rose hip soda

In college, I built myself a thatch hut and lived in the woods on a bed of leaves and cattail down.  I foraged for food in baskets I wove of kudzu and honeysuckle vines.  And under that bed of leaves, right on top of the hand-hooked rag rug made of my old t-shirts, was my secret stash of Diet Coke.

I have finally, many years later, completely weaned myself off of corn-syrup or chemical-cocktail sweetened sodas.  But I am still a sucker for a fancy fizzy drink!  There is something that sings to me about a sun-drenched porch on a sweltering day, listening to the soft fizz and clank of ice cubes in a cold glass.

So I have learned to make my own sodas.

Here is my current favorite recipe:

Rose Hip Soda

2 tbsp. dried rose hips or 1/2 cup fresh

1/2 cup agave nectar or honey

1/2 cup kefir grains or 1 cup kefir whey or yogurt whey

1/2 organic lime

filtered water

~Place the rose hips, sweetener, and kefir grains or whey into a two-quart jar. Squeeze the lime juice in, then cut up the peel and throw it in too.  Add enough filtered water to fill the jar.

~Screw the lid onto the jar and leave it in a warm place for 2 days.

~Strain the soda into two glass bottles (empty mineral-water bottles or swing-top bottles are great).  Add enough water to fill to the very top. Screw the lids on tightly, label, and return to a warm place for another 2-3 days. Transfer to the fridge.

~Open them carefully and over a sink—they get REALLY fizzy.

~Pour over ice, add a slice of lemon, and sit on your sun-drenched porch!

I make this recipe with lavender too, which is DELICIOUS, substituting dried lavender flowers for the rose hips and lavender-infused raw sugar for the honey.

If you are unfamiliar with kefir grains, they are a lovely little squishy organism that you use to make your own kefir (or, as it happens, soda.)  If you do not have kefir grains, check to see if there is a chapter of the Weston A. Price foundation near you; often these gatherings are replete with kefir and kombucha and other fun k-things.  Or you can use whey from homemade yogurt (or store-bought if it has live cultures and isn’t sweetened).  The whey is simply the watery part.  To obtain kefir whey, let your kefir sit out a day longer than you would normally to make it, and it will separate into curds and whey.  Strain out the grains, pour off the whey, and use the curds to make kefir cheese!

This recipe is adapted from Full Moon Feast by Jessica Prentice, which is highly recommended for anyone who likes a little bit of storytelling and cultural history with their recipes.

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