 |
| my garden |
Bee Balm: Robbed from my moms garden. This smells yummy, I hope it is not poison.
 |
| bee-balm |
The other day I looked at the ingredients of my $10 Starbucks "calm" tea. It contains camomile, lemon grass and rose pedals. No magic precious plants from obscure tropical islands I have never heard of. Yah, so... I am going to make tea now. I tried making tea last summer. I picked a ton of wild mint. I washed it and laid it out on a sheet out side to dry. Then when I packed it away it was covered with ants. Although dried boiled ants probably wont kill me, I still never tried it.
Lemon Balm: It just smells amazing. Like a lemon-minty smell.
 |
| lemon balm |
So I went out yesterday and scavenged through the old dried up herbs at the local garden center. I bought lemon balm (it looks a lot like catnip), camomile, more mint and lemon grass. I have also been picking linden flowers in the park like a crazy person.
Camomile: Is ugly and scraggly. I read that you can make a camomile lawn.. that would look terrible.. The person who wrote that probably has a car parts and gravel lawn. Also after purchasing these plants I noticed that they are growing wild all around the gravel driveway :(
 |
| camomile. Not a pretty plant |
Mint: I feel like a chump buying mint (getting my mom to buy me mint). It gowns wild around here. But its a perennial and will come back next year.
 |
| mint | |
Lemon Grass: this could be scotch grass and I would not know the difference. That being said, I hope it is lemon grass.
 |
| lemon grass |
What I like about tea and jams is that they last for a year. Right now ALL of my green onions are ready and I have no use for them. If I leave them in, they fill flower. If I put them in the fridge they will slowly die. What can I make with 50 green onions? The same thing goes for herbs. I never use oregano or savory or sage. And if I do I just use a pinch, not a bucket full. That is why I am excited for the onions, garlic, sunchokes and potatoes. They store well and will last me a long time. Plus I eat all of those things often.
Tea seems like a cool thing to make! Lemon balm will grow really big and take over in a few years :)
ReplyDeletetip for your green onions - pull them up and grow them in a jar of water. Then you can trim them whenever you need some green onion, and they will grow new green leaves. That's what I do with the ones I buy in the grocery store. It won't last you forever, but maybe a bit longer.