Keith Ramsey: [00:00:15] Hey, Keith Ramsey here with In The Garden. I wanted to talk to everybody about cocktails and mocktails today. I came to this subject basically because I'm not too fond of the taste of water or the lack of water taste. we drank a lot of water in the garden center when I'm working or gardening.And I I'm bored to death with drinking water. So I started modeling basically simple syrups out of blackberries or out of we had Georgia kisses this winter.  I would muddle or squeeze the orange and then add fresh local honey to it.And I found myself drinking a lot more water, so it was a healthy thing. Okay. If you don't know Joe Woolworth: [00:01:10] what muddling is, it's basically like a wooden stick that looks like something that you would tenderize meat with at the endKeith Ramsey: [00:01:16] You just kind of smash up the fruit, break it up. Exactly.And if you don't have that, it's squeezing it.  Mash it with the end of a knife. It could be as crude as you want it to be, but and then that bleeds over to cocktails, which is also a very important part of gardening, in my opinion.And a nice, slow walk through the garden, or out working in the yard for half an hour after work when you're unwinding and There are lots of different things in the garden that you can use in mocktails and cocktails. And there are some fruit plants, blackberries, and raspberries. Both thrive in North Carolina.So when they're in season, using them fresh is an amazing thing. You've got an abundance of them. As they pile up, you're freezing them and storing them for the wintertime. So again, you can bring them back out. You can do slushy drinks with them, put them in the blender or just, muddle a Blackberry Blackberry Bazell.Basil is a fragrance that everybody loves, that it's a flavor that everybody seems to be really popular right now. And then there's Bazell sprays, which I'm not really sure if I want a rim spray that smells like myself, but it's a very current fragrance.Joe Woolworth: [00:02:17] I've never heard of that flavor combo. Blackberries and basil, to me, it's like a great seventies funk band. Keith Ramsey: [00:02:23] Exactly.Joe Woolworth: [00:02:36] Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the stage: Blackberries and Basil... Do you put basil in a cocktail? Do you just put the leaf in? Keith Ramsey: [00:02:38] You can model it, or you can just put the leaf in for a slight, for more of a fragrance in the drink, and then a slight additional  flavor, so if you muddle Joe Woolworth: [00:02:45] it, it's more strong, and if you don't, it's pretty exactly like LaCroix Basil, have you, the koi water? Yeah. There's a great joke about LaCroix water. It's like the flavor of LaCroix routers. Like somebody standing two rooms away and yells at the flavor.Keith Ramsey: [00:03:01] that's exactly it. You can make a simple syrup out of all of that stuff. You can use it in your ice water, in the big cup that you carry with you during the day it makes the water a lot more enjoyable in my opinion. And then mixing it with vodkas or rums. That's a great combination, iced or doing blackberries, as more of a blender drink, figs is another one. Is a little bit on the odd flavor, not as common, but But figs make a great thing to muddle and put in a drink now, like just the whole Joe Woolworth: [00:03:27] thing, you muddle it up. Yup, Keith Ramsey: [00:03:28] yup. Or blend it. And it's a great flavor to add to something. Blueberries are another one in all of these blackberries; raspberries, figs, blueberries are all things that you can grow in North Carolina.They grow like a weed. Once you get them established and they're all organic, they're not. It's not anything you have to spray.  That makes it a big plus. Joe Woolworth: [00:03:47] What's your go-to recipe right now? Keith Ramsey: [00:03:49] This time of year, when I'm busy as can be, it's probably water with either blackberries or  Georgia kisses.  I actually made marmalade out of Georgia kisses and h