Crafting Fire Cider with My Friends

It's a tradition for me to make Fire Cider with friends.  It is a great way to share recipes, stories and the best part - laughter.

Have you tried it?  I love to have some around to add to soups, stews and salad dressings.  It adds zip and is a powerful decongestant.  There are a lot of great benefits.  It depends on what you put in it.  It is particularly beneficial to have on hand during cold and flu season.

So let's get this party started...

Get your favorite people together and start prepping.

Fire Cider Ingredients:

-fresh grated organic ginger root

-fresh grated organic horseradish root

-fresh grated turmeric root

-chopped onion

-organic garlic, peeled and crushed

-organic jalapeno peppers sliced lengthwise (any kind of hot chili pepper will work)

-zest and juice of an organic lemon

-sprigs of fresh organic rosemary

-organic apple cider vinegar

Find a container that you want to use to pour or store.  Make sure it is clean.  Once you have all of your vegetables prepped start adding them to your jar.  I like to loosely fill a quart size mason jar.  Once you've selected the ingredients that you like fill the jar with organic apple cider vinegar.

If using a mason jar with a metal lid, place a piece of parchment or wax paper between the lid and jar.

Screw lid on tightly and shake.

Store in a cool, dark place for 30 days.

Strain using cheesecloth and squeeze the pulp to get the goodness out of the roots and enjoy.

Some people like to add a little bit of honey (get the good kind) and enjoy it as a tonic.

Fire Cider fixin's.

Best of all...have some good laughs while you're making your tonic.

Laughter is the BEST medicine.

Is "Green" Really the New Black?

Transparent since 1998.   Aromatic Traditions™ 2015

I remember vividly a conversation I had with the owner of a very large essential oil company back in the 90's.  He told me that my company would never make it because I used precious essential oils and plant extracts in my formulations.  15 years later I'm still doing it.  I didn't listen to him.

Now creating with the benefit of plant-derived materials vs. synthetics is mainstream. 

(Heck, synthetics have only been around for a short period of time on the space/time continuum).

I like to stick pretty close to the Earth.  How about you? 

First I pay attention to my soil which is amended with compost.

Soil is the heart of my line.

My son is experimenting with composting now for my floating garden.

Yes! We have a floating compost pile.

(He has also won a scholarship to the Conserve School in Wisconsin.  I can't help but think all of my direction - pleasant word for broken record demands- toward composting and recycling made an affect.  Proud Momma moment.  Thanks for listening.)

So back to is "Green" Really the New Black?  I can't say that I take offense to green-washing as it brings to light (in contrast) conservation and spotlights ideas that so many of us stood for many years ago.  I am talking the 60's and 70's.  Some of us risked a LOT not to sell out and to take a stand for Mother Nature.

What I do find difficult is that so many people have jumped on the bandwagon - yeah and now green, organic, local-ingredients, etc is becoming banal.

adjective

1.

devoid of freshness or originality; hackneyed; trite:

a banal and sophomoric treatment of courage on the frontier.

Yes, that's the word I heard at a recent conference.  How do we differentiate, stand out, if we use the same words to describe what we do.

I can't help but think - I've been waiting for this! and now it is passe?

For some of us who really do make an effort to plant, harvest, dry, infuse and amend.  Who follow the laws of nature and abide with respect - what?

Maybe I'm not understanding the question.

Perhaps this blog isn't clear.

I want to hear your thoughts?

I'm interested in a dialogue.

Thanks,

Sue

In the Garden of Spirit

Plein Air Botanical Painting     Aromatic Traditions 2014

After graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Art in Communication Design - a fancy name for Graphic Designer - I found myself designing and drawing things commercially like trucks, abalone cutters and yes, I designed a logo for a condom company.  A gentle feather with a bit of a tilt at the tip.

I cut my chops at a Mom and Pop printing shop on upper State Street in Santa Barbara, CA.  The head designer the wife and the head of the print shop her husband.
Every day was pressure packed as I typeset, rendered drawings and cut and paste pounds of galleys and images to boards.  Yes, this was the old method before desktop computers.
 We had a lot of fun and we worked our asses off.  Some big name accounts used our services as well as walk-in customers.

Needless to say, I found Graphic Design boring.

Years later I decided to take a leap and signed up for a botanical painting class at my local arts center.  I immediately fell in love with the teacher's style.  She was quiet and each time she said something about what I was painting it had meaning and I could immediately move to the next step.  She became my painting guru.
I decided to sign up for private lessons and my love of botanical painting began.

Tiger Lily©            S. Varga  2014

It felt fulfilling to sit in a spot in the garden, take a deep breath and begin to paint what I felt.

Although botanical painting calls for a bit of perfection - you have to catch the spirit of the plant or flower.  In the moment.  They change by the minute as the sun shines and they start to bloom or fade.  You have only a small window of time to paint.

Part of the Aromatic Traditions™ logo contains a drawing of White Sage.  A plant that is dear to me as it is used often for smudging prior to ceremonies. (I always smudge my laboratory before I begin any product).

Here is a bit of blessing for you...

White Sage©  S. Varga 2014

May you always walk in beauty.

"Fake It 'Til You Make It"

Soul Sister Reunion          Morning Glory Cafe  1999

On a rainy day in Flagstaff, AZ, I looked out my window to see a bear naked little boy jumping up and down in mud puddles.  His blonde curly hair flying and his feet stomping.  It was a moment of sheer joy, a perfect photo op - I went next door to ask permission to take a picture of my neighbor's son and a restaurant was born.

We had now clue what we were doing.  We had a vision. And both, from indigenous backgrounds (both Native American in part but coasts apart), wanted to share our roots.  I loved gardening and wild-crafting.  Maria loved her incredible heritage and the ingredients dear to her from New Mexico.

We started literally from a dirt floor up and created an amazing place, not so much a restaurant but a place of incredible heart where people of all nations and beliefs could stop by for a bite.  And most certainly a chat.

Maria was bigger than life, I was shy and willing to work behind the scenes as an advocate.  We certainly needed one.  We were two young woman starting a business in a man's world.  Inspectors, landlords, permits, construction.  We handled it all.  We were harassed, adored, challenged and loved.  Best part of it all - we did it.

Every day we would tackle one problem or another and our battle cry was always "Fake it 'til we make it."

It gave us perspective and certainly an appreciation of the deep mystery of not knowing what the heck to do in any given moment.  We sure trusted that the answer would come -- eventually.

Not always in the package you would expect.  And always better.

Today the Morning Glory Cafe thrives - 30, yes, 30 years later.  The wonderful ladies who run the place, whom I've yet to meet in person, but support via social media, have still got the spirit.

The spirit that endures.  Making something with love for y'all to enjoy.

That's what I'm still doing at Aromatic Traditions™ and if you are ever in Flagstaff, AZ.  Please take a moment and stop by the Morning Glory Cafe and tell them that Sue sent you.

You can check 'em out here: http://morningglorycafeflagstaff.com/

Blessings.

In honor of Maria Delores Nelson Ruiz RIP my dear soul sister.

And I Sometimes See a Falling Star...

Rose hip harvest.    Fall 2015

It is December in Wicklow:

Alders dripping, birches

Inheriting the last light,

The ash tree cold to look at.

A comet that was lost

Should be visible at sunset,

Those million tons of light

Like a glimmer of haws and rose-hips,

And I sometimes see a falling star.

If I could come on meteorite!

Instead I walk through damp leaves,

Husks, the spent flukes of autumn,...

-from "Exposure", Seamus Heaney

Commonly known as Dog rose, Dog Brier, Brier Rose, Rose hips always remind me of the coming of Fall.  As a young woman, wanting to "live off the land", I would collect bright red rose hips, grind them and make a Vitamin C packed tea.

Here is my simple recipe, I hope you enjoy!

Rose Hip Tea

-Place fresh or crushed dried rose hips in a mason jar.

-Pour boiling water over them and steep, covered for 10 minutes.

-Add honey, stevia to sweeten