegar, or honey, then you can make one of the simplest, but no less healthy preparation – suits.
We simply collect everything that is healthy during the season in the garden or buy it in the store and transfer layers of sugar in a liter jar. It is better to put the jar in a sunny place, sugar also preserves and ferments raw materials. As a result, by the winter we will get the most valuable syrup to maintain a strong immune system.
Not only preparations for the winter should be done in the summer, but also as much as possible to eat greens, herbs, flowers, and berries in fresh form, of course.
And to make summer drinks even more healthy, you can prepare fruit kvass or flower water.
Fruit kvass
For fruit kvass, add any berries, herbs, edible flowers, or fruits to a third of the volume in a clean bottle with a wide neck. We will also need 3-4 tablespoons of any sugar or syrup per liter bottle ). Sugar is needed for the fermentation process.
Top up the bottle with clean filtered water, leaving a distance to the edge, and close the lid. We put it in a dark, warm place for 3-4 days. Every morning/evening, open and mix with a wooden spoon. In about 2-3 days, the process of gassing will begin (depending on the temperature in the room), we taste it and, when it is not very sour and not very sweet, we filter it into a bottle with a lid and put it in the refrigerator.
The fermentation process is a living process that depends on many factors. If you do not get such a kvass the first time, do not despair, continue experimenting, and you will receive a delicious natural lemonade as a reward, which you will enjoy all summer.
Flower water
The second drink is much easier to make. For flower water, just collect flowers of fragrant roses, peonies, rosehips, and violets in the garden in the morning (make sure that the flowers were not sprayed with chemicals), you can also add some fragrant herbs, pour fresh water, and put it in the sun until the evening.
Then you can pour the flower water into bottles and put it in the refrigerator or freeze it and make flower ice. But such water is every 2-3 days, as it is stored for a short time. Use it as a magic nectar for drinking and washing your face throughout the summer. This very fragrant water is not only delicious but also rich in water-soluble trace elements and vitamins.
All these recipes are just the basis for your fantasies, try, come up with your own recipes, and create your favorite combinations.