Each time spring arrives, we set out to make a hydrosol we call The Green Pharmacy. A multi-layered and purposeful botanical water that embodies the therapeutic properties of green spring herbs.
This combination hydrosol may already be familiar to some of you, as we have discussed our love for it before, but as it’s become almost a seasonal ritual we feel it should have a permanent place in our Archive.
The Green Pharmacy’s botanical mix consists mainly of fresh nettles, fennel fronds and flowers, a little rosemary and two different types of peppermint—Mentha arvensis, which is very high in menthol and has a strong taste and smell, and Mentha piperita, the common type found in tea bags.
This year we are also adding parsley that is just about to go to seed—every year it’s slightly different, mirroring what’s been going on in our garden. As every gardener knows, no two years are the same.
The really interesting and wonderful thing about hydrosol is that it has multiple purposes. Jill loves keeping a litre in her bathroom to use as a hair rinse, and saves the rest to make activated, zero ABV botanical cocktails.
Here’s the recipe and the ingredients you’ll need to try these yourself. They are highly recommended.
Green Pharmacy Botanical Cocktail
Run a fresh lime around the rim of a glass tumbler
Dip the rim into Billie’s nettle salt* so the rim has a fine coating
Fill the tumbler with ice
Measure 5 ml of Green Pharmacy hydrosol and pour over ice
Add 20 ml of Unruly sherbet*
Top up with soda water
Garnish with a slice of lime and sprig of mint.
*Billie’s nettle salt
Dried nettles
A few rosemary leaves
Sea salt
Kelp powder
Grind the nettles and rosemary leaves to a find green powder in a spice grinder and mix with some flaky sea salt. Add a sprinkle of kelp poweder to give it some minerality and that hint of the sea.
*Unruly sherbet
Fresh nettle leaves
Fresh garden mint leaves
4 fresh limes
1 cup raw organic sugar
Put the fresh nettle and fresh mint leaves in a mortar and pestle, add the peels of 4 fresh limes and pour the raw organic sugar over the top. Bruise the leaves and pound gently to mix until the sugar starts turning a bright green. Juice the limes and pour over the sugar mixture. Leave overnight to infuse then strain through a fine jelly bag of double muslin cloth. This keeps well in the fridge for a month.
