Tea Tuesday #4: Alfalfa, Nettle, and Peppermint

Happy Spring Equinox! The weather here has felt more like early summer than early spring, so I thought a peppermint based tea would be nice this week. Peppermint has a wonderful cooling effect and it's one of my favorite hot weather drinks. I love to drink it sweetened over ice without any other herbs, but I thought some alfalfa and nettles would be good today in honor of spring. A nice cleansing, cooling drink. I will definitely be drinking it this afternoon in my water bottle at work!

Because I wanted to make enough that I will have it ready for work over the next couple of days, and because I will probably pour it over ice, the recipe today is a little larger and more concentrated than the teas I usually make.

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp nettle leaves
2 Tbsp alfalfa
4 Tbsp peppermint
4 Cups filtered or distilled water
Sugar, Honey or other sweetener to taste

Directions:
Mix the herbs together and place in a large glass measuring cup. Bring the water to a boil in a tea kettle and then pour over the herbs. Cover the measuring cup with a plate, and allow to steep for ten minutes. Strain out the herbs and pour into a glass or ceramic pitcher (glass canning jars also work well). Store in the refrigerator. When ready to use, mix with water and sweeten to taste.

I usually like to dilute this blend at least half and half with water, but it depends on my mood whether I use more or less water than that. Perfect spring drink:

Health Highlights
Peppermint: cooling, soothing to the digestive tract
Nettles: rich mineral content, refreshing spring tonic
Alfalfa: rich mineral content, refreshing spring tonic

Tea Tusday #3 Sage, Astragalus, Calendula

Toady I wanted something to support immunity, considering that I have been fending off that stiff necked, stiff muscled, blah, I might be coming down with something sort of feeling.

So I pulled out some herbs from my cabinet of curiosities and blended them up: two parts sage, one part astragalus, one part calendula.

Sage is one of my favorite herbs when I am feeling stretched thin and frazzled, and I find it also works wonderfully on tight neck muscles preceding a cold. Astragalus is an old standby for winter immunity woes, and Calendula is a lesser known but equally potent winter ally for sluggish lymph glands.

The yellow petals are especially cheerful looking on grey, drizzly days like today,

and the tea even takes on the cheerful yellow color of the calendula blossoms! I'm not quite sure how to describe the taste of this one. The sage comes through very clearly, and the other two stay more in the background. Astragalus always tastes a bit sweet and spicy, and a bit like the way pencil shavings smell. Calendula has a warm, earthy, hay taste.

Juliette of the Herbs

Over lunch today, I watched a documentary about Juliette de Baircli Levy (1912-2009) called Juleitte of the Herbs. I haven't yet read any of her books (The Complete Herbal Handbook for Farm and Stable especially interests me) but after watching the movie they have been bumped up the reading list.

The documentary came out in 1998, and I missed it then (I was twelve, and the world of herbs was just beginning to open up to me) Thankfully, now Juliette of the Herbs is available to watch online via Culture Unplugged, so I was able to do some delightful catching up. Many, many thanks to Antoinette over at The Herbit for posting the link that led me to it!

The documentary has a slow, meandering pace and is suffused with peacefulness and joy that comes from Juliette's interaction with the world around her- plant, animal, and people alike. Her beautiful afghan hounds make regular appearances throughout, as do various goats, cats and other creatures. As an herbalist and animal lover, this documentary was quite a treat for me! I also know that reading her books is going to be that much more meaningful to me now, because I have a better understanding of the wonderful woman behind them.

Herbal Sprinkle Blends

My hubby gave me some cute owl salt and pepper shakers for valentines day. I decided to fill them with herbal sprinkle blends from The Herbal Kitchen by Kami McBride.

Here they are with the adorable frog Sumac shaker that also graces my kitchen counter. Aren't they adorable?

The blue owl has the Peppermill Blend (juniper, coriander and black peppercorns).

The pink owl has the Red Powder blend (Rose hips, Hawthorn, and rosepetals, sans the orange peel called for in the original recipe because I didn't have any.)

Having some interesting spice blends on hand makes even our last-minute, thrown together meals much more exciting. I love the Peppermill Blend on red lentils, and the Red Powder Blend is really nice on scrambled eggs.