Water from Your Garden

Water. Big deal. But the thing is, fresh spring water is a good thing to drink. Problem is, it has no flavor. Sometimes that’s OK.

Like when there’s no sound. I love silence.

Or no light. Darkness is my preferred habitat.

So sometimes, flavorless is good too.

However. If you cultivate a food garden, you never need go without flavor. In your food, or in your water. Summer is ending here. Up until last week, there were still a few food plants that I used to infuse jugs of spring water: lemon geranium, borage, and parsley were still going strong.

This past summer, I really went non compos mentis with the herb- and fruit-infused waters. This summer’s favorite, hands down, was cucumber water. I plucked a fresh, smallish cuke from our garden, sliced it thinly with the mandolin, and added the slices to a full jug of fresh spring water, then refrigerated it.

This is an insanely refreshing thirst-quencher on a hot summer day. No calories; perfect for bikini/tank tops/shorts season! I also infused H2O with basil, spearmint, peppermint, and lemon balm. I found that it’s a good idea to stick to the ‘one note’ principle of infused waters: mix up more than one flavor in a jug, and it gets weird. 

One exception to that is any combination of citrus – lemon and lime slices, grapefruit and lemon slices, orange and lime, et al.

From time to time this past summer, I picked up some fruits from my favorite local health food store, Garden of Light in Avon – lemons, limes, kiwis, and grapefruit.

If you like the flavor of grapefruit, you will LOVE LOVE LOVE grapefruit-infused water. Just add a few thin slices of a clean, organically-grown grapefruit to your jug of spring water and refrigerate. SO refreshing.

Now that September is drawing to a close, I’ve narrowed my infused waters to grapefruit and cucumber. We still have garden cucumbers in the cooler, and I picked up a juicy, organic grapefruit from Garden of Light yesterday.

Namaste, my loves.

xoxoxo