Two Cockatoos

As many of you (oh, wait… is anybody reading this anyway??? *crickets chirping*… um, OK, never mind) will know, it’s summer here. We’re so close to autumn, but it’s definitely still summer.

I’ve had the basis (and the photos) of this post in my head for a couple of weeks now, but I’ve finally decided to get some of it down in writing. There are a few photos, so for the sake of page loading, they’re on the next pages - just click on the page numbers.

I’ve talked about our almost-accidental pineapples before, and we’ve enjoyed a whole two pineapples from our back yard already! Very exciting. What we didn’t see coming was the flowering of one of the extremely neglected pineapple plants at the edge of the vegetable garden, overlooking the bog pond. They’re hardy things; truly drought-tolerant. They’re not dead! Apparently all that was required was some more water, which has been provided by some good falls of rain and extra watering of the plants we placed right next to the pineapples. So we’re watching the beautiful progress of our newest pineapple. Just like watching the grass grow, only prettier… and slower.

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Technically, it’s iced herbal infusion with a twist, since we don’t actually drink “real” tea. Anyway, during the summer, we’ve made a few batches of iceblocks (icy poles) with juice or lemonade. We have décor Lickety-Sips® but obviously any similar moulds would work.

Recently I decided to try something a little different. Instead of filling them with sugary liquids, I wanted to use something healthier.

I made our favourite herbal infusions, enough of each to fill a set of moulds, and made herbal tea iceblocks. For the boys, I couldn’t completely avoid sugary liquid, because they like honey in their tea, but we ended up with chamomile for DS1, ginger for DS2, peppermint for DH (he varies his teas, but I decided peppermint was good for a cooling treat) and rosehip for me.

The boys were a little hesitant, but tried them - and approved them heartily. An interesting - although not surprising - result was that the sweetened iceblocks were softer (more like “real” iceblocks) than the unsweetened ones. There must have been enough honey to stop them from freezing hard. DH’s and mine were just like solid ice with flavouring. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but I like my iceblocks a little less teeth-shattering. I also like my rosehip tea unsweetened.

I think some more experimenting may be required.