One of the easiest edibles to produce in your own home garden is a drinkable. Herbal teas are easy to grow, delicious and good for you. One can always buy dried tea at the store, but fresh herb tea is another thing altogether. The fragrance and aroma goes straight to the brain and release those happy endorphins.
Mint in its many forms: spearmint, peppermint, lemon balm, and other herbs: raspberry leaf, lemon verbena, rose hip, chamomile, comfrey, nettle. The list goes on and on. Even the smallest garden can grow herbs for tea. When you grow your own, you know that it is clean and organic. And best of all, you can pick it and use it straight from the garden at its most nutritious.
After picking your leaves, wash carefully, then rub them together to let the essential oils out. Add the herbs to a teapot or directly to a mug or cup. For each cup of tea, add approximately 2 to 3 teaspoons of fresh leaves and/or flowers. Slice rose hips in half before adding.
A beautiful teapot or tea cup with strainer makes a wonderful gift. They don’t need to be expensive to be delightful. One of the signs of a good teapot is a strainer to put the tea leaves in. You can then remove it from the teapot or the cup when it is done steeping.
Everyone can enjoy their favorite tea if you have several small teapots available for making different teas. Glass teapots are very elegant. But apparently very breakable, which is why I don’t have a picture of mine to show you.
For those of you with a little Irish in your soul, you can add a little something to your tea to warm you up on those extra cold winter nights. I’ll leave it to your imagination to figure out what that is.
Enjoy!