Comments on: Switchel | A Classic New England Summer Drink

By: edslakehouse7287@gmail.com

edslakehouse7287@gmail.com — Sat, 26 Apr 2025 00:24:06 +0000

Grandparents lived in West Paris . Remember working the hay field and my Grandmother sending out a gallon jug of ” ginger water ” .Seemed like water,ginger, sugar and lots of ice.
Never knew the recipe. Never been so hot and dry.

By: Nancy Lee

Nancy Lee — Mon, 10 Aug 2020 03:15:13 +0000

I grew up on a dairy farm ???? n upstate NY. During haying season, especially on hot days, Mom would make a quantity of Swichel ( vinegar and cloves and a little sweetener), drive out out to the field for the men. They swore it cut thirst better than any other drink.

By: patriciaw3

patriciaw3 — Sun, 26 Jul 2020 13:22:57 +0000

I live in the South but an older gentlemen who came from Maine used to help tend our fields. He brought with him, what I suppose was Switchel. I think it’s an acquired taste. His was made with vinegar and to me was akin to pickle juice. I never developed a taste for it but I know vinegar has many properties that are good for you.

By: billshatt@rogers.com

billshatt@rogers.com — Sun, 26 Jul 2020 13:12:09 +0000

There is a book…Folk Medicine by DC Jarvis, a Vermont doctor, which is an interesting read. The book describes the many uses for cider-vinegar/water/honey for farm animal ailments. The positive results on the animals, transferred over to human health for all kinds of ailments. I’ve been drinking it for years without the honey, as I like the sour. The other day, I saw bottles of water with cider-vinegar and honey already mixed, on the store shelf for $3.99. Everything old is new again.

By: dorothyg13

dorothyg13 — Mon, 20 Jul 2020 13:46:53 +0000

I was just talking about this drink. Now I have a good recipe. Perfect timing . Thank you

By: michellen9

michellen9 — Mon, 20 Jul 2020 13:29:20 +0000

I was told by a family member that back in the day many farmers drank Switchel during their long, hot, and busy days. It not only kept them from becoming dehydrated, but it was also quite a good thirst quencher.

By: Thomson Burtis

Thomson Burtis — Wed, 17 Jul 2019 02:07:52 +0000

My grandmother and my mother often spoke of the importance of Switchel during my long lost youth. Lemonade was always referred to as Switchel during those hot summer days and evenings as we sat behind the bamboo awning on the patio visiting, another quaint New England term for chatting. I miss those long summer nights sitting with the elders, mother identifying the calls of the nights birds, the genteel discussions often centering on episodes with long lost relatives and the odor of far off cigar smoke of the men as they rocked and told their own stories in the entrance to the garage.

By: diannes6

diannes6 — Mon, 15 Jul 2019 10:37:19 +0000

Yet another New England contribution to medicine! Switchel sounds like the basis for ORS (Oral Rehydration Solution) now used to address dehydration and death (especially in third-world children) by the World Health Organization — Add a little salt and sodium bicarb, and voila — An even tastier Solution! [See WHO Guidelines for appropriate amounts.] Our Yankee forebears certainly knew what they were doing!