These two authors (and sisters) were recently at a cocktail workshop at our local museum. I wanted to go but tickets were $50 (even for museum members). Instead, I bought the book.
About the book:
With recipes for alcoholic, low-alcohol, and alcohol-free drinks, Drink Your Garden: Recipes, Stories, and Tips from the Simple Goodness Cocktail Farm has something for everyone! In it, we’ve gathered over a decade of our combined garden to glass mixology and gardening experience to bring you to ultimate guide on how to Drink Your Garden in a beautiful hardcover book published by Norton/Countryman Press.
- This books brings to your home kitchen our seasonal, cottagecore twist on cocktails and family-friendly happy hours through the syrups, tinctures, juices, spirits, shrubs, cocktails, and mocktails featured in Drink Your Garden.
- Sip through the seasons with recipes ranging from classics cocktails like Bloody Marys or Pumpkin Spice Espresso Martini to nonalcoholic sippers like a Creamy Tea Cobbler or Lavender Honey Cordial Spritz.
- Ideal for green thumbs or avid farmers’ market shoppers, the book reveals how to capture the vibrant, pure flavors of each season and naturally preserve them with easy to follow recipes.
- It also provides easy gardening tips for growing everything from simple windowsill herbs to drink-worthy vegetables and flowers.
- Featuring 82 beautifully immersive photographs and personal essays, this copy will be signed by both sisters personally.
–from the authors’ website, Simple Goodness Sisters
About the authors:
Based in Buckley, Washington, sisters Venise Cunningham and Belinda Kelly own the Simple Goodness Cocktail Farm, Simple Goodness Syrups, a line of CPG bottled simple syrups, and Simple Goodness Soda Shop, a cocktail café, tasting room, and event space. They host classes, live music, and regular happy hours, and their unique syrups can be found in stores across the country. (You can read more about the sisters here.)
What I thought….
I actually had this book on my to-read list after I saw it a few months ago in a local boutique. I have no idea what brought these two to the Philbrook for the cocktail class. They were preparing for a fabulous new exhibit called Wallflower and they were also getting ready for a bigger evening fundraiser featuring local bartenders. But I digress….
Venise and Belinda are also known as the Simple Goodness Sisters and have been running that business (or the beginnings of it) since 2017 after they both left the corporate world behind. They started with a mobile cocktail trailer and soon were making artisan syrups. In 2020 (yes that 2020), they started a real store front which has morphed into “the most family friendly bar you’ve ever been to or the booziest ice cream shop.” (Check out their bio timeline for more details on their lives and growth.)
The sisters describe themselves as Belinda, the home cook and bartender, and Venise, the chef farmer. While most of my herbs are bolting, going to seed, or have died because of neglect at this point in the late summer/early fall, I was eager to dig into this book and see what I could make before the first frost.
This is just a happy book. It’s about regaining a “happier hour” with family and friends, finding happiness in your garden and doing what makes you happy.
The sisters list the tools and supplies to make this all work. Unlike my most recent cocktail book review, Drink Your Garden has a modest and obtainable list to stock your liquor cabinet. It’s totally doable: vodka, gin, bourbon, rum(s), orange liqueur, and non-alcoholic spirits. Those will definitely fit on a bar cart.
Helpful charts are easily read. I loved the infusion guide, not only for ideas but for timings and tips (30-31). The cocktail garden must be full of edible flowers and herbs so there is another great list of what to plant: mint, chamomile, basil, lavender, elderflower, lilac, rosemary, and fennel. I was surprised to see fir tips and the toothache plant (aka Szechuan buzz button). I do have most of these in my annual gardens but will add that last one. They even include a plan for a 4′ x 4′ garden plot.
A base simple syrup recipe includes a few ideas and tips (48) but is followed by specific recipes from lilac cordial to apple butter and even pumpkin spice. (These are all in the Syrups and Cordials section.)
A few years ago, my sister introduced me to shrubs. The Shrubs section here again includes a basic shrub recipe followed by really inventive combinations: Strawberry, Pepper, and Mint; Celery; and Fig Cardamom.
The Tinctures, Liqueurs, and Infused Spirits includes a recipe for Barkeep’s Citrus Bitters (89). And, there are some really strange concoctions like Kale and Chard Vodka (101), Brown Butter Vodka (107), and Fennelcello (109). Oh my! Luckily the authors include a side note on how to use them along with page numbers for upcoming recipes.
Juices, Teas, and Dehydrating includes making cider and canning fresh tomato juice. The directions for teas (and dehydrating) are pretty straight forward. That being said, I was blown away by the Stone Fruit Tea (126), a black-tea based brew with peaches, nectarines or plums added with a bit of mint or thyme.
Both delicious and impressive, this tea is special enough to serve on its own for a summer cookout or picnic, or is a brilliant base for a White Sangria or a whiskey cocktail. (126)
Indeed!
What’s a good drink without a stellar garnish? The Garnish section will make you a master server.
This book is a lot more than a cocktail compendium. It’s a whole way of preserving and getting the most out of your garden. The ideas and tips are more than throwing a plumeria blossom in a tropical drink. The include instructions for things like Chive Flower Braids (139) along with all sorts of rimming salts and sugars.
Has anyone noticed we’re not even to the cocktail recipes yet?
Need some pickles for Bloody Mary garnishes or just for snacks. This book has got it with pickled garlic scapes, asparagus, green beans, carrots, cucamelons, cucumbers, celery and chive blossoms. (These are all of the quick-pickle variety.)
The range of non-alcoholic drinks is outstanding and most go beyond “just something for the kids.” In fact, the only childlike drinks are the fresh lemonade and maybe the strawberries and cream soda. But, I mean, if your kid likes bitters, shrubs or a Buck cocktail, you can whip up one for them.
Finally, on page 181, we get to the cocktails!
OK. These are not your typical cocktails because of all the great recipes that preceded them. The Lilac and Lead French 75 (185) utilizes the Compound Gin, the Lilac Cordial, and the Distilled Floral Water recipes. The Old-Fashioned (188) is composed of the homemade bitters and any of the homemade syrups (like lavender honey or pumpkin spice). The Bloody Bunny (201) utilizes recipes for Oleo Saccharum with Herbs, Spicy Herb Garden Salt, Pickled carrots, and Pepper Hot Sauce. Most of the cocktails are just beautiful with accompanying photos. They are garnished with all sorts of fresh ingredients. Drink your garden!
There’s more recipes within recipes here with the Pitcher Margarita (191), Pitcher Sangria (194), Garden Party Pitcher (202) and a Bloody Mary Mix (222).
Such a great and inventive book! And once you start making the syrups and the shrubs, the sky is the limit for your own creativity!
Since it is Halloween, I wanted to make something related. I made the Beet Shrub (77) and whipped up The Heart Beet (245) and the Bull’s Blood & Bourbon (246). The Heart Beet contains rosemary simple syrup, the beet shrub, gin, Cointreau, and a bit of prosecco. The Bull’s Blood & Bourbon features the beet shrub, bourbon (obviously), lemon juice, and club soda.
The shrub was not bad. I’m not sure I would want one every day, but it was drinkable and a good non-alcoholic “blood red” drink for this holiday.
Next up was the Bull’s Blood & Bourbon. The Hubs walked in about that time and I said, “I’m making you a cocktail but you don’t have to drink it.” He took one sip and said, “Here.” This one might be an acquired taste. I am used to shrubs tasting vinegary, but the beet shrub mix overpowered the bourbon. If I make this again, I will cut back on the beet shrub. Honestly, this was a waste of good Buffalo Trace.
Finally, I made the Heart Beet. Sort of. I lacked a lot of ingredients. The recipe in Drink Your Garden calls for triple sec, plain gin, prosecco and an orange wheel. This is what I made after raiding the cabinet and pantry.
Floral Heart Beet
Based on a recipe from Drink Your Garden.
Ingredients
- 1 lemon wheel
- ½ oz. rosemary simple syrup
- ½ oz. beet shrub
- 1 oz. vanilla gin
- ½ oz. elderflower liqueur
- ½ – 2 oz. club soda
Instructions
Muddle the lemon wheel in the bottom of a cocktail shaker, then add the syrup, beet shrub, gin, and liqueur. Add ice and shake for 20 seconds. Pour into a glass and top with club soda. Garnish with a rosemary sprig.
Yield: 1 serving
Here are the drinks in order of preference:
- Floral Heart Beet
- Beet Shrub
- Bull’s Blood & Bourbon
I’m using the pickled beets from the shrub concoction for a goat cheese and spinach salad. I will save the shrub liquid for just regular shrubs (or maybe another Floral Heart Beet).
Obviously, you don’t have to drink cocktails to love Drink Your Garden. It would make a great gift for anyone. Speaking of gifts, I am going to whip up some of the sugar and salt mixes, the simple syrups, and maybe even the Bloody Mary Mix to give for gifts this holiday season.
I’m linking up with Foodies Read.
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