Flavored Waters

[Catherine, The Herb Lady]

Hi Folks,

I've been creating and collecting ideas for flavored waters for quite a few years - they call them 'vitamin waters' these days :-)  Homemade is best don't you think?

Anyway, I've done lemon and spearmint; rosemary and lime; cilantro and lime; celery and parsley with or without lemon or lime, to name a few, and lots of edible flowers when I make jug dispensers for food demos etc (everything makes a gorgeous presentation).

Well I have another one to add to the concept.

Made Over acidulated water!

I'm sun drying my apples, cored and cut into slices.  In order to keep the browning to a minimum I put the cored apple in a bath of fresh water, with lemon or lime fresh squeeze juice plus the peel.  The last time I used lemons.  Today I used some of my limequats.  You can use any variety of lemon or lime.

After slicing the apples (I pull out the big honker of a mandolin I have) I put the slices back into the water to continue the anti-browning while I finish slicing all the apples.

After putting them out dry (sometimes takes 2 days depending - I also top with cinnamon sugar occasionally), I check the acid water taste.

Today's batch is particularly nice so I strained and am enjoying a glass as I type this.  So chilled or served over ice - you get another two-fer - apple slices to dry and keep, and a refreshing drink.

If that does not float your boat - throw the acid water on the ground around acid loving plants :-) 

Don't forget the same thing can be done with peaches or apricots.

Hope this gives you some 'made over' or 'recycled leftover' ideas.

P.S. I did a post on my external blog several years ago, showing a jug of flavored water with other ideas.  Part of this is all about encouraging folks to drink more water.

http://edibleherbsandflowers.blogspot.com/2010/03/how-to-drink-more-water.html

[Catherine, The Herb Lady]

What a good question, Grace.

Depends on your concern about the probable source plant used to make the 'sugar' - corn is usually the base and since most corn in the US is GMO, it is more an 'ethics' question as opposed to environmental given the high level of processing the corn went through to make the 'sugar'.

Unless packages say Organic with processed foods you have to presume the corn used as a base was GMO.

So, ethics / conscience aside I doubt it would harm your compost pile.

[Sheryl]

Very interesting discussion.  My favorite flavored water is lemon with crushed basil.  Nothing else has quite measured up, but I'm going to try Brian's cuke/lemon/ rosemary.  Sounds great.

I am trying really hard to limit the amount of sugar in my (and my diabetic husband's) diet.  We just recently eliminated the diet sodas and it has made a huge hole in what I can drink, especially because I am drinking coffee and iced tea and really don't like them without some sort of sweetener. 

We quit the diet soda because of the research coming out on how the sugar subs still make your body react as if you're getting those sugars, without the carbs to back it up, contributing to weight gain anyway. I'm wondering if Stevia still "fools" your metabolism in the same way?

And yeah, I hate the chemical taste of the Stevia products.  Maybe growing my own is my only chance of using it.  Do you propagate your own?  I've been told getting it from seed is far from easy.