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Countryladiesgardens
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Re: tea herbs

I really enjoyed going through this thread, I am a beginner gardener and trying to grow some herbs for tea this year. I have Agastache, Chamomile, Borage, Bergamot, Lavender, Lemon Balm on the go..wish me luck! :)

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rainbowgardener
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Borage is the only one on your list that I have not used for tea. I will have borage again this year, so maybe I will try it. The others are all wonderful in blends, including "everything tea," that just throws them all together.

You can also make herbal jellies. I made anise hyssop (agastache) - strawberry jam last year which was wonderful and made lemon balm jelly. I haven't made lavender jelly, because I use my lavender for a lot of other things, but I made lavender syrup, which is basically jelly without the jell (pectin). I also make lavender chocolate brownies, lavender biscotti, ....

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Countryladiesgardens
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Oh your jellies/jams sound wonderful! Do you have any recipes? Do you do big or small batches? We love making food and blogging about it, haven't tested out a lot of jams yet though. A few years back we made some blackberry compote that was delicious! :D

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grwrn
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I too just discovered hot tea after experiencing a true English tea experience at the Grand Floridian hotel at Walt Disney this April.

I now have mint, spearmint, stevia, lemon verbena, sage, bee balm, thyme, chamomile, rosemary and several basil's growing.

Only thing I have made thus far is chamomile tea with honey and it was delicious. Can't wait to try to grow more herbs and test more teas.

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Countryladiesgardens
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You have all the same herbs we do on the go, but we haven't started our Stevia yet! :-()

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rainbowgardener
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CLG - you asked about jelly/ jam recipes. In this thread:

https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/vi ... 45&t=57694

I posted a recipe for redbud flower jelly (which could be adapted for other flowers and herbs) and for the anise hyssop/strawberry jam.

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I'm glad that I found this thread. I will go out to the herb garden and try some.

Thanks

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digitS'
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Altho' I like mint, I never find very much use for it. A fresh sprig for a change of flavor in a bowl of noodles. DW makes sachets for the clothes drawers.

For herb tea, the exception to my lack of interest is spearmint in combination with chamomile. Perfect.

Spearmint is easy. Picking the tiny chamomile flowers was a little tedious but the plants were also tiny, and unproductive. I think I should try again. It may have been too shady a location.

Steve

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Yes, they like sun. My chamomile in one of my best sunny spots is going great guns. I have picked hundreds of little flowers off of three plants twice now and in a few more days I will do it again. But, yes, it is tedious. I have wondered about that. With the amount of chamomile tea being sold, there must be a machine to do it. But the chamomile flowers in commercial tea never have any little stem bits attached, so I don't know how they do that.

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I'm now working on the fourth cutting of chamomile flowers and they are just going crazy. Clipping them results in more branching, so they just keep getting more and more floriferous.

I was wondering if anyone knows how long they are likely to keep going? I want to quit cutting them in time to let some go to seed, to see if they will reseed themselves.

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Rose hips are good too.

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This year I started raising Globe Amaranth (gomphrena globosa) for the tea and crafts. Tea smells like red beets and has same coloring, but it doesn't taste like beets, taste is very mild.
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Here how it looks:
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digitS'
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Never.even.thought.of.that!

I have grown gomphrena often. DW uses it in dry arrangements and I could snap a picture of it hanging in the garage this morning! Never thought of using it as a tea.

We have celosia, another amaranth. I've wondered if there are edible varieties ... I enjoy a serving of redroot pigweed in the springtime (just wish it had a more appealing name.)

Globe amaranth tea, hmmm? Ours is Strawberry Fields. Wonder how it would be dried ...

:) Steve

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red-root pigweed, amaranthus retroflexus, is common amaranth, if you like that name better.

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Wow I'm so glad I stumbled across this! Do you guys think that rose petals would be any good in tea? (As medicinal or for taste) I remember I used to eat rose petals when I was a kid and they were bitter but I was convinced they had some kind of healing properties or something like that. Am I just crazy, or does anyone else think this might be worth trying out in an herbal tea blend?

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I use rose hips more than petals in tea, but you can make a nice rose petal tea with lots of medicinal qualities.

Clip and discard bitter white bases from the rose petals; rinse petals thoroughly and pat dry.

Bring the water to just short of boiling, when the bubbles start rising to the surface. Remove from stove and pour the water over the rose petals. Let them steep for five minutes or so.

Strain the hot rose petal liquid into teacups. Add honey or sugar to taste (or agave syrup, which I have been enjoying lately).

But note that one of the medicinal properties of rose petals is as a laxative. Don't make this tea too strong or consume too much of it! :)

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Good to know! Thank you for the advice :) Another question I had was whether mint is stronger fresh or dried? I read that herbs have a stronger flavor dried out, but I feel like mint would be an exception to this.

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Gosh this got me so excited about herbs, I went and chopped off a few branches from my mint plant and strung them up in my shower. I'm hoping the steam will release a lovely mint smell throughout the bathroom every morning, and this might even have a medicinal benefit with some herbs. I bet lavendar would be nice. Just thought I'd share my idea, in case any of you guys want to try it too :-()

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mint is just different fresh or dried. Dried is more concentrated, meaning you will use more leaves if you use fresh, but the fresh is just fresher, tastes different. I like the fresh mint really well, but use dried in the off season.

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I just made a deliciously simple tea I thought I'd share with all of you. For two cups I just boiled 3 tsp of lemon thyme and 3 tsp of mint ("mojito mint" from sprouts, not sure what that means) for about 20 minutes. Then I sweetened it with honey. I thought you all deserved to know this delicious combo!

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Lemon thyme and mint sounds like a nice combination. But I don't know why you would boil it for 20 min. Usually you wouldn't boil the herbs at all, just pour boiling water over them and let them steep, usually for about 5-10 min, with the cup covered so the steam doesn't escape. If you want the tea stronger, use more leaves not longer steeping time. Boiling would tend to break down whatever medicinal qualities the herbs have and make the tea more bitter. I can't imagine how strong your tea was after 20 min of boiling, though that does depend on how much water was with it.

I think you will have a fresher tasting, sweeter, healthier tea if you just steep the leaves.

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Thank you for the advice. I'll do that next time. I was trying for more flavor but after so long I realized it wasn't working and gave up. :)

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Having gone back to my roots (and through my old list of threads on the forum here lol) I've discovered Korean Anise Hyssop. While it was labeled simply as Korean Hyssop, which I had intended on using for tea, it ended up being Korean Anise Hyssop, anise being a flavor I am not fond of in the least. Though for those that favor that type of flavor KAH is a great herb for making tea with. Grows just like mint, hard to get going from seed but once it does, it's there for the duration and readily self seeds. But like mint, be sure to keep it contained. If you really like anise/licorice flavors the leaves are also edible fresh as are the flowers, again like mint, and can be used in salads and such to give a little more spark of flavor, even in fruit salads. I personally will stick to my mint for fresh made tea or iced tea when in season. I don't lack it for the way it grows on our property. We regularly end up tractor mowing over the runners that escape out into the field from the fenced in area lol. Makes for some nice smelling tractor mowing though! My previous bunny boy also loved mint as a treat too, leaves or flowers.

Oh and the flowers are an amazing bee and butterfly attractant, I also had a few hummingbirds find their way to them also :)

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Countryladiesgardens
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I have some Chamomile and Anise Hyssop seeds for those of you interested in swapping.. :-()

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Coffee leaf and Tea blossom with Jasmine and lavender :()
image.jpg
The tea blossom:
image.jpg

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digitS'
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Oooh!

Nice, very nice, AppleStar!

I lift my mug of steaming Fujian Oolong to you.

:) Steve

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rainbowgardener
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beautiful!

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All these tea ideas sound so good.

My favorite tea is fresh ginger tea. Ginger tea may not be considered herbal tea.

Fresh ginger in any recipe any way is fine for me.

Fresh ginger tea with candied ginger cubes on the side. Mmmmm.

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Sipping my latest night time herbal blend -- holy basil, catnip, lemon verbena, lavender, and stevia. Image

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rainbowgardener
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Love the tea suggestion AND the graphic!

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One I wish I could grow over here is the Hibiscus commonly known as Jaimaica, no brewing is needed either, just take a 1-2l container throw a handfull of flower petals in it put it in the refridgerator for about atleast 6h, over night is perfect. It will come out really nice dark purple. Some sweeten it, but I really like it with nothing else added!

Typically I'm more into using teas as remedy / nature medecine of different kinds, and for this I use traditional Ayurvedic blends mostly. Many herbs can have a similar effect and when brought toghether they get an increased synergic effect.

There aint many I grow myself because most I can find so cheap and organic that it aint really worth the effort, I will try Liqorice root tho for tea blends. As its supposed to do well here.

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I got mint in the last few months (spearmint & chocolate mint in containers) & have been making mint tea here & there, but today was the first time I made a [what I considered to be] a real tea blend. I wanted to try out my new lemon thyme which oozes the essence of citrus in the best way!

so I made a surprisingly perfect tea blend with the most of lemon thyme (a few sprigs), equal parts spearmint & greek oregano & chocolate mint (a little top leaf segment of each) & 2 little clusters of english thyme flowers

(my oldest thyme plant (3 years old) is in full bloom and the flowers taste like magic, way different than it ever tasted before, like the essence of perfectly pink petaled spring, hah)

I was vaguely concerned that the greek oregano and thyme might make it taste like spaghetti/Italian sauce water but the lemonness of the lemon thyme, the mints and the zing-factor* of the greek oregano definitely took it to tea-status imo!

* if you like mintiness / the spicy tingle of mint then you might love greek oregano as much as I do. I am always surprised at just *how* "zingy" it is.

I took a picture of my big o' cup o' tea... uhh, some people might strain it out but I just leave the stuff at the bottom and eat the leaves/herbs when I run out of water.

oooh next time I will stir it up before I take the picture, it looks really pretty swirling around. :D
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Mr green
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Interesting I have a lemon thyme and it grows really well, but I never seem to like them in anyway. In a tea I havnt tried it tho.

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I'm really glad this thread got brought forward again. I read back through some of it and found my link to the redbud flower jelly recipe and went :idea: :-() redbud flower jelly! I had sort of forgotten about it. So I went out and collected a bunch of flowers. The redbud flowers here are past peak already and the trees are leafing out. If I hadn't done this in the next day or two, it would have been too late for this year.

While I was at it, I collected a bunch of wisteria blossoms as well -- wisteria is at its peak now and growing by roadsides all over the place.

So here they are infusing:
wisteria-redbud infusions.jpg
It was interesting. The wisteria blossoms are that really pretty blue-purple. As soon as I poured the boiling water over them, the water started turning green. Now several hours later it is very deep green. The redbud flowers just look faded, but the infusion and the jelly come out a very nice pink.

They have to infuse for 24 hrs. Tomorrow the infusions will be strained and made into jellies.

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Have you done the wisteria blossom jelly before? I was recently asked by someone who keeps horses if wisteria is as "very toxic" to horses as she had heard. I looked around and found vague mentions (this is what I wrote to her) :
I didn't know that, so I looked it up -- in many articles, it's not listed among the most poisonous to horses but is mentioned in passing. ASPCA lists it as toxic to cats, dogs, and horses without much detail except diarrhea, vomiting and depression as symptoms.

This one was most informative about other plants, but only mentions wisteria seeds and pods as harmful to horses. I can't tell if this "ornamentals" page at the end of the article where wisteria is mentioned is part of the "Mechanical Injury" subsection.
https://extension.umd.edu/sites/default ... 204-14.pdf

...It was annoying not to be able to tell if the "mechanical injury" from the seeds and pods could be the cause for the "depression" mentioned in the ASPCA article -- in other words, listless.

I still don't know if there are actual, toxic compounds in wisteria, but I thought I would mention it just in case?


My redbud flower buds are is just starting to swell. Thanks for the reminder. :D

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No, haven't done the wisteria blossoms before. But I did check before I started. Wisteria blossoms are listed as edible. The seeds and pods when they form can be toxic.

Looking around, I found this lovely recipe for wisteria and redbud spring rolls, that I will have to try to remember for next year:

https://www.wildedible.com/blog/wildflower-spring-rolls

It not only has the recipe with a nice picture, it discusses the toxicity issue.

Wow, our season really is ahead of yours -- redbud flowers are just about done here.

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Lemon leaf as tea flavor herb —

I admit it — I’m a bit of a tea snob. I like having a selection of teas to choose from depending on my mood or what I‘m eating for a meal. Let’s see, I currently have Irish breakfast, organic Darjeeling, and an organic black tea blend as well as organic oolong... and for green tea, I have organic jasmine green, roasted green (houjicha), sencha, bancha, and genmaicha, as well as a genmaicha-matcha blend.

One black tea I haven’t bought in some time is earl grey, which used to be one of my favorites. But now, I use a freshly plucked lemon leaf, rolled and bruised and steeped with a black tea blend

I’m drinking some now plucked from this rather struggling specimen. It needs to be uppotted since there are three seedlings grown from “Trader Joe’s Lemon from Mexico” — I think it was a Eureka variety. I don’t know if they will ever bloom and fruit, but in the mean time, the lemony fragrant leaves provide another use. :wink:

Image

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very nice! and thanks for bringing this thread forward again. I enjoyed reading back through it.

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The Original Post mentioned a liking for tea that is "full of flavor and not water ..." That's me, a glass of water will go ignored just by accident. On the other hand, I treat myself with tea, herbal teas and coffee. The neighbors have probably come to ignore my activities outdoors, "oh, there goes a cup ... with Steve carrying it somewhere." :wink:

An early-to-bed early-riser, it's 3am and I have been up for 2 hours. Maybe caffeine encouraged me to wake up that early after showering and being in bed by 9pm. I doubt if it's caffeine altho I drank a good deal of oolong yesterday as I slowly came to realize that I have come down with a cold.

DS was here for several days and just left Sunday. He was losing his voice by the weekend and I think that he returned to work with a cold yesterday after leaving some pathogens here at his dad's house . :? .! I haven't had a respiratory infection for several years but the dry summer months and smoke from wildfires must have really set me up for this.

I'm not looking for an herbal cure but having a cup of licorice tea with some Tylenol right now. Congestion over the few hours that I was asleep, a likely touch of fever, and dehydration means that I had better be drinking a good deal today. It can't be licorice altho I love it ... already feel the soothing effect.

Ginger will play a role and I'll have the cup of spearmint/chamomile at hand almost continuously, today.

I know that inactivity is a real enemy for this olde, retired guy. I've been out regularly for walks. It's mostly a comfort for my legs but, of course, the cardiovascular system is a primary concern. I have gardening through the summer and winter has to find me either tramping along or I'd better have the excuse and a snow shovel in my hands, at least part of the day. The weather is turning even drier and colder right now. I'd best be peering out thru sunglasses over a wool scarf when I'm outdoors, today. Yeah ... steaming cups of something to drink and moderate exercise seems best.

Steve
oh, and plenty of veggies and fruit, too!



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