4½ Cups white sugar

¼ cup water

½ lemon, juiced

½ cup A.H. lavender, rose, neroli, geranium, or petitgrain, or a combination to your taste

1 Cup fruit pulp (optional)

3 Egg whites, whipped until peaks form (optional)

Prepare the sugar syrup by putting 4½ cups white sugar in a heavy-bottomed, high-sided saucepan; add ¼ cup water and stir to liquefy sugar. Bring slowly to boiling, stirring occasionally until all the sugar is dissolved. Stop stirring at this point and let the sugar boil until temperature reaches 220°F on a candy thermometer, the soft-ball stage. Remove pan from heat and allow syrup to cool completely. Once syrup is cold, stir in lemon juice and hydrosol and pour into your ice-cream machine. Alternatively, pour into a wide bowl and place in the freezer, checking it every 30 to 40 minutes and beating it to break up the crystals. This gets quite difficult the firmer it freezes, but beating the sorbet will give it a nicer texture. Freeze until firm. You may add up to 1 cup sieved fruit pulp to the syrup before putting it in the ice-cream machine, as desired. A creamier “ice” can be made by beating 3 egg whites until stiff and folding into the mixture with the hydrosols just before freezing. In this case you will get significantly better results in an ice-cream machine.

Beverages

AFTER-SCHOOL PUNCH

Kids love special drinks; it makes them feel grown-up, and they really get into things like sprigs of herbs or flavored ice cubes, which last long after the glass is empty.

½ tablespoon A.H. peppermint

1 tablespoon A.H. clary sage

1 tablespoon A.H. linden

2 teaspoons honey (optional)

1.5 liters springwater

Combine hydrosols, honey, and water; serve chilled with sprigs of fresh mint or ice cubes made with diluted peppermint hydrolate. This “punch” is a good pick-me-up when the kids come home from school and need energy for play, homework, or other activities.

ICED “TEA”

1 cup A.H. melissa or lemon verbena

2 tablespoons A.H. clary sage

2 tablespoons A.H. purple bee balm

1 tablespoon A.H. peppermint

2 liters springwater

Combine all ingredients in a large jug; you may add honey, but most people find this does not require any additional sweetener. Serve over ice cubes with a sprig of fresh herb, or for a really special touch, freeze borage flowers in ice cubes and put one in each glass. Caffeine-free, of course!

ROSE ICED TEA

1 cup fresh mint leaves, chopped

1 organic orange, sliced

1 organic lemon, sliced

1 cup English Breakfast tea, brewed twice normal strength

1 tablespoon A.H. rose or rose geranium

2 tablespoons maple syrup

1 liter (32 ounces) springwater

Put mint leaves in a jug and use a wooden spoon to bruise them against the sides. Add remaining ingredients and stir well. Refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight and serve over rose hydrosol ice cubes. (From Miriam Erlichman.)

CINNAMON OAT MILK

3 cups water

2 heaping tablespoons rolled oats (fine)

1 heaping tablespoon barley flour

2 tablespoons maple syrup

1 teaspoon real vanilla extract

½ teaspoon Celtic sea salt

2 teaspoons A.H. cinnamon

Combine ingredients in a blender and blend on medium speed until smooth. Refrigerate for several hours. Makes a delicious beverage and can be used to substitute for milk in a dairy-free diet. (From Miriam Erlichman.)

GARDEN COCKTAIL

2 stalks celery

1 green pepper, seeded

4 ripe tomatoes, cored

2 large carrots

1 teaspoon A.H. coriander

1 tablespoon A.H. bay laurel

Run all the vegetables through a juicer, add the hydrosols, stir and enjoy.

HANGOVER HELPER OR LIVER CLEANSE

1 large red apple, cored

2 red beets

1 carrot

2 to 3 stalks Swiss chard, or a small bunch of spinach

1 inch of ginger root

1 teaspoon A.H. Greenland moss

1 tablespoon A.H. wild ginger or sweet gale

Run the apple, the vegetables, and ginger through a juicer, stir in the hydrosols, and sip slowly.

KIDNEY CLEANSE

2 whole limes, peel removed

2 large pears

1 large apple

2 teaspoons A.H. elder flower

1 teaspoon A.H. yarrow or petitgrain

Run the fruit through a juicer, stir in the hydrosols, and serve with juniper ice cubes.

GOOD-MORNING TONIC

1 tablespoon A.H. rosemary CT cineole or camphor

1 teaspoon A.H. peppermint

1 teaspoon honey (acacia or manuka)

½ teaspoon A.H. black spruce

Add hydrosols to an 8-ounce glass of room-temperature or warm springwater, add honey, and drink this first thing when you get up in the morning every day for three weeks. Rise and shine!

SLEEPY-TIME TEA

1 tablespoon A.H. German chamomile

1 teaspoon A.H. angelica

1 teaspoon honey

1 slice of fresh lemon

Put hydrosols and honey in a mug, fill with hot, not boiling, water, and add the lemon slice. You can also add German chamomile hydrosol to hot milk but omit the lemon. This is especially good for people with peptic ulcers. Good night.

WHITE-WINE PUNCH

1 bottle dry white wine (75 cl)

3 tablespoons A.H. clary sage

2 tablespoons A.H. melissa or lemon verbena

2 tablespoons A.H. orange mint or elder flower

1 liter soda water or sparkling mineral water

small bunch fresh melissa leaf, chopped

10 borage leaves, very finely chopped

borage flowers or rose petals to garnish

Combine wine and hydrosols and chill well. Pour into a serving jug or punch bowl and add soda or sparkling water; garnish with flowers. Alternatively, you can place one borage flower or one rose petal in each compartment of an ice-cube tray and make floral ice cubes, or fill a tube-cake pan with flowers and a blend of hydrosols and water and freeze, so that you have a floral ice ring to float in the punch bowl. Using hydrosols instead of water to make ice means your beverage is not diluted as the ice melts; in fact, the flavor gets better.

BUCK’S FIZZ

Brut champagne or sparkling wine

freshly squeezed orange juice

A.H. neroli

Fill champagne flutes one-third full with orange juice; add two or three spritzes (¼ teaspoon) of neroli, and top up with the champagne. Even sparkling wines become deluxe in this combination.

MIRIAM’S MARTINI

2 ounces Bombay gin per martini

1 teaspoon A.H. rose geranium per martini

1 ounce dry vermouth per martini

Have all ingredients well chilled. Place in a cocktail shaker of crushed ice, shake well, and strain into chilled martini glasses. Garnish with a twist of lemon. My assistant Jessica replaces the vermouth with hydrosol and uses vodka for her martinis; either way these are quite fantastic ’tinis.

MARGARITA

1½ ounces gold tequila

½ ounce triple sec or Grand Marnier

1 ounce freshly squeezed lime juice

1 teaspoon each A.H. neroli and lemon verbena

Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker or blender with plenty of crushed ice. Shake well or blend until slushy, and serve in salt-rimmed glasses. (From Miriam Erlichman.)

HOME AND GARDEN

When I teach classes for the home practitioner, I often recommend using essential oils and hydrosols to make home cleaning products. So many people suffer from environmental sensitivities and chemicals are so prevalent in every aspect of our daily lives that I feel it is very worthwhile to look for ways to reduce direct contact with toxins whenever possible. Replacing chemical home cleaning products with natural substances is easy and fun, and they work virtually as well in most cases.

There are some buts, however, and sometimes the most surprising things can happen. A case in point was when one of my students came into class and related the story of how she cleaned her bathroom sink and taps, then deodorized them by placing one drop of undiluted palmarosa oil on each tap handle and leaving it overnight to work. Work it did! In the morning when she tried to turn on the taps, the Lucite handles fractured into a dozen pieces in her hands. It seems that the terpene content in the oil reacted with the terpenes used in the manufacture of the plastic and changed the chemical structure, making it brittle and fragile. Her husband, who also attended the class, had brought the “evidence” and spent the entire evening ribbing me about the “safety” of essential oils. As my friend Lucie says, “Never judge an experiment,” just learn from it.

TUB AND TILE CLEANER

I use this on sinks, taps, stove tops—just about anywhere you would use a powder or cream cleaner in the house.

small box baking soda