My Lemon-Honey Shot Recipe
I woke up with a sore throat this morning so I made my health shot. It's seriously easy, delicious, and effective. And I get to use one of my tiny jars that give me so much joy.
Here is the recipe:
1 lemon, juiced
1 spoonful of raw honey
1 dash of turmeric
1 dash of black pepper
1 dash of cinnamon
1 dash of cayenne pepper
1 piece of ginger, gratedHonestly, I think honey does most of the work for throat aches so if I don't have lemon or ginger on hand, I leave it out or substitute it with whatever citrus fruit I have. This time, I didn't have lemon but my mom had extra Yuzu :)
My mom and I peeled the fragrant citrus to save for later and we carefully squeezed the juice for the shot. Left over pulp was stuffed into the honey container (there was only a spoonful left) so we could enjoy it later. I also saved some seeds to experiment with germination. In the end, we had 4 different items from the fruit and a cured throat:
- Throat relief shot
- Yuzu peel aromatics
- Honeyed Pulp
- Seeds
Hiking and Hitchhiking in Göreme
Now that my throat feels fine, I want to take you back to the time when I realized the potency of nature. It was summer of 2021, I was backpacking in Göreme (Cappadocia) with a friend I met in Istanbul. With our tight schedule and trying to make the most out of every city, we had taken a 6am flight out of Istanbul after a night of socializing in Taksim. We were exhausted when we landed in Göreme and my friend had, you guessed it, a sore throat. The local remedy was a simple syrup containing honey and herbs and my friend and I were amazed by its efficacy; healed, we were able to enjoy Göreme's full offerings.
We went hiking in the Pigeon Valley, enjoying the bipolar weather of early summer, smelling the fragrant wild flowers and plants - and occasional pigieon droppings. We looked around Love Valley, and hiked the hills of the town. We even hitchhiked to the town over, which was out of my comfort zone but with my friend being over 6 ft, I decided to take my chances. In hindsigh, that might not have been the smartest thing.
But my backpacking trip that started in Turkey was marked by daring challenges to push my comfort zone like this and surrounding myself in different connections. There is a saying in japanese to celebrate connections with strangers: 一期一会 (Ichigoichie). I've kept that word close to my heart since.
Artificial Banana smelling Russian Olive Tree
If you've never smelled the Russian Olive Tree I hope you will oneday make your trek to Göreme just to smell the wonder in the air. It truly amazed me of how fragrant the roads were in the hills behind the town.
When trees smell like magic, how could I not be mesmerized by life? With my privileges, how could I not advocate for environmental stewardship?
Anyways, gtg.
Love, Momo