Since rosemary continues to thrive over the winter, growing a lovely rosemary bush is a great way to bring this herb into your world, fresh and daily.

Rosemary is a Mediterranean herb originally and has naturalised over here in the UK. She likes full sun and well drained soil but can survive the frosty winter conditions.

Here are some Rosemary based recipes for you!

Rosemary Infusion

\* 2 tsp Dried herb or 2-3inch sprig of fresh herb

\* 1 cup Boiled water (around 200ml)

Pour the boiled water over the rosemary and cover. Allow the Rosemary to steep for 10 minutes, strain through immediately and sip!

Covering keeps all the aromatic oils in the tea brewing away. These oils are volatile, meaning they evaporate rapidly. We know that plants contain volatile oils because when brewing or rubbing them between our fingers, enticing the oils to come out, the smells more than quickly enter our noses and minds.

These are an important class of constituents in the herbal world, they make up a lot of medicines and are renowned in Aromatherapy.

Straining through immediately means that the more pungent and bitter flavours of Rosemary don’t become too strong for the taste buds and body!

I would invite you to play with your brewing time from 5-15 minutes. Rosemary grown and bought in different places will vary in its levels of its many constituents and this will change its flavour and medicine profile in subtle ways.

You can see what works best for your taste and body and this might change over time as well. I find this a wonderful way to connect with your body and the nature of our changes over the days, months and years.

Rosemary, garlic and black pepper infused oil

*400-500 ml Cold Pressed Olive Oil

*1 bulb Garlic

*1 tbsp. Black peppercorns

*1 handful Fresh Rosemary sprigs

Take your garlic bulb and divide it into its individual cloves and give them a light bash with the flat side of your knife or a rolling pin

Chop your Rosemary into smaller 1- inch pieces and place into your airtight 500ml jar, along with the garlic and black peppercorns

Pour over your olive oil

Make sure that the olive oil completely covers the herbs, this acts as a preservation method, so there will be not rotting down of herb matter

Add move olive oil if needed and seal the lead shut!

Let this mixture of plants and medicinal components infuse for a full moons cycle (28 days) and then strain through into a dark glass bottle.

Infusing olive oil with herbs can be a lovely way to bring the medicine into your routine. I particularly enjoy this recipe for its warming, gently stimulating and immune tonic nature. This mix also has the benefits of increasing absorption of nutrients.

Brilliant on salads, drizzled on roasted veg, rice, potatoes and more, a tablespoon of this wonderful oil over your meals is welcomed daily!

You can prepare the same ingredients but replace the olive oil for apple cider vinegar for an extra healing addition to your soups, stews and salads! It’s the same process, but you can use the following quantities:

*1litre Apple Cider Vinegar

*25g Rosemary

*15g Black Peppercorns

*2bulbs Garlic

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Head to my website and find the recipes for the following Rosemary delights!:

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Rosemary Spelt and Carrot cake

Rosemary focaccia

Rosemary incense

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Rosemary is a wonderfully safe herb, and we know it well as a food herb so feel free to experiment safely and effectively with this beauty. It is recommended to avoid Rosemary at medicinal doses in pregnancy, you can contact me to understand more about herbs in pregnancy here.

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I highly recommend using organic and well sourced herbs and ingredients for all your recipes. Knowing where your ingredients come from, supports those companies that take care in providing whole and real foods. It also ensure’s that you know what you are putting in your body, favouring the healing efficacy of your recipe’s, foods and herbs.

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I would love to hear how you get on with these recipes and other Rosemary stories!