Fire Cider Kit (DIY)

Just add honey and vinegar!

Full of ingredients 100% grown at Root Digger, this kit is designed to make one quart of Fire Cider and contains:

Onion, Garlic, Horseradish, Baby Ginger, Kitchen Herbs, Hot Peppers, Lemongrass and/or Lemon Verbena. Optional: add Elecampane for respiratory health (not recommended for pregnancy or nursing)

Directions:
Peel onion and garlic
Destem herbs and peppers leaving lemon grass whole
Remove ginger greens

Chop, grate, or put everything in a food processor with 3 cups of apple cider vinegar (ACV) and 1/4 cup of honey. Add the juice and zest of an orange or lemon if desired.

Put into a mason jar and top off with ACV as needed. Use a plastic lid or a piece of parchment paper underneath your metal lid to protect from corrosion. Let sit for at least six weeks, agitating daily if possible. Strain and press out your material. Add honey and lemon to taste. Store in glass, in the fridge for maximum longevity. Optionally, you can dry the marc (leftover herbs) and makes a seasoning. We like to grind them with a coffee grinder and add them to salt but larger bits make an agreeable addition to soups - remove the whole lemongrass before pulverizing! --these kits are a bit variable, if you end up with a bit of extra material, you may want to use a smaller jar to container the remainder. either way, fill all your containers to the top.

Baby Ginger: This is the young Ginger rhizome. It's tender, lacking the fibrous material developed in the second growing year but it is still potent. We include the green ginger tops for you and recommend using them fresh, or splitting the stem with a knife and drying them to use later as tea or in nourishing broths. Take extra care in drying them as they're quite juicy.

Kitchen Herbs: These may vary year-to-year or even kit-by-kit but we favor Thyme, Oregano, and Sage for their affinity for the lungs and infection-busting capacities. 

Hot Peppers: These two will vary but we like to give you options so expect some medium heat from Jalepenos or Black Czech  with the option to kick it up with red and gold Cayenne.

Lemongrass and Lemon Verbena: These herbs provide powerful citrus flavor to get things moving. If you want to make Fire Cider Seasoning after you strain you Fire Cider, we recommend removing the Verbena stems and putting Lemongrass in whole and removing it later because these parts are quite fibrous.

If you can't make your fire cider right away, you can store the onion, garlic, and any dried chilis on your counter. The rest stores best in a plastic bag in the fridge.