Homegrown Herbal Tea

[Shades-of-Oregon]

I tried a few times to grow stevia . It overwintered a couple of years . Must keep warm above 70 , bright indirect light. At the same time be sure to take cuttings for a crop the next time around. I used my coffee grinder to grind the leaves . It didn’t seem to sweeten as well as store bought. My home grown process wasn’t good and I could never produce enough for every day use in drinks or baking.

 

[digitS']

I bought a bag of Jiva Organics stevia through Amazon.

It certainly isn't as sweet as the extract but it's sweet.

Something that occurred to me the other day — the label says "organic stevia leaf, cut & sifted" but how would I know if it has some sugar on those leaves? Of course, I'm not diabetic but just hoping to enhance the blend of herbs and have felt that I have (while gaining a little pleasant sweetness .)

 

[Shades-of-Oregon]

Amazon also has hibiscus teas , sweet without sugar and exceptional flavor.

 

[digitS']

1:1:1:2 for mint, zest, licorice, and stevia -- by volume

I have changed this and thought that I should come back and make corrections.

First, as I have more and more homegrown mint, it might be reduced in the future. That is because it’s very flavorful by comparison to all this store bought – a good thing!

Stevia was reduced to equal other ingredients. It’s fine. The sweetness is appreciated but need not be too much.

Licorice root does NOT amount to an equal part. Difficult to measure because I’m not putting it in a spoon but it is probably a .5 part.

So, 1:1:1:1:.5 mint, zest, stevia, licorice. Simple, enjoyable little concoction. And, acknowledging guidance from @Alasgun on the sweetness of stevia and caution from @Pulsegleaner on licorice.

Steve

 

[digitS']

I was behind in shopping for organic Mandarins this Winter and knew that I didn't have enough skins dehydrated. So ... I bought some organic blood oranges. Now, some of you know that I have problems with names of foods and drinks so that will be the final time I mention that qualifier of an orange variety in this post ...

Anyway , I have been reluctant to use any standard size oranges because of the heaviness of the skins and my experience buying commercial zest. The recent Cara Caras were so thin-skinned that they were difficult to peel. But, they were not organic so I didn't dry them.

The new purchase went through the dehydrator yesterday and I brought up the meat grinder and mixed a new jar full of herbs trying one cup right away and a kettle this morning. This is just fine. I may have used too much stevia because it's really sweet or ... there's a sweetness to this orange zest. My guess is that my spoonfuls and stirring didn't imbalance anything so it's the zest. At the same time, I realize that there may be differences in sources and all — because of my experience having to toss one batch of Mandarins because of bitterness.

Honestly, I could use a little less sweetness but I'm very pleased that the oranges come through with flavor . More depth to the bench and less likely that I will be flying off to parts unknown or left without, sometime in the future.

Steve

 

[ducks4you]

@digitS' I thought about your experience trying to grind up orange rind.
First, I, who own a "virgin, still in the box meat grinder", cannot iMAGINE using it for the purpose of grinding up and orange peel to make tea.
Secondly, I watch a lot of cooking shows and everybody throws away (or composts) the orange Rind. Since the rind sticks to the peel, you really wouldn't want that in your tea, Anyway.
Also, cooks use a vegetable peeler or garlic/citrus zester, like this one:

Microplane® Eco Series Zester Grater

<p>Microplane pairs its surgical-grade stainless-steel blades with organic Moso bamboo and resin handles to produce eco-friendly graters that are 100% recyclable. The razor-sharp cutting teeth work in both directions for twice the

www.williams-sonoma.com

The flavor is ONLY in the peel and in the juice. The rind and the "white" are bitter.
Cooks will zest a citrus fruit and mix that directly into the recipe.
If you "zest" an orange you could air dry that on a tray in your cold oven and bag it up for tea.
Just sayin...

 

[flowerbug]

@ducks4you we use our meat grinder to grind up chocolate animal crackers for making pie crusts. it's probably older than i am.

once in a while it does get used to grind up bologna, onions and pickles for pickle and bologna but we've not done that in a long time now because of what happened to the last batch we made (it went bad before we could use it even though it was stored in the freezer) as that was a very expensive loss. good bologna is no longer a lower budget item.

 

[digitS']

Of course, the original purpose for the electric meat grinder was for grinding meat. I fondly remember the beef breakfast sausage of my childhood. We had the packing company do that for us (along with smoking beef bacon). I made sausage a few times, including buying casing and making links. Smoking — no, a neighbor already torments us with smoke, sometimes at the same time as wildfire season.

Bitter? I drink coffee all sorts of ways and usually order it as Americano black at the coffee shop. Bitterness is there in the peels and is probably why I appreciate the stevia leaves so much.

I am unwilling even to try navel oranges because of the thickness of the peel. Tangerine peels have very little pith. And, I do some scraping with a spoon but I am only taking this so far. We have the fruit to eat and I have no intention of using lemon or lime vest, although I like the flavor of both . Don't grow any of these fruits ... But, this is supposed to be, The  Easy Garden and that ease is valued in the processing.

Steve

 

[flowerbug]

@digitS' what's this 'lectric you speak of? ours is hand cranked only and it has a vice to hold onto the counter, but we have no counter here so we use a chair. which means i sit on a pillow on the floor while grinding. the vice used to have a protector for the underside of whatever you are using to hold the grinder, but that protector bit fell off so long ago i don't remember what it looked like. instead we have a thin piece of wood we put in between the vice and the base we're vice-ing to... the grinder above part is old and somewhat rusty if i don't get it properly oiled after using it. the grinding wheel itself is held on by a rusty bolt. it's heavy, it's clunky, but it works.

there was an auction (the only one i've been at within the past 20 years) that had a box which included a brand new grinder still in the box. i didn't even think of bidding for it - the entire box of stuff went for $11.

 

[digitS']

ours is hand cranked only

I could go down in the basement and bring up one of those, also. It had a role but even back in those long-ago days, nearly all of my meat was just cut up with a knife for stew and soup.

I didn't think of using cookies for pie crusts. How about shortbread ?