Fresh Tea

May 3rd, 2008

I just read a great article from Country Living about Homemade Herbal Teas.

When we used to live near Rochester, NY I loved visiting Lavender Moon Herb Gardens to buy their homegrown teas. There was something refreshing about the fresh loose-leaf teas they made. Ever since then I’ve been wanting to start growing herbs in my backyard for cooking and tea-making. I’ve always wondered how I should start. This year I just dug up a small plot outside of our back door and am still planning what to put in it (aside from the chives, rosemary, mint and petite licorice I already have for it). This article is a great way to start!

It covers a few simple combinations using herbs you may already have in your garden (or windowsill). It also includes things I hadn’t considered before such as weeds, trees and bushes!

Homemade Herbal Teas [Country Living via Lifehacker]

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Dandelion Jelly

May 3rd, 2008

After reading an article in my latest Mother Earth News my curiosity was piqued. I had heard of eating dandelion greens and dandelion wine, but never of dandelion jelly. I did a little searching around and found this recipe for dandelion jelly and promptly headed to the backyard with a basket and my daughter. We picked a ton of dandelions, but ended up with just enough to make a 1/2 batch of jelly - good enough for a test run!

I became rather efficient removing the yellow flower from the green base (the green can impart a bitter taste, apparently). The cooking itself went very fast as well. My batch turned out a lot darker than I expected, I think it’s due to me using organic sugar which wasn’t bleached.

Now for the taste test. I had read some reports that it was surprisingly good, but I was still skeptical. I took a sample taste, and then tried it on some wheat toast … absolutely phenomenal! I am so impressed with it, that I will easily make more for both my family as well as gifts!

Backyard ingredients, easy to make, incredibly delicious - how can you beat it?!

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