Homegrown Herbal Tea

[Phaedra]

I started to harvest the herbs - different kinds of mints and sages. They grow so rapidly because of the rain and warmth. Picking them now encourages more side shoots for more to harvest next month.

I also harvested thyme and oregano. Now the mints and sages are in the dehydrator.

 

[Phaedra]

Sugar leave plants growing from seed - They are pretty tall now, so I pinched them today.

Good evening tea for today - sugar leaves and raspberry leaves

 

[baymule]

What nice cups of tea you will have!

 

[Phaedra]

Today, I harvested some raspberry leaves, rinsed them, and let them dry indoors. Raspberry leaves, Linden flowers, and tea MUMs are my 2023 targets.

 

[digitS']

What might "go" with raspberry flavor?

Okay, linden. I have tried to recognize a linden tree -- having once lived for a short while on a Linden Street. Still don't know where I might find a tree/flowers. Okay, mums except, i.don't.think.so .

Raspberry leaves taste so much like raspberries, you might be surprised! But, they could use a partner.
Steve

 

[Phaedra]

The raspberry leaves are fully dried quickly indoors. I crushed them simply by hand and used a big ceramic jar to collect them. I like the smell and used about one teaspoon to mix with dried rose and mint for a cold brew herbal tea.

This morning, I harvested another bunch of chamomiles and put them in a vase. Before I am in the mood to pick the flowers, they will stand there as a pretty piece.

When I have some minutes, I can easily pick the well-blossomed flowers and let them dry in the greenhouse. Those still in the vase or the garden will keep growing - no pressure, no hours of hard work on those tiny flowers.

When they are dried (under current weather, two or three days are more than enough), I just collect them into a jar. With this method, I can enjoy harvesting them very much.

I also harvested mint, basil, parsley, and the flowers of elderberry. It's the first year that I do use a lot of herbs, and I hope one day, I will make my own herb pillows.

It's time to collect elderberry flowers - most plants in my garden belong to the normal white flower variety. The photo below is the flower of black elderberry. People here usually make them into syrup. I will only pick a small portion of them and wait for the elderberries.

 

[digitS']

I like the flavor of chamomile, Phaedra. It always reminds me of apple. Your plants are much taller than mine were.

The commercial blends put too much mint with the chamomile. Mint and apple?. Your rose hip idea for raspberry makes sense. That also seems like it might be a good choice for chamomile!

Steve

 

[baymule]

Your elderberry flowers are pink? I didn’t know there were pink ones. Here, the wild elderberry flowers are white.

 

[digitS']

Checking my recent "content" -- I saw that I wrote that chamomile flavor reminds me of ... mint! Edited that this AM.

Thinking of writing about the mix that I buy, with too much mint flavor for me, I wrote mint instead of "apple." Apple flavor seems unlikely, incongruent but that is how chamomile tastes to me. Rose hip flavor and chamomile sounds like a good fit.

The content of my cup today is catnip and lemon balm. They were both dry and hanging in my kitchen. First cup ... tastes pretty good!

Steve

 

[Phaedra]

Your elderberry flowers are pink? I didn’t know there were pink ones. Here, the wild elderberry flowers are white.

Yes, I bought one black elderberry and its flowers are pink. The rest elderberry trees in the garden are all with white flowers.