Homegrown Herbal Tea

[flowerbug]

i would rather eat the shortbread cookies with pie ingredients on top. and a cup of tea. *pinky raised sip*

 

[Pulsegleaner]

@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 ohe:

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...

A microplane is best, as it will STOP when you get to the "rind" (actually called the pith). A regular grater will keep going, and it will be bitter.

The tiny bits of zest will lose quite a lot of the aromatic essential oils to the air if you let them dry like that, so, unless you are a teetotaler, it's probably better to drop them in a bit of high proof vodka and make extract.

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 ...

Steve

I wish I'd seen this yesterday; I tossed out some mandarinquat skins I could have dried and set you.

I've been getting mandarins mostly from H-mart, but since they pile all types into a single random pile, that requires being very good at picking and choosing types based on skins alone.

 

[ducks4you]

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 ?

Graham cracker crusts, my dear @digitS'
Also,

How to Make a Batch of Dried Orange Peel | Little Green Dot

I normally don't remember to do this anytime I eat an orange - but recently I've been playing around with so many recipes that use orange - that I decided, why not make a big batch of it to have it on hand. And good thing I did! Maybe it's the season, maybe it's all the citrus essential oils in...

littlegreendot.com