Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Herbal Thirst Quenchers – July Herbarium Blog Party

Danielle Charles, of The Teacup Chronicles, is hosting this months Herbarium Blog Party. She chose the topic of Herbal Thirst Quenchers for the Dog Days. Well it certainly is the dog days around Comfrey Cottages! It is scorching and extremely dangerous heat index in this neck of the woods! Luckily, we still have a few lemon balm popsicles left in the freezer

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I do not have a precise recipe, as I am a “by taste” kind of cook, but I will try to give you a rough guideline of how I make ours.

After harvesting, and sorting through lemon balm from the gardens, I chop up enough to fill about half way, a gallon or 3.78 liter glass jug of some sort. I use my sun tea pitcher. Just loosely fill it with the chopped leaves, don’t mash it down. Then fill it with fresh, hopefully non -chlorinated water, and place in the sun, just like you would any other sun tea:)

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For this batch I just brought the tea pitcher back inside, strained out the leaves, tasted it, and decided to add some fresh lemon juice to it to give it even more of a lemony taste. Now if you decide to add sweetener, this is up to you. I did by adding some sugar infused with lemon balm and some lemon balm infused honey. I just took some of the lemon balm infusion and gently warmed it on the stove, adding some of the honey and some of the sugar until dissolved and then adding back to the pitcher. I have made these before with just the honey, (about 1/2 cup or 125 ml. per jar , but I had made the lemon balm infused sugar and just felt like adding a bit:) The added lemon juice is to your taste also, and is optional.

Then just pour or ladle into cups and then put into freezer. When they are a bit frozen insert the popsicle sticks and let freeze until firm. Putting the cups into the deep sided baking pan helps keep the whole thing easily transferable from counter to freezer:)

Now I like to make this same lemon balm sun tea type infusion then for each cup or 250 ml, add about a teaspoon or 5 ml lemon juice, same of honey and a little pinch of sea salt. Electrolytes can be made and retained with honey, acid in the form of lemon or vinegar and sea salt, combined, so the presence of all three in this drink, is  very beneficial if one is going to be out working, playing or exercising in the heat. 

Thank you for visiting Comfrey Cottages xx

oh! you ask how Peppermint and the kittens, also Max and Ruby and the ducklings are? Well….

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yum yum YUM! These sound delicious in every way and absolutely PERFECT for a this horribly hot weather. I've a giant patch of lemon balm in my garden so I am most definitely making these today, especially as I just checked the weather and were in for several more days of 90 degree weather. How perfect, also, that the lemon juice increases the availability of the nutrients so these are really the perfect electrolyte replenishers too (so much better than gatorade!). Thanks for a great post, Leslie.

XOXO D

Comfrey Cottages said...

You poor dear being in the same dog days we are!! Glad you enjoyed the recipes:) You are welcome!! Stay cool my friend, xoxoxoxoxo

Rowan said...

Lemon balm popsicles sound good - we aren't having the right weather for them at the moment though. I've been seeing how high the temps are in parts of the US - it sounds awful especially with the high humidity. Hope you are coping with it OK.

Deb said...

What a lovely website! And the recipe sounds extraordinary... I recently got some Himalayan pink salt and organic peppercorns from Sustainable Sourcing https://secure.sustainablesourcing.com and I'll have to try them out in this recipe. Thanks for sharing!

Anonymous said...

Wonderful Leslie. I love lemon balm, so delicious and soo versatile- from popsicles (we call them ice lollies!) to cold sore balms to anti-depressant, what an all round super herb it is.
I was going to ask how Peppermint and the kittens were so thanks so much for the update. They are simply too adorable for words. I wish I was closer so I could come over and play with them... and take them all home with me :)
Thanks again for a lovely recipe and post.
Love to you and your wonderful companions. xxx

Anonymous said...

I love your pictures, they are so homey and lovely. I am going to start some lemon balm popsicles tomorrow. I wonder if I could sneak them into labor and delivery?

Comfrey Cottages said...

Rowan, truthfully i do not cope with it well. Sadly i must hide away in the air conditioning a lot. The oppressiveness of the heat/humidity/high barometric pressure overwhelms me in short time, and can make me break out in shingles from the stress of it:( thanks for the wishes xxx

big hugs Deb that salt sounds good:) I would love to try some:) thanks for visiting xxxx


Oh Lucinda, thank you:) xx I so wish we lived close enough to each other that you could play with these little darlings! I am much too attached. I should be advertising them for placement in homes right now. They are 8 weeks old. But I have procrastinated... send strengthening resolve energy to me please!!! love to you and your furbabies dear one:) xx

thanks Stephany! Well, the last labor I attended mommy was allowed ice chips! i would think this would be similiar... :) xxx

Rita M said...

Popsicles...that sounds delicious, an interesting recipe :)

How are Max, Ruby and the ducklings now?

Have a nice day Leslie XXXXX