Of Hot Tea and Mugs

Now that the weather is occasionally cooler, I’m migrating from iced tea to hot tea.

I like to make a pot (in my coffee maker that has always been used for tea rather than coffee) of homegrown mint and stevia with white tea every morning. The brew smells and tastes wonderful alone or with a splash of unsweetened almond milk. Sometimes I make a second pot by just adding a Bencheley’s Apricot tea bag (black tea) to the basket on top of what is already there. The smell of tea is an important aspect of its appeal. It is the prelude to drinking tea and lingers in my kitchen - invigorating and comforting at the same time. Isn’t it nice to have a ‘comfort food’ that is low (or no) calorie?

I never drink small cups of tea…because I like a larger amount to drink and because I have such a wonderful collection of mugs. Some of my favorites are in the photograph above. There are holiday ones - the Santa with the beady eyes from an office party ‘secret Santa’ many years ago, the poinsettia, the valentines - which I use around those holidays. There are reminders of vacations or events - the Texas bluebonnets from a family, the Chesapeake birds, the green and white mug that was a gift for judging at a high school science fair, the silver travel mug that used to have a Cornell emblem on it. Last but not least there is the oldest mug of the bunch - one with a botanical theme in white and green and rust - that was a gift from over 35 years ago when I first decided that I really wanted something larger than the cups that came with our set of dishes!

Preserving Herbs

August is the time to start preserving the bounty of the herb garden. I have basil, parsley, mint and stevia this year.

I prefer drying rather than freezing because it is ‘greener’ (uses less energy). Here’s the basic process (shown with basil but will work with most other herbs as well):

Gather herbs. I use kitchen scissors and the basket I use over the sink to rinse them so they are immediately ready for the next step. I leave a few plants to continue to use fresh and may harvest again for drying if enough grows back before the frost comes.

Rinse the herbs. You don’t want bugs, spider webs or insect eggs along with your herbs.

Chop them up. If you want small pieces, use a food processor. This time, I plan to use the herb in stir fry and soups so cutting with scissors was good enough.

Place in a breathable bag and hang where the herb can dry thoroughly. I chose to use a washable veggie bag this time. The drying can take several days or longer depending on the humidity in the air. Shake the bag or otherwise move the herb around in the bag to make sure it is drying evenly.

When thoroughly dry, place in an airtight container….and enjoy your herbs in the months to come.

Recipe of the Week: Iced Tea

Summertime and iced tea - they go together. There are many ways to make iced tea. Sun tea is as simple as putting teabags in a jar of water and letting it sit in the sun. My preferred method is using a tea maker (a coffee maker that has always been used exclusively for tea).

To make plain tea: put two small tea bags or one family sized bag in the brew basket for 10-12 cups of tea. As soon as it is brewed, turn off the tea maker and let the tea cool before pouring it over ice.

I very rarely make plain tea. There are just too many things from my garden to add. The last few days I’ve cut up (with scissors) three large stevia leaves and a handful of citrusy mint to add to the brew basket with one small tea bag. Put the tea bag on top because the acid from the tea helps leech the good flavor/sweetness from the stevia and mint. After it is cool - the tea is just the right strength and sweetness to simply pour over ice and enjoy.

Some other things I am going to try from the garden: 

• Lemon balm. I have a huge amount of it and it seems to lose its flavor when it is dried so I might as well use as much as possible while it can be cut and used fresh.
• Rosemary. I’ve read about putting a spring of rosemary in lemonade. It would probably be a good additive to tea as well. My rosemary is growing well and probably would branch out more if I trimmed it a bit.
• Chocolate mint. I have two flower beds with chocolate mint…and it seems to grow about as fast as I can use it. 

Enjoy iced tea!

A Garden in Pots

About a month ago I had a sweet potato in the bin that sprouted. I cut off the sprouted end and put it in a bowl of water (cooked and ate the rest of it). It grew slowly at first then - just as I noticed that roots has developed - it started to grow very rapidly. It grew straight up, reached the bottom of the raised mini-blinds above the kitchen sink and then used them for support. It was clearly time to plant the sweet potato outside. Several years ago I had a pot crammed full of sweet potatoes by the fall starting out this same way. the only challenge was to keep it well watered.

 I decided to buy herbs and 'greens' in small pots to fill every container I had on the deck. 

The stevia, orange mint, Italian parsley and chocolate mint are pictured above (left to right). The sweet potato, rosemary, and basil are pictured below. I hope the sweet potato will grow all over the metal scultures so that it can get plenty of sun. Notice the two parts to the sweet potao vine. It was so long and spindly that it bent while it was transfered outside; the stem eas cut and (hopefully) the end will root quickly enough that there will be two plants in the pot.

Last but not least, I planted the curly parsley in the old turtle sandbox that my daughter outgrew long ago. It looks a little lonely right now but there are peas planted that will come up all around it (old seeds so it's an experiment to see how many will actually sprout). 

So - why didn't I buy tomatoes? They've been part of my deck garden for the past few years. Over time I've come to realize that the local Farmers Market has excellent tomatoes and I can try new varieties every week whereas if I grow my own I have only one kind (and they are not beautiful plants!). It's harder to get just the small amount of herbs and greens to be used for a meal and keep them as fresh as you want unless you grow them yourself. So - I've made a change this year by sticking with green stuff. I'll probably plant the mint in the garden at some point and let it 'escape' so that I'll have lots to dry for herbal tea.  Something needs to compete with the lemon balm that is taking over one end of the garden and growing into th yard.

The challenge - as in previous years - is to keep everything watered on the deck when it doesn't rain often enough. Collecting water from rinsing veggies and carrying it outside is enough until it gets really hot and dry; then we'll have to rig a hose and mister for our 'garden in pots' that I can see from my kitchen window!