Stevia

[TReeves]

So, we went to the nursery today (that was an awful idea ) and they had stevia plants for sale. $1.99 for a pack of 6. So, we brought them home planted them in a few small planters. They are nice and green and pretty but, now what?

 

[Smiles Jr.]

If I remember correctly the leaves of the stevia plant are pressed to extract the sweet juices. But I may be thinking of something different, too.

 

[Carol Dee]

I am pretty sure you can use them for garnishes , add to ice cubes for summer drinks, etc...

 

[so lucky]

Yeah, if you drink a lot of iced tea in the summer, it will be handy to garnish and sweeten with. If you are adventurous and curious, maybe you can experiment with it and find some good ways to use stevia off the plant. (then let us know!)

 

[TReeves]

I read that the leaves can be dried then processed to make a sugar type substance. Which makes sense they sell it in stores as an organic product. I'll keep everyone updated as we experiment.

 

[thistlebloom]

I just let the leaves air dry and stored them in a glass jar. Then when I wanted to use some for hot tea I ground them up in a coffee grinder.
I have a little one that's real easy to clean.
I sometimes got lazy and just crumbled a leaf into my tea also.
I thought it worked fine, but I can't remember if I used them in iced tea.

 

[digitS']

I made a mistake with my Stevia ... of course, you can understand why I went for them in the first place.

I tried to use it green and I'm thinking that was a mistake -- it made things taste "green." Some dry herbs go through quite a flavor change when they are dried.

Catnip makes a good tea, I think. Not Fresh, I should hasten to add.

Stevie

 

[bobm]

I read that the leaves can be dried then processed to make a sugar type substance. Which makes sense they sell it in stores as an organic product. I'll keep everyone updated as we experiment.

So are some implying that sugar from sugar canes and / or sugar beets are not organic ?????

 

[thistlebloom]

Catnip makes a good tea, I think. Not Fresh, I should hasten to add.

Do you find yourself surrounded by felines after a cuppa Steve?

 

[digitS']

I'm not diabetic nor are there or have there been any in my immediate family struggling with that condition. Sweeteners in my tea and coffee aren't needed but I do like my cookies ... I can imagine benefiting from something that tastes to us like it's multiple times sweeter than sugar.

I don't know what happened to the catnip in my yard ... Maybe, the cats killed it! I have a nice stand of it near the veggie garden, however.

My next door neighbor's cat has gone missing. I was tempted to ask her the other day if he has turned up. There were muddy cat prints in the chair on the deck. A cat can stand on that chair and look in the kitchen window .

I decided not to get her hopes up ... there will be a cat in my yard at least once every 24 hours! It doesn't matter if he is coming from 50 feet away or 500 feet!

Steve