Tea Time

At first I thought, "Oh yes! I will have an herb garden & put fresh sprigs on meals!". While I love doing this, it turns out there are a lot of other ways to put my herb garden to use!

Here are some nifty ideas:

-homemade tea

-sachets

-syrups

-table top décor & centerpieces

-seasonings

-salves

-scented cleaners

-baking

...and there are so many others I am still experimenting with.

I guess it never occurred to me, how simple somethings can be. I fell in LOVE with this fancy-shamncy honey lavender tea latte at a local café, but it was quite a pricey treat. One afternoon, watering my many lavender plants, it occurred to me that I was more than fully capable of recreating it at a fraction of the cost (what I refer to as one of my "DUH" moments).

Since then, I have been drying other herbs to use in homemade teas. A tea infuser (see example below) makes the testing

much easier, since you don't need to have your own tea bags, and it can be reused over and over.

The end result, was a stronger, more pungent and flavorful tea-sippin' experience, because it can't get any fresher than that.

This lead me to look further into other herbs that can be used for teas:

• peppermint

• basil

• rosemary

In the future, I may try to add chamomile, rosehips, & lemon verbena to the mix. Blueberries (like the ones in our berry patch) & red raspberry leaves can also be dried to be used for a berry flavored tea - you could also dry some orange rinds for another flavor variety.

Once you find a mix you like, fill an air tight container (a trusty mason jar will always do the trick) & keep it as your "house tea". A fun, albeit extra, beverage for visitors or just yourself.

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Point being, we're able to make for ourselves a lot more than what we believe, if we only think outside the box, and independently, for a moment. That copper kettle on my stove, simmering with herbs that grew in my own garden, and dried on my very countertop, make for a much more meaningful experience - especially one that I'm excited to share with guests, and cozy up with this fall or on a late summer evening (when I'm not drinking wine...). Lipton can move down the bench.

C'mon back real soon for more herbal awareness!

#herbs #tea #porchin