Just the word Apple Cider makes you feel all warm and cozy, especially this time of year. But apple cider doesn’t just mean a delicious drink that you sip on that is pipping hot, it also includes a nutritious wonderful vinegar that has more health benefits than I can keep track of! Both are pure extracts from organic apples that produce incredible products for our health, appetite and enjoyment!
Apple Cider Vinegar:
There are many varieties out there, so I am going to help the confusion and direct you to Filsingers which is a local Canadian brand. They have the purest products I have ever tasted. Their vinegar is fresh, pure unpasteurized and unfiltered. Which means nothing has been done to it along the process. You are getting their own certified organic apples, which are pressed and aged without preservatives or additives. In case you didn’t know this Apple Cider Vinegar has been used for centuries to help with a variety of ailments because if it’s powerful cleansing qualities. Apple cider vinegar is a naturally occurring antibiotic and antiseptic.
Used in:
Home Body Remedies: for skin, wounds, burns, acne, sunburns, insect bites
Weight Loss and Metabolism: I don’t like to promote “weight loss”, but apple cider can speed up your metabolism, making your body more efficient at burning energy (place 1 tbsp in a glass of water and drink first thing in the morning or throughout the day)
Home Cleaning: this may be an expensive way to clean your house, but apple cider vinegar makes a great disinfectant, deodorizer and over all household cleaner
Food and Recipes: Apple cider vinegar is an amazing addition to salad dressings, stir fry’s, and can be used to add acid (or make buttermilk) in recipes such as cookies, pancakes and muffins
(If you are not local to Ontario, just be sure to look for products with similar standards – Bragg’s, Eden, Spectrum etc..)
Sweet Apple Cider:
Filsinger’s sweet apple cider is made the old fashioned way from whole apples. They blend several varieties of apples such as McIntosh, Cortland, Spy, Golden Delicious, Red Delicious, and Ida Red. Using a variety of apples according to them enhances the flavour. They also don’t use any preservatives or additives in the preparation of the final product.
“Since 1953 our soils and trees have been balanced with seaweed extracts, trace minerals and compost. Our apples are grown without the use of chemical herbicides and pesticides. We are certified organic by OCIA International.”
Sweet Apple Cider can be enjoyed:
Warmed up with a cinnamon stick any time of day! You can have apple cider cold as well, but it just isn’t the same. So if you can, warm it up in a pot, sprinkle with cinnamon, nutmeg and a large cinnamon stick. Get into your comfiest clothing and curl up on the couch in from of a fire!
Filsinger’s also makes amazing: Applesauce and Apple Butter
Sweet Apple Cider Dressing
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup Filsinger’s apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp Filsinger’s sweet apple cider
1 tbsp local honey
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger powder
Place all the ingredients in a blender or small processor and blend until well combined and creamy. Tastes delicious on spinach or arugula with fresh sliced apples, walnuts and hemp seeds!
