Fire Cider

Turmeric has long been held in great esteem, it is from the same family as ginger and has a decent health C.V. which includes anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties amongst others. It also appears in recipes for consumable drinks etc to boost the immune system. I want to make one for the winter so I followed this Tumeric heavy recipe for fire cider.  I often make a simple Elderberry syrup but I procrastinated and missed them this year. 

I managed to get hold of fresh Turmeric and it has a really pleasant aroma. It also colours curry powders and I was wary of it colouring anything I touched but I manged to get it everywhere without trying!

 Future preparation will see me using a parchment paper covered chopping board on a newspaper covered work surface and me wearing disposable gloves. I elected to grate rather than chop to maximise the surface area but it was probably the drawback too. I made me realise how easy it is to spread germs or chicken juice with your hands...  

This is a quick (and arty) shot of some of the ingredients. You can see varying degrees of chilli, lemon, rosemary, turmeric, onion, garlic and ginger. I eased back on the onion and just bruised the garlic as I feared an exclusion zone around me if I made it with the full on allium quota.

The prepared ingredients where then added to apple cider vinegar and allowed to steep for a short while. 

I added the honey after I got the other ingredients mixed together. I microwaved it to make it runny and then added it and then stirred for a while.

I found some dried Coltsfoot which is excellent for chesty coughs and also managed to forage a few Hawthorns and Rosehips to add (the hips needed the hairs and seeds removing first).

It is then bottled and has to steep for a month as per the caveats when using knitbone to treat a broken rib earlier in the year. Now just before l bottled the stuff l caught a cold and drew off a dessert spoon of the liquid and consumed it daily and the cold didn't really amount to much.

I also added an additional dessert spoon of honey to each vessel because despite the original us strained connection being tangy yet palatable, l want to encourage my family to consume it too. 

I'd have liked to have  saved the Turmeric in a little reserved liquid due to it's beneficial qualities but as you can see it was rather tangled with the other ingredients so this didn't happen.