This week is really too hot. My brain is a bit melty and words are slow to arrive. I am prickly in this heat. So in honor of cooling down mind, body and spirit, I offer three refreshing drink recipes for you, along with some notes on each. Stay cool, friends. 

I send my love. 

xx Liz

 

 

A few weeks back, a tree fell on our house during an intense wind storm. Luckily the damage was minimal and it landed in that very, very sweet spot where it was touching the electric wires just enough to have the electric company come remove the tree quickly without us losing power or needing to hire someone to come clean it up. The tree that fell on our house? Basswood. Aka Linden. Or as I like to call it, sweet golden honey blessing tree of ancestral heart magic. I am a firm believer in that the medicines we need grow around us and sometimes it’s even more obvious than that. Sometimes they fall right on your house!

 

Linden is a cooling and soothing tree to turn to when you feel prickly, hot or agitated. It is a member of the marshmallow family (!!! so cool !!!) and has that nourishing, hydrating quality that that mallow has. Traditionally, Linden flower is revered for it’s heart medicine. It blooms before the solstice and fills the air with it’s jasmine-honey scent. A few years back, during a Linden month in Herbal Mystery School, I started making cold infusions using just the leaves and found it absolutely addicting. The heart-shaped leaves impart a light perfume, which quenches the thirst and makes you feel like you are drinking straight sweet sap from a tree. I like to make my linden leaf infusion overnight, packing the jar with torn leaves, filling with cold water from the tap and then letting sit on my counter to do it’s thing while I sleep. The next morning, I have a jar of holy water to drink from. I find that the leaf infusion soothes my nervous system and heart, just as the flowers do. It’s maybe a bit more ethereal and I’m into it.

 

The tree that fell on my house provided many lovely jars of linden leaf cold infusion. Once the leaves started to dry out on the downed branches in my driveway, I went back to picking leaves off of the still-standing lindens around my house. It’s my personal preference, but I think the fresh leaf is best for this infusion than the dried leaf. Whenever I drink linden leaf cold infusion a Linda Gregg line of poetry runs through my mind over and over: Let the spirit marry the heart. Let the spirit marry the heart. Let the spirit marry the heart.

 

 

I can’t remember where I learned this recipe. I know I didn’t make it up. It might have been at an Women’s Herbal Symposium from the first aid tent? Or something in a similar spirit. I make this drink at least 3 x a week in summer. My recipe makes a 1/2 gallon of drink, which sets you up to share with those who are also getting through the heat with you. This is also a lovely drink when you are getting over the flu or other sickness where you end up totally dehydrated (after a bad bout of diarrhea/food poisoning?). I drank a variation of this off and on when I was pregnant. Make sure to start the hibiscus infusion the night before and finish in the morning to set you up for the day ahead.

 

1/2 gallon mason jar

1/2 c dried hibiscus flowers

2 limes

salt - I use pink himalayan salt or grey celtic sea salt

1/4 c maple syrup

 

Make a cold infusion of the hibiscus flowers in the 1/2 gallon mason jar. Cover & let sit overnight in the fridge. In the morning, strain out the hibiscus and squeeze in the juice of two limes. Add 2-3 generous pinches of salt (for those of you who need an exact recipe.. try 2 tsp of salt and see if you want a bit more? I’ve never measured!! if you over-salt, add more water/lime). Stir in the maple syrup. Put the cap back on the jar and shake well, really mixing everything together. This drink cools you down quickly and adds much needed electrolytes back into your system. It’s also just very fun to drink a pretty drink all day long. Beauty is medicine!

 

The other day I was texting my friend Whitney about Limoncello. We were exchanging recipes and thoughts on making it. By the end of the conversation, we both had admitted that despite trying limoncello over and over again and making it ourselves over and over again we just don’t really like it that much? It’s kind of gross and way too sweet? Lemonade is better? Limoncello might only be good when you are on the Amalfi coast — maybe it is one of those things that just is wrong when it is removed from the place that it springs from. But we really want to like it: we crave something cold and crisp and sharp and perfectly aromatic to cut through a sticky hot New York night. Something that you only need three sips of and you are instantly cooled off. And then I remembered what checked all of those boxes for me: “I think what we actually want is Vin De Péche.” Vin De Péche is actually made just from peach leaves, no fruit. Peach leaves have a wonderful flavor, (marzipan-like, slightly nutty, yet sweet) that work well when infused into wine (& cognac! or brandy!). Peach leaf is a powerhouse of a medicinal, too. I don’t have enough time to get into all of the gifts of this medicine in this newsletter, but to put it simply, peach leaf is soothing, demulcent and relaxing to the body and spirit.

 

2-3 cups of young peach leaf (about 50 leaves, best harvested in spring or early summer)

1 bottle red wine (You might imagine that there are different opinions about what kind of wine to use. Some say dark & fruity is best but I actually prefer a lighter bodied wine as it feels more refreshing. Try making one of each and see what you prefer!)

1/2 cup brandy or cognac

6 tbsp sugar (to taste)

 

Infuse the whole peach leaves into the wine for at least two weeks in a capped mason jar. Four weeks is ideal. Strain the leaves out of the wine and add the sugar and brandy, whisking everything together so the sugar dissolves. Let the jar sit in the fridge for another two weeks to let the flavors dance. This drink is shelf stable for about a year, but I just keep it in the fridge for a longer shelf life and to make sure it is ready for me on a hot summer evening when I want to hang out on the porch, stare into the forest dark & let the sounds of the katydid chorus make me feel like I am melting into night. Serve on ice.