Sunday, July 21, 2013

Harvest and Water

Friday I finally braved the heat here in the North East and went out to the garden to see if there was anything that needed harvested and I found oregano, basil, mint, and lemon balm.


As I looked over the harvest laying on my kitchen counter, my thoughts went to the heat we have been experiencing over the past several weeks and the importance of keeping ourselves hydrated and of course water is the best drink for hydration.

I keep a pitcher of water in my frig most of the time and I've started adding things to the pitcher to give it a little flavor, things like fruit, vegetables, herbs, etc. My favorite combination has become cucumber, lemon, and mint. Here you can see a pic of the current pitcher. If you look closely, you will see that rather than lemon, there is lime in this pitcher. Another of my attempts at trying a different variety; but I do keep going back to the cucs, lemon, mint combination.


The addition of veggies, fruits, and herbs to my water has definitely had an impact on the amount of water I drink each day in a positive way. What I love most is that not only am I keeping hydrated in this heat, but I'm getting the healing benefits of the items I've added to the water.

The lemon slices provide me Vitamin C and help with the arthritis that is starting in my knees. The cucumbers not only provide my body with the vitamins and minerals provided by the veggie, but it also works to keep my kidneys and bladder working and ensuring that uric acid doesn't build up in those organs causing kidney or bladder stones. I'm sure each of you have experience the way the body wants to maintain water when we are experiencing a heat wave, our feet and hands swell and the cucs work to ensure the kidneys eliminate excess fluids from the body. And the mint, what to say about the healing properties of the mint, it works like magic on the body; to help it maintain a level of balance, helping with insomnia, migraines, heartburn, not to mention the urinary tract.

So start adding herbs, fruits or veggies to the water that you drink each day and drinking that 8 glass each day will not be so difficult!!! Then share with me what your favorite combination becomes.



p.s. part of the basil harvest on Friday was the Opal basil, that beautiful purple basil. So I made a small batch of opal basil vinegar. You will note that I used distilled vinegar (the only time I ever use distilled vinegar when making flavored vinegars). You can see the pink color of the vinegar and it has only been soaking for 2 days.

No comments:

Post a Comment