Thursday 7 January 2010

New UK Blog Party: January "My favourite bitter"

Following the success of the Herbwifery Forum's International blog party, we thought we would try to start a similar party for UK blog users.

The idea is to write a short article on a given subject, post it on your blog and send the link to the person who is hosting the party. Debs Cook, Herb Society webmistress and Council Member, has offered to host the first party on her blog, Herbaholics Herbarium. It's Debs' birthday today, so you may want to drop by her blog and send her some birthday greetings.

You don't have to be a qualified herbalist or even experienced in herbs to take part in the blog party, what we want is your experience and your stories.

This month's party is all about bitters. What are they? What's your favourite bitter? What happened the first time you ever tasted a bitter? (Sorry, I'm talking about the herbal kind, not John Smith's or Black Sheep, but you can talk about hops!)

All you have to do to join the party is to write your post and send the link by 20th January to Debs at debs at herbal-haven dot co dot uk.

Happy blogging!

3 comments:

Amanda Baker said...

I'm now intrigued about Angostura bitters, after our brief chat on Saturday!

"The recipe was developed as a tonic by German Dr. Johann Gottlieb Benjamin Siegert, a Surgeon General in Simon Bolivar's army in Venezuela, who began to sell it in 1824."

Intriguing, as you said! Apparently, Angostura means 'narrows' was the founding name of Bolivar City, on the Orinoco - but the company is based in Trinidad.

It seems that it definitely doesn't contain angostura bark, and definitely does contain gentian root, and otherwise, all is secret!

Amanda Baker said...

Tangential, but following Martin's comment yesterday about nettle seeds being good in porridge ... I got out my jar of Leafu powder (http://www.leafcycle.co.uk/healthpromoting.htm - Of nettle leaf curd powder: "Apart from carbohydrate, vitamin B12 and vitamin C most of the major and minor nutrients we need are present,") and he's right.

It gave a slight green tinge to the porridge (made with water, and - shockingly, if your Scottish - sweetened with a little sugar), and a mild green flavour ...

Sarah Head said...

Hi Amanda

The article I referred to yesterday about Angostura bitters can be found at http://bearmedicineherbals.com/?p=459 if you want to do some more research.

Good luck with your green porridge - it certainly worked wonders for me when I needed it!