My Herbal Beginnings or how I became the "Blond Witch"

My herbal story began 22 years ago when I was still working in the Armed Forces. I am a former soldier and I never thought I would work with flowers, anything but that.

One day, my best friend showed me a recipe for »homemade Jägermeister« and told me she had no idea about flowers and suggested I take a look, maybe I knew something about them. What happened then could be called »love at first sight«, because it was truly fascinating since I didn't know any of the names, but I had all the flowers in my head that were on the recipe. And there were plenty, about 55 flowers.

I told my friend okay, you buy the schnapps, and I'll gather the flowers over the year according to the recipe, and we'll see what happens. At that time, I already changed the recipe because I knew that if I, as I knew myself, didn't adjust or change something to my liking, I wouldn't be "healthy" or "satisfied". The sugar amount specified in the recipe was reduced, and I also knew I wanted more flowers because I wanted to make more than just "homemade Jägermeister", I wanted a herbal queen.

And so it all began, I bought 10 liters of good homemade schnapps and collected flowers over the summer according to my recipe, which I soon added about 10 more flowers to. At the end of the year, we strained and bottled it and left it on the shelves. Soon, there was an opportunity to test homemade spirits, and others tested them too, and to my surprise (because I'm not a fan of alcohol) everyone who tried my Jäger liked it very much. They asked me where this idea came from, who told me what to put inside, and that it was nice because it wasn't too sweet.

This is how the desire for more began to grow in me because I saw that lovers of herbal spirits or liquors really enjoyed drinking them, and I succeeded in something that appealed to a wider audience. So, during the first winter, I bought more literature and started researching flowers, their purpose, healing properties, but most importantly, as I said before, I decided to make a herbal queen, which we later named Jezerska Pehta. 

To bring my Pehta to the stage where it is now, where every year is a year of effort, to be able to put a bottle of this herbal queen on the table, it took a good 8 years. I was most concerned with the question of which schnapps to use as a base because I didn't like regular fruit brandy, as pears or plums predominated. Grappa was never my favorite because it's just grapes, which simply don't go well with herbs. To this day, I swear by homemade apple brandy, which is personally the best and most neutral for me.

The emphasis of my entire story is that I have remained unique and boutique. Even today, after 22 years, my process is still the same. I do everything manually from A to Z. This means I handpick the flowers I need, macerate them in apple brandy and glass barrels, then I hand press them with my hands, hand mix, and dilute with spring water from Jezersko, and transfer to bottles, hand bottle and label. And only then, when it's all done, can I present my Jezerska Pehta – herbal queen to the guest at the table for them to try or take away. 

I live in a place where heaven is on earth. I live in Jezersko, where 1200 species of plants thrive, and I can literally "graze" anywhere. Farmers also do not use any chemicals for their meadows, and nature is truly rich and untouched. Often, the guests we host at our camp or glamping laugh when they see me coming from some corner or thicket where I picked my flowers. And most of all, they find it interesting when they ask me where my list is, how I know what I need. When I tell them I don't need anything because the flowers call me themselves when they are ripe to go with me. And I always pick what I need, I just have to let go.

But make no mistake, it wasn't that easy from the beginning because I didn't even know I had it somehow. After winter, it was time for me to study flowers, and so I compiled my own herbal concoctions based on my own ideas. Always with the desire and in the hope of helping people who will enjoy or give them as gifts. I had lists to collect everything from the beginning because if you calculate that there are 102 herbs in Pehta, 54 herbs in Hribovska Kri, and 35 herbs in Travarica, you can quickly calculate that there are a lot of them, and you can quickly forget some of them. 

But I stopped writing lists maybe I can say a few years ago, at least about 6 years ago, when one of the herbs surprised me, that it "called" me, as I call it. I was looking for a mountain pearl. And I didn't find it, so I used some other valley. But it is true that I always wrote down what I needed for a particular liqueur and went looking for it. But once I tried just expressing a desire for what I needed and letting the flower appear by itself when needed, and in the meantime, I forgot about it.

Apparently, because of this, I also got the nickname "Blond Witch". And you won't believe it, it pleases me if they call me that because I really love flowers. And I respect everything that grows around us immensely. That's why I always thank when I gather flowers since they are like my herbal assistants who help me make the best herbal spirits. 

Today we have 15 types of different herbal spirits on offer, and some even more special ones made to personal order. As they used to say that there is a flower for every disease, this is really true. There are so many different types of herbs that we can use that I really find it hard to stop, and I always get new and new ideas for new liqueurs or spirits.

Taste our magical herbal queen - Jezerska Pehta!
 
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