It's blackcurrant picking time here, as our four bushes are dripping with purple berries. For some reason the birds aren't that keen on them, though the chooks love it when I throw them a few.

'Why don't you make Ribena?' my hubs asks. 'It's full of Vitamin C'. I think of my first boyfriend who used to cycle to check the surf every morning and get a box of Ribena to drink, sucking through the plastic straw whilst I felt giddy with love.

'Um.. I'm pretty sure that's untrue', I say, with my usually scepticism of sugary drinks. Of course, I have to prove it, sparking absolute outrage in my man who feels his entire childhood has been sullied:

In the Auckland District Court today, GlaxoSmithKline was fined $227,500, and ordered to undertake a nationwide campaign of corrective advertising in newspapers to explain that some forms of Ribena contain no detectable level of vitamin C. The guilty pleas relate to two kinds of misleading or false claims about Ribena made between March 2002 and March 2006. Five charges relate to claims that ready-to-drink Ribena contain 7mg of vitamin C per 100ml. Testing found no vitamin C in the ready-to-drink product. Ten charges relate to claims in TV adverts that "the blackcurrants in Ribena have four times the vitamin C of oranges." GlaxoSmithKline now accept this statement was liable to mislead consumers. Commerce Commission Chair Paula Rebstock says that thousands of New Zealanders have been misled by the claim that Ribena contained high levels of vitamin C.^Source

Vitamin C is notoriously lost in production processes. I certainly won't be heating it to get the best benefits out of these little babies. Last year I made a lovely thyme and blackcurrant oxymel, using a little more honey than vinegar, to extract the content. I'll do that again this year, but I also thought I'd dehydrate it so the powder can be used in smoothies.

I spend a lot of time just stuffing them in my mouth in the garden, to be honest. The sharp and tangy taste is my thing.

I also put them in my fire cider, which is basically an immune support remedy. Half vinegar, half honey, plus anything medicinal from my garden that is great for immune support like garlic, turmeric, horseradish and oregano. Too easy. Kitchen herbalism rocks.

Sweet Ribena can stay on the shelf. I've got the real thing.

With Love,

^{The Herbal Hive Community}

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