Texas Loquat Cough Syrup

Loquat cough syrup is a popular remedy in Chinese Herbal Medicine. I got pretty annoyed in Austin one year when a local clinic refused to provide it without a prescription to my friend for her and her child, especially since Loquats are prolific here in Central Texas. I looked at several recipes and made a batch and it is absolutely delicious and works great to soothe and relax coughs. Its hard to recreate mostly because loquat season is short and sneaky. They are there ripe on the trees and then all of a sudden gone.....
I almost missed this season except that my student found one the last trees making its offering this year at a local coffeehouse and got me about 5 pounds. Thanks Mallory!

This is the way I went about processing:

5pds of loquats in a crock pot with enough water to cover the fruit.
Simmer the fruit until tender and then mash into the water. Let steep on low for another couple of hours
Strain out pits and skins and pulp, return to pot and allow to cool.
Add in 1-3 oz of other antispasmodic, calming, or demulcent herbs. In my case I chose a popular recipe and amended it. I added about 1 oz of licorice, 1 oz of fresh ginger into about 1 quart of liquid. I let the roots sit for about 2 hours in the cool liquid(a little herbal trick with roots that have certain types of properties you are trying to extract--thank you James Green) and then simmered it for about 20 min. I turned off the heat and then added another 1/2 oz of spearmint and let it steep another 10 min. Allow to cool
Strain the liquid thru fine mesh and add pure organic sugar or raw honey to preserve at a rate of 1:1
In texas I keep all my syrups in the fridge because they ferment easily, which sometimes isnt so bad

Peach Crisp

I woke up this morning and saw my peach tree almost doubled over. Its a small tree, in its 3rd year, covered in its first good crop of peaches. I tasted one and my eyes almost popped out of my head. The peaches are perfectly delicious so I quickly took care of my trees burden. I have decided to make a fresh peach crisp. I am about to slice all of them and will highlight the steps here I take

I sliced the peaches and removed the pits. I lined a baking dish and added in fresh berries I had on hand as well as sprinkling in some pecan pieces. I then mixed in fresh chopped lemon balm and mint, agave syrup, and organic wheat flour enough to coat the mixture.

I then added the topping with was about a cup of organic flour, and a cup of organic oats, about 1 cup of sucanat, and half a stick of butter, and equal amount of coconut oil. I mixed these until they were a crumbly consistancy(with my fingers) and topped the fruit mixture.

I then took the crisp and baked it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 1/2 an our until it browned......Yum! Its delicious,I think I could even back off more on the agave syrup and sugar and it would still be yummy goodness