Prized for their beauty as well as their flavor, our herbal vinegars were first described as a "garden in a bottle" by a delighted customer.

I've always taken great pride in the care I put into making each bottle. On sunny summer mornings after the dew is off, I pick small bunches of herbs and bring them into our kitchen for vinegar making. I clean them and trim them and carefully arrange them in bottles so they look as beautiful as they taste.

To Bring out the Flavor - A New Vinegar - Golden, with the aroma of crisp Cortland apples

For many years, we filled our bottles with a wonderful organic wine vinegar we bought from California. That changed when we discovered the delicious apple cider vinegar made by a neighboring farmer, Tim Smith of Apex Orchards in Shelburne, Massachusetts. (Tim grows a portion of his apple orchard with no pesticides at all, and uses those apples in his vinegar.) We'd become more and more aware of the health benefits of apple cider vinegar (for combating arthritis, cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, for example) and began experimenting with mixing Tim's cider vinegar with our raspberries and blackberries.  The results were outstanding vinegars - fruity antioxidant-packed salad dressings and elixirs to combine with water to quench a thirst on a hot summer day.

We now use Tim's authentic apple cider vinegar in all of our herbal blends too. Because the herbs are so fresh and flavorful, Gardens in a Bottle can be used directly on salads without oil. With a good olive oil, they combine to create unrivaled vinaigrettes.

Gardens in a Bottle are also wonderful in marinades and for grilling vegetables, fish or meat; in stir fries; and as a savory seasoning for roasted root vegetables. We have plenty of recipes - check them out!

Speaking of Vinegars, Cheshire Garden received rave reviews in a brand new cookbook, "Raising the Salad Bar" by Catherine Walthers, a food writer and chef from Martha's Vineyard. This beautiful book challenges the reader to think beyond greens in creating wonderful, healthy salads, and includes three recipes featuring our Queen of Hearts Raspberry  Vinegar which Cathy describes as the "gold standard" of fruit vinegars. We're the only producer of fruit vinegars (to her knowledge and ours) who uses real fruit in making our vinegar, not flavoring, extracts, or juice. We've always been troubled that there are so many bad vinegars out there - expensive as well as cheap. Folks try them, then are turned off by the bad flavor and never try another. Thanks to Cathy for telling our story in this warm, witty, and inspiring cookbook.

"These vinegars are so beautifully made and so aromatic that you can sprinkle them over lightly steamed vegetables and omit the oil - one way to shed winter's bulk." - Sheryl Julien, The Boston Globe

Old friends will be glad to know we've gone back to our original bottles this year. Our experiments with Italian glass were fun but their availability is uncertain, and we found that we missed our 375 ml size - the 250 ml bottles simply emptied too fast! We've put up Blenda d'Italia, Lemon Italia, Herbes de Provence, Green Garlic, and our acclaimed "Queen of Hearts Raspberry" in the long-necked 375ml "Vienna" bottle our customers have loved for years.

We're also bringing back the 190 ml petite champagne bottle for lavender flower, strawberry and blackberry vinegars. We've put up our French Tarragon in the remaining Italian "cathedral" bottles - 250 ml size.