Hey friends, so it finally hit me - the reason I've been so unsuccessful in posting regularly is the pressure to form a good post. At least it is for me. I am constantly starting photo "logs" of whatever project I am working on but fail to continue to document anything after the first five minutes. So, I have have told stories through photos just clogging up my storage space.
Today's post is a little different. I started a new project but its going to take awhile so....one step at a time, I'll post a short entry about it, and then I should be able to remember (be held accountable) for finishing the series as it goes. No pressure to form the "perfect" story telling post with all the steps in one.
So..have you heard of the health benefits from the Passionfruit Leaf? Neither had I until a local passion fruit farmer approached me about marketing a tea made from his harvest. Let's just set the record straight here - I am a coffee drinker. Tea is nice, but coffee is life. I was a little hesitant to get involved just based on that fact about me right there. I did a little (like, really small, 10 second google search) and all the hits that came back basically said the same:
- helps with insomnia
- helps lower blood pressure
- can reduce symptoms of asthma, digestive issues, anxiety, and a whole slew of other ailments
Ok, that's good news. And most of the widely known passion teas on the market dont actually contain the leaf. But a quick check on Etsy showed me a handful of organic farmers offering what I am trying to make so....let's continue.
I harvested two types of leaves from the grove - Lata and Edulis. No idea what that means in terms of tea, so we'll come back to that during taste test.
I had a tea expert on deck to do this part for me and create a custom blend to make it yummy....but once she saw the size of the leaves, she bailed. So, back to google for direction but in all honesty, I just skimmed a few tips and decided to wing it on my own.
This is what I came up with so far:
Lata leaves are strung up on tomato twine and currently hanging in the sun. Edulis leaves are in the tray, too small for me to string up. (This was done last night around 10pm in the dark. When inspiration hits, I just have to get it done RIGHT THEN.).
And thats it! I read a few suggestions about baking them in the oven, but we've got a heat wave coming in so I'm hoping the sun will do the job so I can keep my kitchen cool.
If you've ever made tea before - I'm open to your suggestions!
While these dry, I'm on the hunt for some organic lemon verbena or really strong mint plant since the farmer told me that this tea must be blended or sweetened for mass markets.
I hope you all go out and get your hands dirty today!
xo, Christie
I hear ya on the photos for the first half (or 5 minutes) of a project. I usually start documenting pretty well, then i get into the meat of the project and forget to document... I'm interested to see how your tea turns out.
Why did the leaf size make your tea expert bail? That seems odd to me. Does she suffer from an irrational fear of large leaves?
Megabontanophobia? (that's the best i could come up with)
If only we had personal photojournalists to follow us around....
She said it would be too time consuming to cut them up to the right size and dry time would be extra long and not worth the effort. To be fair, I didnt exactly offer to pay her - but she didnt ask, either. We got to chatting about the benefits and I asked if she was interested in trying out a small batch. She said yes, but then when I wanted to deliver them a week later she sounded hesitant and not interested anymore. That would have been a good time for her to mention a fee for the process, but it wasnt offered and I'm not one to push anyone into something they arent 100% in to. I was going to let her keep all the product she made - I just wanted to taste it once to see if its even marketable! And, if she was able to create something delicious, the farmer would have wanted to hire her for the big picture. He doesn't want to sell craft tea by the bag (which is her current gig), he wants to sell his blend to Lipton or some mass producer.
Not sure what those leaves will taste like but mint and lemon verbena will definitely make it a whole lot more drinkable. Generally, if you want to preserve flavour, hang them up out of the sun.
Today, I finally pruned the Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow properly back into a small bush and tomorrow, I'm going to prune the roses. After that, I'm digging up the vegetable patch to prepare it for spring. I predict lots of lower back pain coming up
out of the sun?! oh man, ive got mine directly in it. But, the leaf is quite bitter so maybe it wont be so bad if I lose some flavor along the way.
Back breaking work for sure, but so satisfying when youve finished!
It does also tend to lose some of the medicinal qualities that way. But it also has to be drinkable. So long as you are enjoying the journey ;)
right. and then I have to find someone with insomnia who is willing to test it out for me for a month or so.
If I lived nearby, I'd certainly give it a try. I'm a terrible insomniac
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