All raw, all organic, handmade in a small batch. The Farmhouse Four, prized for soothing irritated throats and boosting immunity when fighting off a cold. Nice flavor which leaves behind the lemon, making it tasty for small children.
INGREDIENTS:
- Honeyed Garlic; fresh chopped organic garlic, soaked in undiluted raw local honey
- Sugared Onions; fresh chopped organic white onion, soaked in raw organic sugar (no water added)
- Ginger Tincture; fresh chopped organic ginger root, soaked in 190-proof alcohol
- Lemon Glycerite; fresh sliced organic lemons, soaked in organic vegetable glycerine.
Nothing else added, no chemicals, no artificial ingredients, not watered down with any fillers! Each raw ingredient is packed into jars and only a small amount of the extractant added, for maximum potency of the garlic, onion, ginger, and lemon. To preserve all of the enzymes and vitamins, no heat is used in the process. After soaking to full strength, the liquid is strained off of each and blended, with the residual alcohol in the ginger tincture preserving it. A huge pile of fresh ingredients is concentrated into just a few ounces of syrup!
DIRECTIONS:
Assemble the ingredients - the hard part is finding all organic fresh materials at the same time. If you cannot find local organic ginger, garlic, lemons, and onions, all of those are available fresh from Azure Standard.
For smaller familes, one quart of each material will end up making almost 2 quarts of syrup, enough for a couple years. For big families, you can use 2-quart mason jars for each material, which makes almost a gallon of syrup. I recommend using a larger jar for the honeyed garlic, and not putting the lid on too tight, because it off-gasses during the process and if it is too full it will push honey out and make a mess.
Sterilize everythiing, wash the materials well, and keep the process very clean, so that your syrup keeps well without refrigeration and without any spoilage.
Chop the garlic fine, and slice the others into fine slices.
Lemon and ginger: fill the jars to the top but do not pack the material too tight. Next, slowly fill in the airspace in the lemon jar with organic vegetable glycerine until it is full to the very top. Do the same with organic 190-proof alcohol for the ginger. Put the lids on, snug down lightly, set aside.
Onions: put a layer of 1-2 inches of chopped onions, then spoon some raw organic sugar over them and let it settle down between the pieces until a thin layer is left on top. Repeat the layering to the top of the jar, shaking a little as you go to settle the contents and get all of the onions into the jar. Cap and shake, and you may be able to add a little more sugar. Set aside.
For the garlic, fill the larger jar until it has as much in it as the others do, with space left for it to swell; pour pure raw local honey in slowly (you may need to warm it slightly first) until all of the garlic is under honey, with no bubbles left underneath. Cap this one less tightly, set aside.
Daily: monitor your jars, tighten the caps and shake as needed, or invert now and then to keep the liquid touching all of the material (loosen the garlic lid up before you set it aside again). If the onions have more space for sugar, add it until it tops off the jar.
It takes about a month, or even 2 months, for the materials to fully extract into the syrup. When it is ready, sterlize some jars (about half of the volume of the original jars), a screen strainer, and a bowl. Carefully dump each material, one at a time, into the strainer and let the syrup drain into the bowl, divide it equally between your new jars, and set the solids aside before draining the next material. It is helpful to start with the garlic because the honey is the thickest, and finish with the ginger so that alcohol washes all of the other syrups down into the bowl, and the alcohol drains the fastest so remove it quickly to avoid evaporation. The solids can be eaten or composted, or fed to farm animals (your chickens will love you!), but you will definitely want to keep the honeyed garlic in the refrigerator to eat yourself or use in cooking! After dividing all of the syrups equally between the jars, cap tightly and give them a good shake to mix the liquids. Your syrup is ready!
The jars can be set in a cool dark place, but you may want to sterilize and fill some smaller dispenser bottles now, so that you are not repeatedly opening the large jars later. Amber Boston round bottles work really well, as they protect your syrup from light and are very easy to pour out of. Any size from 2 oz to 8 oz will work fine.
Take by the spoonful as needed, or if you wish try adding a spoonful to hot water to make a delicious soothing tea - the alcohol will quickly evaporate, leaving only nutritious, soothing tea.
Note: If desired, when the syrup is put into smaller bottles, a drop or two of one of the food-grade essential oils can be added and shaken in, either for flavor or for extra effects, like our Kumquat or Eucalyptus!
Refrigerate the small bottles after opening.
Enjoy!
© Silver Sage 2020
