Rosemary Herb Syrup

Inspired by our recent staff visit to The Herb Farm, I dug out my grandmother's old books on herbs so that I could discover different uses for the herbs in my own garden. I made sugared edible flowers which were very pretty but a little fiddly and not good for all that much, but the herbal syrups were a delightful surprise and dead easy to make. The whole family loved them so I decided that these would be excellent homemade gifts (always the best kind). I experimented with rosemary, lavender, mint and hibiscus (admittedly not from the garden but available dried from Commonsense!) The rosemary was my favourite, both on its own with soda water but also with a shot of gin on a warm summer night. It was so easy it doesn't really feel right calling it a recipe, nevertheless, read on to discover how it's done.

Top: Rosemary Syrup; L-R: sugared flowers; rosemary syrup with gin & soda; mint & hibiscus and more rosemary syrup

Ingredients

makes about 800m

• 2 cups fair trade, organic sugar
• 2 cups water
• 1 cup rosemary, roughly chopped

Method

Heat sugar and water to a gentle simmer until sugar is dissolved, stirring often. Add rosemary and continue to simmer for around 10 minutes.

Allow to cool and then strain into sterilised bottles.

Once cooled add a small amount to ice and add water to taste. I don't like mine too sweet so it lasted ages!

Another inspired idea from my grandmother's book - herb punch!