End of July homesteading tasks...plus herbal iced teas and fruit sodas...

Happy late July!  We can't believe that summer is half way over...it feels like it's just now coming to it's peak. Our garden has become a jungle and days right now are full with tending to it, plus canning peaches, preserving jam, drying berries, making crock pickles with fresh cucumbers and dill, baking outside in the wood oven, harvesting our first ripe heirloom tomatoes & our favourite French filet beans, collecting seeds, wheeling mulch into our garden paths, weeding, drying tea herbs, watching bees, chasing the hens out of the garden (one has made a nest under our asparagus patch and needs to get in there to lay her egg each day!), picking edible flowers to decorate cakes...some breaks for homemade berry soda and herbal iced tea, a few jaunts off the property for some swimming to cool off, and of course lots of playing in the sand pile with our 2 year old...

Favourite Herbal Iced Teas & Fruit Sodas:


Make a strong herbal tea with 2 cups water plus large handfull of herbs.  Steep with water that has just boiled for at least 15 minutes, or for sun tea soak herbs in cool water in large glass jar for several hours in direct sunlight.  Add honey or sugar to sweeten.  Fill glasses with ice, add herbal tea, plus sparkling water if desired, plus fresh berries (raspberries, blueberries), peach slices, or lemon and lime rounds.  Add a sprig of mint or nasturtium to the glass and you have a gourmet art piece.  Delicious!

our favourite blends:
* anise hyssop, red clover, lemon balm
* bergamot blossoms, mint and lemon verbena
* lavender, honey and lemon

Another variation is to make a strong tea, mix it half and half with pure fruit juice (e.g. mango, blueberry, peach, raspberry, blackberry, pear), plus crushed ice and a dash of sparkling mineral water, for an amazing simple and refreshing healthful fruit soda.