So Succulent Gardens

HOREHOUND COUGH SYRUP
Make an old-time cough remedy by mixing horehound tea with honey.  Make an infusion by steeping 1 ounce of fresh or dried horehound leaves in a pint of boiling water. Allow it to steep only 10 minutes.
Strain off the leaves, then measure the quantity of liquid remaining. Add twice as much honey as liquid, mix well, and bottle.
To soothe a cough, take 1 teaspoon at a time, about 4 times a day!! Taken from: Rodale's Illustrated Encyclopedia Of Herbs

HOREHOUND DROPS
1 cup fresh horehound leaves
I cup water
2 cups sugar
2 tablespoons corn syrup or honey
Put the horehound in a small non reactive sauce pan and add the water.  Bring to a boil and simmer, covered,
for 20 minutes. Allow to cool, then remove the horehound and squeeze out all of the liquid. Add the sugar and
corn syrup or honey to the pan, stir with a wooden spoon while bringing to a boil, then turn the heat down to a
gentle simmer. If bubbles threaten to overflow the pan, reduce the heat slightly and stir.  Boil to the hard-crack stage. If you have a candy thermometer, this is in the range of 330°F.  Keep
a shallow cup of cold water nearby. Stir the liquid occasionally, and watch how it falls from the spoon. When it forms a thread, begin testing for hardness by allowing a drop of the mixmixture to fall into the cup of cold water. Don't trust your fingers to examine the now hardened drop in the cup: bite it. If it's at all gooey or sticks to your teeth, keep cooking. When it's hard enough to crack when you bite it, remove the pan from the heat immediately.
If the mixture crystallizes, just add a cup of water and an extra tablespoon of corn syrup or honey to the pan, scrape all of the crystalline chunks into it, and begin again.
Lightly butter a candy mold, cookie sheet, or other heatproof baking pan, and pour in the hot mixture. If
you're using a flat-bottomed pan, score the surface of the candy after it has cooled enough to become firm. This
will help in breaking it apart, which should be done as soon as the candy can be handled.  After individual "drops" are
formed, sift granulated or powdered sugar over them to keep them from sticking together Store in a moisture-
proof container.
From the Herb Companion Magazine

The vodka helps with easier scooping.

• 4 cups lite half and half milk
• 1 vanilla bean, split
  
• 6 egg yolks
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons lavender honey  (Click link to buy lavender honey)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 T.  Vodka

Directions:
1. In a medium pan, heat the half & half milk and vanilla bean to simmer. Do not boil. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, brown sugar, lavender honey, and salt until light colored and frothy. While whisking constantly, slowly combine the hot milk with the egg mixture. Transfer the mixture back to the sauce pan. Cook over medium heat until mixture reaches 180 degrees Fahrenheit,  when tested with a candy thermometer, or becomes thick enough to coat the back of a metal spoon. Remove from heat.

2. Remove the vanilla bean from the mixture and reserve. Strain custard into a large bowl. Scrape seeds from the vanilla bean into the custard, add the Vodka.  Cover the surface of the custard with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

3. When cold, freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's 
directions.

4. Optional:  Sprinkle with fresh English Lavender Buds.

A fun recipe to do with the kids this summer when the fields are in full bloom with unsprayed wild clover.   Over a hundred years old from an old New Hampshire native.

HOMEMADE HONEY
2 1/2  cups white clover flowers  (No green parts)
1 cup red clover flowers    (No green parts)
Petals of four wild roses
10 cups sugar
1 teas.  alum
3 cup water

Directions:
1. Wash blossoms and drain well.
2. Bring all ingredients except alum to a boil and stir slowly.
3. Add alum and stir 60 times (no more, no less). Turn heat off
Allow to streep for 3 hours.
4. Strain mixture through cheesecloth, reheat to boil and pour into clean sterilized 6 oz containers.