Foraged teas

[Toddy]

Do you have the wild strawberries ?
They do grow wild here along the burn side, but I let them ramble through my garden underneath the roses too. John Fenna says they 'infest' his potato bed, so I'm a little reluctant to offer to post you a few roots if you don't have them.
Anyway, they set runners, lots and lots of runners. They pull out easily I find, but instead of composting them all I just gather up the leaves. They dry easily, but fresh or dried they make a gentle tea
From my big fruit strawberries I just pick half a dozen leaves and use those for my little teapot. I refill it so I get another infusion from the brew.
I like the idea of adding mint to this one too.

Drying leaves like these is pretty simple I find. I bought the net vegetable bags from Lidl's, the ones you re-use instead of using polythene bags for tomatoes, etc.,
I just put leaves in the bags and pin them out on the washing line. They dry in a day of gentle wind. Just give them a shake every so often.
They'll also dry like that in the house. A little slower, but they dry fine.

M

 

[punkrockcaveman]

I think I have access to both... I found a patch of wildies by a local stream a couple of years ago, had a look for them recently though and failed to find them! I have a big bed of cultivated ones at home mind so I'll give the runners a try Cheers Mary I'll give that a go.

 

[baggins]

Meadowsweet flowers are delicious, and are out at the moment. Pine needles are good all year round. Have a batch of Rosebay willowherb fermenting at the moment. The leaves are then dried and used to make Ivan chai. It's as close to a good green tea i've ever found.

 

[punkrockcaveman]

Tried bilberry tea yesterday, lovely!

 

[punkrockcaveman]

Pine needle tea last night, with larch needles, great flavour

 

[punkrockcaveman]

blackberry and rowan: very nice, very sweet!

 

[sunndog]

Dandylion tea helps with water retention I'm told

 

[demographic]

If big leaves or big tea leaves even, just let sink and drink carefully. Or use one of these Finum tea an coffee brewing basket

I drink a bit of loose leaf tea and after getting sick of stray leaves escaping from tea eggs, pots, faffing about with strainers and so on I started to use a cafetiere /coffee press.
Dead easy and I already have a little stainless steel one in my van thats not liable to shattering if it gets dropped on the deck.
It even just fits into my van cupholder, win win.

 

[Billy-o]

For earlier in the year, try the flowers from Lime trees ... actually the early leaves are rather nice too.

Most tree flowers work well for flavouring boiled water .. hawthorn etc. Also, honeysuckle.

 

[Paul_B]

We had pine needle tea a few times. Spring, fresh growth is supposed to be best I heard.

BTW are there any risks for these foraged tea. Like pregnant women or young children?

 

[SaraR]

We had pine needle tea a few times. Spring, fresh growth is supposed to be best I heard.

BTW are there any risks for these foraged tea. Like pregnant women or young children?

Many do carry potential risks! It's useful to look up the ingredients if the person drinking it is pregnant or has any health problems. Also worth being more careful if you're going to drink it every day rather than just as a one off.

 

[Billy-o]

Yes, be careful with minty-smelling things to know exactly what you got if you find them ... might turn out to be Penny Royal; which is bad for pregnancies. The leaves are smaller than usual, sort of oregano sized, and the plant can look cressy as it also does well in wettish habitat. In flower it can look just like any other mint.

 

[Broch]

We had pine needle tea a few times. Spring, fresh growth is supposed to be best I heard.

BTW are there any risks for these foraged tea. Like pregnant women or young children?

You really do need to research the less well/often used ones to be honest. The following are just an example of things to avoid in pregnancy:

Juniper
Mugwort
Pennyroyal
Shepherd’s purse

There are many more.

(for some reason I'm having deja vu)

 

[punkrockcaveman]

Found my first lot of pineapple weed tonight and what a great brew it makes. Super sweet and pleasant

 

[Broch]

A great one, and in profusion around here for some reason this year, is ground ivy - a very slight minty flavour and quite refreshing.

 

[punkrockcaveman]

I've seen that around.... I'll give it a go!

 

[Kadushu]

A great one, and in profusion around here for some reason this year, is ground ivy - a very slight minty flavour and quite refreshing.

View attachment 66654

Do you use the flowers, leaves or both?

 

[Broch]

Do you use the flowers, leaves or both?

Both, just take a good handful, pour boing water over it. let it steep a minute, strain and drink

Some people like to sweeten mint tea (as in North Africa) but the flavour is so mild I'd suggest not doing so.

 

[daveO]

I'm going to try that wild strawberry tea tomorrow. We're getting over run with the stuff in the garden and it needs a bit of cutting back. I've been drinking a lot of nettle tea with rosemary recently. I use an insulated stainless steel cafetière as a tea pot which helps keep the water temperature up as it steeps.

 

[nigelp]

These are great for coffee, loose tea, tea and steeping. https://zyliss.co.uk/products/zyliss-grey-hot-mug-cafetiere