Infusing honey, is a sweet and fun way to use herbs, you can infuse roots, flowers, leaves, berries, dried fruit and all kinds of fun spices!
I personally love to infuse fresh flowers in to honey, lilacs are one of my favorite flowers and since they have such a short blooming time, it is wonderful to be able to infuse some in some honey to preserve that deliciousness!
What you will need to get infusing!
Honey
Honey is such a wonderful medicine just by itself, it is a powerful antibacterial, having the ability to dry out bacteria. Taken internally it can help you with seasonal allergies, give energy, and can be used as a cough remedy. Used topically for wounds burns cold sores, ulcers, makes a great face mask that is good for your skin and also a great for rubbing around your sinuses when the are clogged, and overall its just a sweet tasty treat! When you make infused honey with medicinal herbs the honey helps with deliver the medicinal properties deeper in the body.
Make sure to get pure raw honey when possible.
Herbs
You can use many different herbs when making herbal honey, all that it depends on is what you are wanting to make your honey for, do you want to make an easy cold remedy for chest congestion? Or how about infusing some of those precious springtime hawthorn flowers to sooth your heart?
You can use both fresh and dried herbs and powdered and whole.
When using fresh make sure they are completely dry! Powdering the herbs first means you will not have to strain you honey (this is a good idea when giving infused honey as gifts) Also when you use powder herbs it will be a little stronger of a taste.
I think its also great to make a honey with whole herbs to see the difference between using powdered and whole, and to see what it is like to strain the honey.
When using fresh herbs, after it has infused for 1-2 weeks, strain and store in fridge. Use up within 3 weeks.
A few herbs to try infusing
Lavender
Roses
Hawthorne flower
Lilacs
Ginger
Elecampane
Cottonwood Buds
Thyme
Cinnamon
Turmeric
Garlic
This is just a short list of what you can use, you can make all kinds of blends and mixes to infuse!
A book I suggest for finding some delicious recipes is called The Herbal Kitchen by Kami McBRIDE
You may also used dried fruit to infuse into your honey
The fruit has to be dried and chopped first.
You can use the flowing fruits to add to you honey.
Cherries
Pears
Apricots
Peaches
Figs
…and more!
Proportions
1/4-1/2 cup dreid herbs to 1 cup honey
1/2-3/4 cup dried fruit to 1 cup honey
Put herb into jar and cover with honey, let set for two weeks then enjoy!
Elecampane Honey
You can use fresh or dried roots for this recipe
1/4 cup dried or 1/2 cup fresh elecampane root
cover with 1 cup raw honey ( you may need a little more if using fresh herbs)
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