Fire Cyder Recipe

This recipe comes from Charlie Anderson (check the Blog, My Special Guest Section)... She is fascinated by herbalism and over the last few years she has been working on growing her own hedgerow medicine chest. One of the things she shares here is her winter is Fire Cyder. Worth to try it out!....

Here we go:

You take fire cyder as a daily tonic - a couple of teaspoons will do - either straight down the hatch, diluted in warm water like a tea (perhaps with a tsp of honey), or slipped into some juice or a smoothie.

Normally Fire Cyder is made with apple cider vinegar (hence the name) but as I brew my own kombucha I simply left some to turn into vinegar (simply ignore a batch for 6-8 weeks, if it tastes like vinegar, it's vinegar) and used that.

Kombucha Fire Cyder

Basic Ingredients: 1 litre glass jar 2-3 inches of chopped or grated ginger 3 inches of chopped or grated fresh horseradish 1 medium onions chopped 8-10 cloves of garlic - peeled and sliced 1-2 jalapeño peppers - scored through A quantity of Kombucha or Raw Apple Cider Vinegar

Extras I added: A handful of rosehips from my garden A sprig of rosemary Tumeric powder (I would have used the root if I had it) 1 lemon - sliced 1/2 orange - sliced

Method: Prepare all of your ingredients and put them in a glass storage jar (I used a 1 litre clip top Kilner jar), It's important not to use a metal top as it reacts badly with the vinegar. Cover the ingredients with the vinegar - stir well to make sure there are no air pockets. Seal the jar, label with date and tuck away in a cool dark cupboard. Leave for 1 month turning every so often.

After a month use a cheesecloth (nut milk bags work really well) to strain out all of the pulp, squeeze as much of the liquid goodness out of it as possible. Pour the liquid into a fresh clean storage vessel (old passata jars work brilliantly). You can store your Fire cider in the cupboard but it will last longer in the fridge.