Wild Tea

I have a problem with some herbal teas.

They just don't have much flavor.  I have to mix them with other more flavorful teas to really enjoy them.

See, the art of having a cup of tea is therapy in itself.  It's calming.  It's relaxing.  It lets you stop for a moment and think.  Often it is at these relaxed times that great ideas wander into my brain, exactly when I am not thinking about them.

But it's hard to have a good 'cuppa' when the tea has little color and even less flavor.  What's the point?

I have never satisfactorily solved this problem, until now.

Years ago, I was reading Euell Gibbons and he mentioned accidently fermenting a pitcher of mint tea.  It was that fermentation process that changed the tea from a barely noticeable mint flavor to a 'wowie-zowie' flavor.  I tried it a couple of times, but have never been able to actually drink the result.  I just couldn't get over the idea of drinking water that leaves were rotting in.

Move ahead to a few months ago, when reading Henriette K. new book and she mentions that she ferments the leaves only.

Hmmmmm.

Real tea  is made from the leaves of Camelia sinensis plant.  Green tea is unfermented leaves, Oolong tea is made from leaves that have been fermented a short time and black tea are leaves that are fully fermented.

I tried Henriette's method which involves bruising the leaves, placing them in a jar with the lid loosely attached and held at 118 degrees for 24 hours on top of the dehydrator.  I used blackberry leaves.

Henriette's recipe gives a tea with more color than plain unfermented leaves, but the flavor was still bland.  I just wasn't satisfied.  I wanted a dark, rich cup of tea.

I used my handy-dandy pasta machine (that I got for a buck at a garage sale), cut the blackberry leaves into long, thin strands with the 'cutting' side, then put the leaves through the 'roller' side (twice) to bruise them.  I filled a mason jar about half full (leave room for shaking), screwed the cap on tight and put them in my dehydrator.  (OK, confession time.  My 'dehydrator' is a broken down 1985 Jeep Cherokee that's been sitting in the front yard for years.  I outfitted it with solar fans for air movement.  OK.  Now my red-necked secret is out.)  I put the jar under a seat, out of direct sun.  I shook the jar twice each day to redistribute the moisture from the juices.  I didn't want the moisture to pool up on the glass and mold.  After three days, I removed the leaves and dried them as usual.

And here's the final results.  The top cup of tea is simply dried blackberry tea.  The second brew is more like an oolong tea, of medium body and color.   This tea was fermented 24 hours.  The bottom cup is a full 3-day ferment, and loaded with a beautiful color and flavor.

Alas, the technique doesn't work for all teas.  It didn't seem to make a difference with sage or Tulsi basil.  But pretty much anything in the rose and mint families will have make a delightful, delicious cup of tea.  Actually, people that normally don't like herbal teas are comfortable with this one because it has the appearance and taste of traditional teas.

My next step will be to try smoking (in a smoker, like a ham, not like a cigarette), because I've had smoked teas made from C. sinensis, and they are wonderful.  And there is another type of tea called Pu'er that undergoes a double fermentation process.  Might have to give that one a go, as well. (In my spare time of course.  I think I can use those 10 minutes that I normally reserve for brushing my teeth...)

Marshmallow Soup

Since we're working on 'easy' identification, I just wanted to send out this video. The video was made by Sunny Savage (a popular hipster vlogger) interviewing Dr. John Kallas. I've a book or two of John's on the shelf and I enjoy that he makes science easy and fun to read. I wish more folks had his talent. Mallows are a popular medicine plant. They're soothing and mucilaginous and good for (among other things) sore throats and coughs. We learned how to make a yummy delivery system for their medicinal magic a few centuries back, and it came in the form of a sweet we now call a 'marshmallow'. Marshmallows were traditionally made from the plant Althea officinalis, but we can get a pretty good substitute in our own yards. Although Sunny doesn't state it in the video, I believe they are using Malva neglecta, a common little weed in our neck of the woods. We also have a lot of M. parviflora around, and they can be used interchangeably. I think most of you will recognize it easily enough. Although John calls it's fruit a 'pea', it's actually a shizocarp. I try to make it easy to remember plants so I often call the plant a 'cheese plant' because the fruit is often described as resembling tiny cheese wheels. I have taken John's recipe a few steps farther, and borrowing an idea from Euell Gibbons, use the mallow cream as a base in cream pies for vegan friends. It's turned out nicely. The drawback is that it takes a good long while to gather enough 'wheels'. (I had the good fortune to work as a fire look out one summer. It taught me endless patience. I may be the only person on the planet that's picked enough berries to make a grouse whortleberry pie.) This year, I plan on experimenting more with the root to see if it will give me that nice thickening quality. As in my prior post, if you find Malva neglecta and want to try some recipes (it's a bit early to find them fruiting yet) simply post a clear picture and we can help you make sure of identification. And be sure to look up the flower, leaf parts and family in 'Botany in a Day' and memorize them. Here is the Dr. Kallas video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdGAUejE8BM Here is the CalFlora page for M. neglecta (just to help with id): http://www.calflora.org/cgi-bin/species_query.cgi?where-calrecnum=5352 If you want to see more of them, here is Feral Kevin's video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdLxvPK0MHU Malva is a highly nutritious plant and contain calcium and magnesium, potassium, iron, selenium, and pre-cursers for vitamins A and C. Try young leaves added to salads, but some people don't like the 'slimy' feel of the leaves in their mouths. Linda Runyun dries the leaves, grinds them up and combines the powder with other flours for a nutritional boost. I've used the leaves to make 'Leafu' (see early in the archives to make this high protein tofu substitute). If any of you are familiar with Henrietta Kress, this is her recipe for Mallow Soup. (If you're not, I highly suggest her site, 'Henrietta"s Herbal'.) It's pretty good, certainly cheap to make, and reminds me of my mother-in-laws 'diet soup'. There are a number of 'ancient' recipes on line that I want to try, too. Mallow Soup (serves 6 - 8) 1 large onion 1 large tomato 2 bell peppers, preferable of different colors ½ bunch of celery 4 carrots 3 large potatoes 3 garlic cloves olive oil to cover the bottom of your soup kettle 6 cups of water, enriched with 2 Tblsp. of good-quality soy sauce or the same quantity of chicken broth 2 tsp. salt plus black pepper to taste. 2 large handfuls of clean mallow leaves and/or roots 1. Dice the onion; chop tomato, peppers, celery, carrots and potatoes. 2. Sauté the onions, adding the other vegetables as the onions start to wilt 3. Chop the garlic finely; add to the sautéed vegetables when they are looking golden and start smelling cooked. 4. Add water and seasonings; simmer for 15-20 minutes. A nice touch at this point is to blend the cooked vegetables, with some of the soup, and return the blended mass to the pot. Children especially appreciate blended soups. 5. Chop the Mallow into narrow ribbons: if using roots, slice finely. Add to the pot and cook a further 10 minutes. Serve with croutons, or chopped parsley, or simply on its own. Medicinally, my mentor Kiva Rose says: "Malva neglecta is an amazing tonic used across world to nourish the vital fluids of the body and to cool heat from inflammation and infection, it can also gently support your immune system, building your resistance to stress and infectious disease. It is among the best and most widely used medicines in the world." The tea is soothing to a dry, hacking cough and a cup a day is said to ward off lithic buildup (kidney stones). Mallow is one of those herbs that do so much, I just can't cover it all here. So there you have it. You should be busy for awhile, yes?

What Sort of a Blog is This, Anyway?

Huh. This is really turning out to be an herb blog, no? I didn’t intend for it to be. It is suppose to be a blog about caring for a loved one, while living on farm. Why then, is there so much about herbs?

Taking care of a parent is stressful. If you’ve done it, you know what I mean. Although it is an opportunity that I treasure, there are times when I want to pull my hair out. No, really. My mother has dementia coupled with a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Which means that dishes must be stacked in a particular order, coffee cups must be filled in a certain sequence and light bulbs must be rotated so that they all ‘wear evenly’. There’s more, but I don’t want to bore you.

Don’t get me wrong. She has her adorable moments. She gave me a head of broccoli for Christmas. And she lined up all the dogs and gave them lectures on personal hygiene the other day, addressing them as ‘people’.

But I found that the stress was ‘killing me’. Quite literally. My blood pressure was up, my muscles were tense and I really couldn’t get much relief. I tried meditation, exercise, ‘getting out’. But nothing really helped. And then I realized that I had the answer all along.

My family has always been ‘herby’. As a child, I was the recipient of mustard plasters and comfrey tea. My mother told me about soap plant and miner's lettuce when I was four years old. I cooked wild foods for my kids as nature lessons. I’ve always made herb teas, grown gardens and ‘listened to the plants’. So why not see if there was something there that could help with my tension?

And I did. Frankly, my little ‘brew’ was a lifesaver. It’s safer than any pill and cheaper. But my success made me look deeper into the herb world. I have sort of a…er….’lot’ of science in my background. I won’t say it’s easy to sift through all the nonsense about herbs, but it does make it easier to actually look at the compounds that they contain and deduce an expected result.

And it’s fun too. Wintertime on a farm can be pretty…quiet. Well, ok, it does have its moments. Like the bear that came through last fall or living without power for two days during a windstorm. But on the whole, I’m left with a whole lotta research time.

So, that’s why the blog is so ‘herby’. Don’t worry. As spring arrives, it’ll get more ‘farmy’.