Kitchen Notes: Summerade

The summertime beverage that beats the heat

There’s plenty we do to mitigate the perils of the season, but summertime is tough on farmers and farm adjacent people. Heat and humidity suck the living energy right out. Plus, rising temperatures and extreme weather make the work of growing food (and staying cool) ever more precarious. Staying hydrated is essential.

On the farm, it’s all about finding small pleasures amidst the brutal beatdown of the season. Enter Old North Farm Summerade, a refreshing mix of fruit and herbs lightly sweetened and salted to replenish heat-stricken bodies.

This beverage is nothing new. Indigenous Mexicans and Central Americans have been making aguas frescas for hundreds of years. Like all people connected to the land, we pull from what’s growing around us and make a beverage that’s pleasing to the eye, hydrating, and restorative. In other words, it’s the perfect summer drink.

Old North Farm Summerade

Makes 1 gallon

What you’ll come to know about our kitchen is that the cooking style is loose and intuitive. Recipes are hard to come by. This one was created over a series of weekends where I chased my husband around the kitchen and interrogated his process, much to his chagrin.

The recipe below calls for plums, holy basil, and Aleppo pepper, but it’s more of a formula. Substitute peaches or fresh berries, whatever fruit and flavor combinations that please you. This recipe is easily adaptable.

*You will need a blender or immersion blender for this recipe.

8 cups water

1 cup granulated cane sugar, or 3/4 cup liquid sweetener (think honey, maple, or sorghum)

1 tsp pink Himalayan salt

1 bunch Tulsi (also known as Holy Basil), or any other fresh herb

1-2lbs Santa Rosa Plums, or any other seasonal fruit (can also sub fruit juice for whole fruit)

1 tsp dried Aleppo pepper, or spice of your choice

1/4 cup lime juice, or preferred citrus

On the stovetop over medium heat, bring water, sugar, and salt to just below a boil. Be careful not to heat the mixture too much. We want to dissolve the sugar and heat it just enough to activate infusion of the herbs, which will be added next. A rolling hard boil could damage the cell walls of the herbs and produce unwanted bitterness.

Add the herbs to the simple syrup. Turn off the heat, cover, and let steep for 5-10 minutes. While the simple syrup steeps, halve and pit the plums and place into a container with the Aleppo pepper.

Remove the herbs from the pot and pour the herb-infused simple syrup over the fruit. Using a blender, or an immersion blender, pulverize the fruit and blend the mixture. It’s up to you whether you want to lightly blend and leave it chunky with bits of fruit, or blend more completely and strain it. We like it both ways. In this case, we blended the plums and strained the solids out. Add citrus juice and more water to create 1 gallon of beverage. Chill.

Serve in a glass filled with plenty of ice and garnish with fresh herbs, a wedge of citrus, or salted/sugared rim.

VARIATIONS

Ginger/Peach/Sumac: grate in fresh ginger to the simple syrup and steep before adding to the fruit and spice.

Dried Hibiscus/Lime Basil/Blackberry: Steep dried hibiscus and lime basil in simple syrup mixture before adding to the blackberries. Pulverize and strain those pesky blackberry seeds out.

Thyme/Lemon/Honey: Steep thyme in honeyed simple syrup with fat strips of lemon peel. Add 1/4 teaspoon more salt for a salty lemon summerade.