A Time of Transitions

Hello dear friends. October is soon coming to an end as we head towards the last two months of this year. It's a little bittersweet to see the last of the little flowers and all the colours begin to slowly fade but it also brings about a new time that holds its own kind of magic. A time of cozy jumpers, cups of hot chocolate, candles and that crisp November morning air. And today I'm making the most of these last October days and enjoying the little treasures that nature has to offer us. Rose hips for jams and syrups, pine needles for oils and teas. The gifts of nature are still so abundant this time of year. And taking a quiet moment next to my favourite oak tree, I give gratitude for all the abundance and beauty around me and everything there is still to look forward to. Hello there everyone, I hope you're all doing well today. So I am back from my walk and what a beautiful walk it was. It was such a wonderful sunny day today and I feel like we've been really lucky here recently. We've had such beautiful and warm sunny days so far this October and we haven't yet had that much rain actually, only a little bit here and there. So it's been really really nice and so I've been trying my best to kind of spend as much time outside as I possibly can and just to absorb all this wonderful sunshine while we still have it. And so I went out into my kind of local natural area this morning and I really wanted to have a chat with you while I was there but I found that every time I tried to sit down and talk there were all kinds of noises around me. There was a lot of people and dogs barking and sort of cars in the distance and everything in between. So I found that it just didn't work out to have a conversation even though I tried multiple times. So I thought I would just come home and update you all from here. And obviously it's really really hard living in a place like this, like London. It's really hard to find a piece of nature or natural area where you can also find a little bit of quiet and privacy. It really doesn't happen very often because it is just so so busy everywhere and there's always people everywhere. So unfortunately it didn't work out very well but that's okay. But today I actually went on a little walk because I wanted to see if I could forage some of these little guys and these are called slow berries or also black thorn berries and they are basically a kind of wild like mini plum essentially and they grow wild as far as I know here in the UK. I'm not sure about other countries but in the UK you can find them in many many places and you can forage them and they are edible and actually make a really delicious syrup or cordial with them. And you can also add them to gin or vodka and infuse them that way and that is also apparently very delicious. I have not tried that yet but I have tried the syrup with them. I made it last year and so I really wanted to see if I could forage some this week to make into a little bit of cordial and I managed to gather some. Not a lot because I also wanted to leave some for the wildlife and the birds so I didn't manage to get that much this time but I think it's enough to make just a small bottle and I really wanted to make some to take home to my parents when I go to visit them next week. And also I am just so looking forward to going home. I am just so excited and this time next week I will be at home already and I'm just so excited to go out into some proper wild nature and truly have some quiet and peace and no people around. I really can't wait for that. But yes, so I think I'm going to make a start with this little syrup and while it's cooking I want to do a couple more things and I'm also very conscious that the light seems to be leaving so quickly nowadays. It's getting dark quite fast and there's not a lot of daylight left apparently so I want to try and get a couple of things done today as well because the rest of my week will be quite busy this week. And I actually want to strain my honeys that I made a while ago if you guys might remember. So they have been sitting in the jars for a long time now and they are quite ready to be strained so I'm going to also get on and do that because I want to do that before I leave to go home and see if I can do that and maybe one more thing and we will see if the daylight is still here so hopefully I can get that done. But yeah, I'll start with this. Hello everyone and good morning. It is the next day and unfortunately yesterday as I was straining off my honeys and getting them all ready in their new jars it just got so dark really quickly and so I didn't really manage to film what I wanted to properly and show you how they all looked in the end. So I thought I would just wait for today and to show you properly as they do all look really lovely and taste so wonderful. So here are my two yellow honeys. This one is the ginger and sage fermented honey. So really really full of goodness, such good antibacterial, antiviral qualities from the ginger and the sage. So wonderful for sore throats and coughs. Really really great. And here I have my honeysuckle infused honey and this one I have to just tell you, it is like a true taste of summer. When you taste this honey you just imagine that really kind of sweet sweet beautiful aroma and a taste of honeysuckle. It is just all in this honey and it is just incredible. It tastes like a spoonful of summer and I would eat it as it is but it is so, it is like my very very special honey that I make when I find honeysuckle and I can forage them. And so I try to make this especially and keep it for winter colds and sore throats once again and fevers and things like that because honeysuckle is also incredibly antiviral, antibacterial and has been used actually in Chinese medicine for so many years. And it is again wonderful for sore throats and easing inflammation and heat in the body. So this is a really special one that like I say I could eat so much of because it is so delicious but I am going to save it for those times when I have a sore throat which actually is a little bit happening today. I am feeling something coming on so I think I am going to actually make a lovely tea with some ginger and lemon and add in a spoonful or two of this honey. So I am actually probably going to do that today. So there they are. And the last one was this elderberry honey that I was straining. And as you can see there is not so much of it in here and that is because the elderberries actually took up the majority of the jar but that is okay. And again this honey is so so special and it is just such a beautiful colour. I am not sure if you can see properly but it is such a wonderful dark purple colour here. And again so full of vitamins, vitamin C. Mainly it is wonderful for your, like a boost for your immune system basically when you have a cold, flu when you are ill. This just gives such a wonderful boost to your body, helps you fight infections. So again a really wonderful one. And actually this honey is something that, it is so wonderful because you can buy elderberries dried for example in any health food store online or in person and you can keep them like I do in a jar for just whenever you need them. So it is not like with honeysuckle that only grows in a certain time of year. You can buy these dried and just infuse and make this honey whenever you want to. And I actually really like making different batches of it to also gift to my family members for when they are not feeling well. And so it actually turns out to be a really delicious and wonderful gift as well. So I highly recommend. And one thing I wanted to say with the elderberry infused honey is you might find like I did yesterday that the honey can get kind of quite stuck with the elderberries like one big chunk. And so to be able to strain it what you can do very easily as I did yesterday is just pop the jar and of course make sure that your jar is heat resistant as this one is. Pop your jar in a little bowl or container of hot water. Again when it is a heat resistant jar it will be just fine. It won't crack. And just keep it in the hot water for a couple of minutes and stir it around inside and you will find that you can then strain the honey so much easier. I don't suggest heating it up over heat like by itself over heat because especially if you are using raw honey, which I like to do, then when you heat it up you might find that the raw honey can lose some of its very beneficial qualities and enzymes and things that it has. So it's better to just heat it slightly with a little bit of warm water and that I think works the best. So yeah, these are the honeys. You may remember also during the summer that I made while I was at home, I made this rose honey. So I infused rose petals. You might remember from a previous video and this has come out so beautifully and I've let it sit for quite a long period of time on purpose because rose is, as some of you may know, one of my most favourite herbs and I use it for so many various things and I'm just in love with the scent, with the taste, with rose in general. And rose is wonderful because actually you can use fresh or dried petals as well. And if you're using dried edible organic rose petals, when you infuse them in the honey, over time they become really softened in the honey and so you can actually just eat it like that. You do not have to strain it unless you want to. You can definitely also strain these petals if you find that that is more enjoyable for you to consume that way. But personally, I really love the taste of the rose petals and it just reminds me of when I was little and I know, I think I've told this story already, when I was little and I used to make jam with my grandmother back in Ukraine when I was really young and she would make this incredible rose petal jam and it was just like a treat for me. And so this really reminds me of that time in my childhood and so I really love to actually leave the rose petals inside and just eat it like that. It is really, really wonderful just on a piece of toast or anywhere you like. So, yeah, I thought I would show you because this one I'm going to leave just as is. And again, it can make such a beautiful gift for someone who maybe loves honey, like I do. And yes, of course, I made just now this wonderful slow syrup or cordial, whatever you want to call it. It is still cooling down. I have poured it into this sterilized jar that I've previously sterilized in hot water and now it is ready and it tastes so wonderful. I've tried just a little bit and it is quite tart, but with the sugar added it is just incredible. And it was a very simple process. Again, I didn't manage to film it last night because it just got way too dark in this room. I can also write the recipe from the book in the description for you guys if you want to try. I just really love making these kind of little preparations that I know are going to be so helpful for times like today when I'm feeling a sore throat coming on already. These kind of situations happen to me multiple times a year because also because of teaching children and constantly being around a lot of children every day and touching hands and things and giving hugs. And it always amounts to me getting something a couple of times a year. But that's okay because I have a lot of help from my little remedies that I make. Today I'm going to do just one more thing that I really wanted to. I'm going to go out today and buy some fresh rosemary and a little bit more fresh oregano, I think. That's the ones I'm missing in my jars. And I'm going to hang them up where I do normally here in my kitchen and let them dry off and then I can use them for teas and other things to help with any kinds of situations later down the line. So I really want to do that this week because of course in a couple of days I will be leaving to go home and these kind of herbs take quite a while to dry properly. So I think I want to try and do that today and I think I will say bye for now. And again, thank you so so much to all of you for such wonderful words and support and so much love on all my previous videos. I just really want to say it means the world to me and I will probably say that in every video that I make because it is really true and I just I don't know how to thank you enough for all your kindness and support to me. It just has been picking me up so much in these last couple of weeks where I have been just feeling all kinds of various things and emotions. So I am so so grateful for all of you being here and for being so wonderful and kind. I guess that the next time I will see you guys is when I will be at home and I am just so excited and so looking forward to just being out in nature and just feeling that connection again that I so deeply miss and that sense of quiet and just yeah connection to to nature to myself and the world around me which I feel is really can be very challenging for me to feel here in this place. So take care everyone and I will see you in a couple of days or so. All right, bye.