Tonic brewing

I was off work early today and decided to make good use of my time. I headed straight to the store to grab some missing ingredients for a tonic I wanted to make.

Being that I currently work at a call center, I thought this would be a splendid idea. Call centers tend to be petri dishes. One person gets sick, or is not self aware when they are sick, and the whole call floor can catch it. For those of you who are younger, it is much like High school in that manner.
Being that I get sick fairly easily, I thought this would help when I start to feel that “tickle” or even before.
I have heard some people in the area say that strep has started going around. I thought it might be a good idea to prep this tonic up now, since it takes a couple or more weeks to brew. Well that, and I just generally love making magickal elixirs.

My chopped fresh ingredients (ginger, onion, garlic, chives, jalapeno) minus the thyme and rosemary I added in.


I mixed the ingredients together in apple cider vinegar. I just used a gallon water jug as that is what I had laying around. Normally I would probably use a glass jar.
The mixture smells amazing. I will strain it after shaking it up every day for a few weeks, use the liquid as the tonic remedy, and then puree the rest for an awesome sandwich spread. The boys are actually excited about the last part.

The great thing about this tonic, is that the ingredients in it are anti-viral, anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, increases blood flow and circulation, helps fight off cough and sore throat, and is very warming. I may add honey to it later to help decrease the “sting” factor. Not to mention honey is a great natural antibiotic and a good source of natural energy when you aren’t feeling well.



Onto the garden!

It is hard to see at the moment, but you might be able to spot the corn that is popping up out of the ground.

I planted the carrots between the rows as marked below above the rows.
                      Corn  Carrots       Corn       Carrots  Corn



I picked up a bundle of chives that I figured I could add to my tonic. I chopped off all but about 4-6 inches near the base. I planted 7 chives in my garden near my tomatoes. I could have planted them right near the onions, but I did not want to get confused on which needed cutting, and which needed pulling later, so I left a gap.


My chives                                                                My onions

I also harvested those gold nugget tomatoes and saved the seeds from those. I basically washed the gardeners delight and put them out to dry, then put the gold nugget in the same container for processing.

My new chest freezer went out today, so I scrambled to get everything in the regular freezer as I could before it went bad. I am hoping it is something easily fixed, though I won’t know until I get someone to look at it.

I repotted my ginger plants into a bit bigger of a planter as well. I am not sure if they will ever end up outside. I sort of like them on my kitchen windowsill. At least until they get too big. Ginger is seriously easy to grow. At least in my experience.  I just leave whatever chunk of root I did not use from store bought ginger in the produce bag. Eventually it starts to grow a plant from the little nodes due to moisture in the bag. I just break it off a little below the node (About an inch or so below the growing node.) and then burry it 2/3 of the way in seed starting soil.
You aren’t really going to find ginger “seeds” in a nursery. That is about the only way you can grow them that I know of. At least in my area. Now I believe they can get up to like 5 feet tall, but I guess that also depends on when you harvest the root. Pretty much all roots are best harvested in Autumn, though I would have to double check that with Ginger as it is a tropical plant.
If they do end up outside, it will most likely be in a container garden as it will be easier to dig up the roots from there. I will also be bringing them inside for winter if I do that, as they cannot be outside if the temperatures drop below 50.