While I was finishing up Chemo I met and befriended a lady who works at the Botanical Gardens. She introduced me to the book "Homegrown Tea." I dove into the book, highlighting and figuring out what would grow in our area. It was so much fun to plant and now see come into bloom. Well, she was able to join me for tea last week and it was so fun to talk "plants" with her while sipping our delicious Echinacea Tea. No sweetener needed, it has a honey taste to it all on its own. Most people use the root, but you can use the flowers and leaves as well. I dried out the flowers and a few [...]

We had a fun filled Tuesday this past week. One of my friends brought over her two kiddos for a tea party to taste test Bergamot Tea. The three year old girl even wore her Cinderella dress for the occasion. Bergamot is probably the most beautiful tea flower in my garden. It smells really spicy, but tastes like an ordinary black tea. It is often used in Earl Grey Teas so I am not at all surprised that I really liked it! We had let the flower steep for three minutes in hot water, but if you let it soak over night the water takes on that same spicy taste as the smell. I honestly find this plant to be [...]

Nasturtium found its way into my tea garden to shade my violets which were about to die because I had put them in a full sun planter...oops. The flowers are a brilliant orange and yellow that really make my tea garden pop with color. I had a friend over to try the tea. I just placed the fresh flowers into hot water and let it steep for a few minutes. My friend really liked the tea, but I thought it needed a bit of honey to calm down the slightly spicy taste. The leaves of nasturtium smell exactly like cracked pepper. I did not try the leaves, but I have heard they are really good on salads so [...]

I love the smell of lavender and it is a gorgeous flower, but I was seriously doubting whether or not the tea would be bland or just "off" tasting. I wanted to try the fresh version of the tea with no other added blends so that I would know exactly what lavender tea tasted like all by itself. For this first experiment from my garden, I called a friend over to taste test it with me. If you know me, you know I set the table up for a lady's tea and had scones and strawberries for our little tea brunch. In each tea cup, I simply put hot water and then let about eight flowers steep for three [...]

Soooo...Pinterest sparked my intrigue and now my tea garden has moved indoors as well. I now have Sweet Basil along with a few other herbs growing in my windowsill. Please remember that I tend to kill indoor plants so the fact that they grew at all and are still living after a few weeks is AMAZING! It definitely helps that Fierce thinks it is super fun to put rocks in the bottom of the jars followed by the soil and seeds. He also likes to (over) water them ;) It has been a really fun project for the two of us. This week I found that Tulsi/Holy Basil is in my Homegrown Tea book by Cassie Liversidge and [...]