It kills nasty bacteria, and helps fight viruses. Inflammation in
the human body, which research increasingly cites for a host of diseases and
conditions, gets hobbled by it. A miracle drug? Well, it certainly is not a
pharmaceutical — the health-boosting elixir is not
hatched by white-jacketed chemists in suburban laboratories, sold in pharmacies
and saddled with a litany of worrisome side - effects.
No, this is Fire Cider, and starting this week, we are selling our Fire Cider crafted in house, here at Fresh Thymes.
This gorgeous tonic, which has served as a potent folk medicine
for generations, is a fermented beverage involving raw apple cider vinegar,
turmeric, horseradish, garlic, onion, ginger, hot chilies, fresh citrus, and a dash of raw
honey to lightly sweeten the pot. We embraced it some months ago, and decided upon tasting to experiment
with our own creation. Our inaugural batch has been fermenting for a few weeks,
and now it is ready to pour!
We are all about seasonal improvisation, and so will toy with our
recipe throughout the year, adding different health promoting (of course!) vegetables
and roots to each batch as they are harvested. If you swing by Fresh Thymes for
the next week or so, in addition to the base (the list of ingredients that
normally are used to make fire cider) the tonic will also include green onion
and cilantro, in honor of the lightness and green-ness of spring. Sometimes we may remove the hot chilies, to make a nightshade-free
batch. Other times, we will add adaptogenic herbs, like astragalus and
ashwaganda to modulate our immune system, or supplement the fermentation with
beets or kohlrabi. It all depends on what is in season, and our inspirations
for new recipes.
We celebrate Fire Cider for its anti-microbial, anti-bacterial,
anti-viral and anti-inflammatory properties. This is strong stuff! We also
trumpet its ability to aid with digestion. Flavor? We dig it, but fire cider is
not something to sip and savor, like a glass of Oregon Pinot Noir or a pint of
Omission IPA. The horseradish can give it a nose-scorching, wasabi-like kick,
and the base of raw ingredients are weighted heavily towards the fiery — thus,
the elixir’s name. We serve Fire Cider by the shot glass, and find it
is both a wonderful apertif (something sipped before a meal, to help nurture
appetite) and a digestif (a post-prandial treat that promotes digestion).
Never tried fire cider? Crazy for the stuff? It can be bought in
bottles, here and there, but try our home-crafted version. We fuss over our big
mason jars packed with fermenting goodness, tweaking recipes and toiling to
hike the batches with as much health-amplification as possible. We down at
least a shot of fire cider a day, and we have a feeling it might become part of
your routine, too.
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