Harvest!;-)

 I  am currently preparing ´shrooms and potions;-). The mushrooms are either just dried or salted and spiced and salted with...erm ... salt, thyme, sage and artemisia, weird, I know, but tasty;-). I even seasoned some with honey and sage, and dried them and what can I say... they are all gone already..;-) I tend to eat them as snack more often than cooking with them!

Those are gins and potions: Up front there is a very handy love potion, which is also a good tonicum against arthritis:

take four handful of nettle seeds,
four handfuls of dried rose petals (rosa canina)
0,2 l of birch sap
and honey to cover the whole mess
2 cl of Amaretto liqueur

let rest for three days in the sun, and three weeks in the dark, strain through a sieve and enjoy. 2 cl per day will suffice!

Behind that, a cough syrup.

take two handfuls of ribwort plantain (plantago lanceolata),  ten leaves of gravel root (Euparium) or Echinacea, one small and sharp chopped onion, cover with honey and let it rest for six weeks in the dark.

The big bottles: Sloe gin, with cinnamon spice, Birch sap and herbal wine with nettle seeds, sloe / birch sap wine, sloe / birch sap / herb wine. Jul feasting is accomplished!;-)

By the way, this is Willibald;-), a birch sap vinegar fungus that simply built up in a neglected birch sap bottle. I fed him with honey, and he prospers well. I have made birch sap wine with him and added a bit to bannock dough already... works!;-)
 

No apple for a change;-)

 So, there are apples everywhere in my home. In my bathroom, in my pockets, beneath the heaps of clothes, in my drawers, in my rucksacks, in my cellar. So I needed a change.;-) Checked the pine schnapps elixir I set on in spring. I always make it stronger in the beginning. These are three handful of green pine cones, let to rest in refined sugar for three days. Then I took some 38 % brandy and let it rest until now. I will take one third of the extract and fill up with fruit schnapps (Obstler). To make a "spagyric essence" from it, you can take the pine cones, let them rest in sugar for three days again, and then reduce by cooking as done with the plum mousse. Then you can project the Obstler fruit schnapps / pine cone solution on the mass and let rest for another three weeks... cheers;-).

Preparing quince for drying: I took out the pips and had some length of paracord lying around;-). Fitted them on the cord, so that they have no contact with each other. makes for a nice, fresh smell, too;-).

 Had no paracord left, so these had to be dried this way: Clean sheet underneath ( you can also use kitchen paper), and no contact to each other. Flip over every other day!

 Dried St. John´s wort and ladie´s mantle herbs.

 Quince candy in the making. Liberally daub with refined sugar (brown one will do nicely, too;-)). When the juice runs off, you can remove the quince rings from the jar (I use plastic yoghurt containers), and set on a dish to dry out at room temperature. If you do this at 50-75 degrees Celsius in the oven, the sugar will caramelize... and... *ggg

 Rum pot Fimbulmyrk style;-). Took brown crystalline sugar, RUM;-) and put it in a jar that stood ajar at the time by incident;-). Then I put in whatever would not fit into jam and marmelade and other schnapps: Blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, sloe, rowan berries, quince, aaaand.... APPLE.:-)
I´d put in pears, too, but I am hoggish with pears;-) so none survived.

Plus some cinnamon, cardomom, nutmeg, cloves and a tiny bit of black pepper.

MUST I explain what this is?*g

It´s sloe brandy;-). Made with brown crystalline sugar and 38 % brandy...