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Are you thirsty?

Posted at 11:19 AM on October 25, 2008 by Sareen Dunleavy Keenan (4 Comments)

The thing about being a locavore that gets me time and time again are the limited beverage options.
Sure, We can get great beer. Wine is available. I have even had some great mead and liquors. But I can't spend my days drooling on the couch. Heck, the mead was so good I can't remember where it was from.

We can even get some great sodas. But, I just cannot handle all of that sugar and I cut most sodas out of my life a long time ago.

It is apple season, so cider is flowing, but not for long. And the 5 gallons we did buy is now... being fermented. That brings us back to the first problem with me and the too much to drink category.

Beyond that, it is me and my milk. I am thirsty, what are you drinking?

Comments (4)

I love the fruit/honey wines from Minnestalgia Winery in McGregor, MN. They make meads and other super tasty wines.

We just got some local apple cider, which is lovely.

And because we have a soda maker, I'm drinking tons and tons of homemade sodas and plain soda water.

Posted by Kassie | October 25, 2008 3:19 PM

Sareen, local beverages are something of a problem here, too, especially when compared to the seemingly endless variety of exotic fruit juices and gourmet sodas available on the grocery store shelves. Water and beer are the mainstays in my household, but other locally accessible options include apple cider, as you mentioned, and grape juice. These are about the only fruit juices I can make using local ingredients in my neck of the woods. I don't particularly like grape juice, but it is easy to make and can, so that's an option...or was a couple of months ago. You can freeze apple cider to have on hand year-round. Aside from juices, you could make herbal teas to drink either hot or cold. Various mints, chammomile, catnip, bee balm, lemon verbena, rose hips, hibiscus, red clover, elder flowers, rosemary, sage, thyme, lavendar, violets, dandelions, and much more can be used to make tasty homemade herbal teas.
Then again, there's always beer :-)
Good luck quenching your local thirst,
Autumn

Posted by Autumn Long | October 27, 2008 11:54 AM

Sorry for the repeat posts. Don't know how that happened... :-(

Posted by Autumn Long | October 27, 2008 11:56 AM

Hi Sareen,
James and I were just discussing this same issue! We are going to try making rootbeer and ginger ale. I am also going to try making kefir. I know of some other people who make kombucha.
Earlier this year we bought a soda/tonic water maker. This thing is great! We often drink soda water with a twist of lime. Very refreshing!
I also like Autumn's suggestions for homebrewed teas.
Good luck,
Leslie

Posted by Leslie Allen | October 29, 2008 12:21 PM