edible seattle | Summer 2025 5 full of tips and ideas for your own garden, even if your garden is just a windowsill. “An understanding of the patience, hard work and skills needed to produce food,” writes Kelly, “will make anyone appreciate a plate of food or a drink differently.” Sections run through what Cunningham and Kelly keep in their own “cocktail gardens” and then break down the ingredients into different layered components of a delicious drink. They explain how to make your own syrups, cordials and shrubs, as well as the difference between hot and cold infusions, tinctures and bitters. There’s the sense of their sisterly guidance, encouraging creative flavor layering and waste reduction, while sharing the best of what’s worked for them. The sisters call their philosophy “whole-animal bartending”—the idea that any fruit, herb or vegetable you use can be used entirely. Their example is using citrus juice for a syrup, peels for a garnish, pith and pulp for a shrub. Beyond the guidance, the recipes welcome us to make our own attempts. Some are expected, like a simple strawberry syrup, or are classic flavor combinations like cranberry and rosemary. Some are intriguing, like a recipe for buzz button gin—using the curious buzz button flower, also known as a “toothache plant”—which creates a fun numbing effect in drinks—or the kale and chard vodka, which is just offbeat enough to make us want to try it. (The sisters suggest a “Garden Gibson” with a pickled chive blossom to let the spirit shine through.) There are plenty of cocktails, but non-alcoholic drinks abound as well—the sisters’ philosophy is for everyone, and any occasion. Kelly and Cunningham take us on a tour through their garden in every season as the recipes progress. In spring, the delicate lilac and woodsy spruce tips make spritzes, an unexpected bumper crop of fennel leads to necessary invention in an attempt to use as much of the plants as possible. “When life gave us a fennel lawn,” writes Kelly, “we made fennelcello.” Fall is laden with apples, but also brown butter-washed vodka and chili peppers. Winter has the anticipated toddies and Christmas punches, but also some intriguing cocktails like the “Heart Beet” using a beet shrub, and the “Figgy Pudding Fizz.” Every recipe is approachable, and encourages experimentation, while living up to the Simple Goodness brand by keeping the recipes simple, and the expectation joyful. And while we can’t live all the time in the rose-colored world of Drink Your Garden, we can certainly plant our gardens with our bar carts in mind, in anticipation of a “happier hour” in the future. To get the party started, Kelly and Cunningham have graciously included the following recipes for us to make a “Southside” (page 32), a jammy, spirit-forward cocktail that plays like a mojito, but presents like a daiquiri. To make it, you’ll need the sisters’ Blackberry and Mint syrup, and their Mojito Berry garnish—both of which can use that summer explosion of blackberries in every hedgerow, and the mint we can’t seem to keep contained in our gardens this time of year. Cin cin! DRINK YOUR GARDEN: Recipes, Stories, and Tips from the Simple Goodness Cocktail Farm By Belinda Kelly and Venise Cunningham Countryman Press, W.W. Norton & Company, 2025 BLACKBERRY AND MINT SYRUP Blackberries ripen beginning in August where we live, which tends to be the hottest month on the farm, when our mint begins to struggle to keep enough water under the sun’s relentless shining. We always do a big trim of the mint right around Belinda’s birthday (August 16), which is the same time that the berries are ripe on the drive up to the farm—so we go out with the kids in the cooler evenings and mornings to pick. The timing of these mint cuttings— while ripe, dark berries were draining in colanders in the sink— first inspired this syrup flavor. Makes: 12 ounces Cook Time: 15 minutes 1 cup marionberries or blackberries 1 cup granulated cane sugar 1 cup water ½ cup fresh mint (Use young, soft mint leaves without any browning for best flavor.) Combine the berries with the sugar and water in a saucepot over medium heat and mash the berries as they heat to release their juices. Stir often to dissolve the sugar. Once the sugar has dissolved and the berries are finely mashed and juicy, remove from the heat and add the mint. Infuse the mint off the heat for 5 to 10 minutes, tasting as you go until the mint flavor is round and present but not bitter. Strain out the mint and berry seeds. Bottle in a clean container with a lid, and store in the refrigerator for up to two months. Note: You can use any berry in this recipe and any variety of mint, though we like spearmint. The mint can also be replaced with lemon balm, which works well.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTcxMjMwNg==