I love herbal teas, but I don't always love the pricetag attached to getting tea leaves that are certified to be free from pesticides and chemicals. Which got me thinking...I wondered if any of the medicinal plants on my little farm were able to be made into teas. I did LOTS of research...I surely did not want to poison myself! I found that some of my favorite teas made from Raspberry (Rubus idaeus) And Wild Blackberry (Rubus laciniatus) were teas that I could make from the plants growing around my property...totally free!!!
I continued to research just to be sure that there was nothing about the Raspberry plant or the Blackberry plant themselves that was at all poisonious and I discovered that I was sitting on plenty of free tea leaves for the taking! So began my latest journey in homesteading!
I continued to research just to be sure that there was nothing about the Raspberry plant or the Blackberry plant themselves that was at all poisonious and I discovered that I was sitting on plenty of free tea leaves for the taking! So began my latest journey in homesteading!
I started by harvesting the leaves of the canes in a sort of random fashion. I have everbearing raspberries, meaning that I get more than one round of berries from them a season so I did not want to kill off any of the canes by harvesting too many leaves from a single one.
Did you know that raspberries and blackberries operate on a 3 year cycle? The first year a cane (stem) shoots up, the second year it flowers and produces and the third year it dries out and dies? This all happens randomly in a patch so you will see canes with no flowers, canes with flowers and then berries and then other canes that are old and dried out prickers.
Next, I brought the leaves inside where you can wash and pat them dry.
Did you know that raspberries and blackberries operate on a 3 year cycle? The first year a cane (stem) shoots up, the second year it flowers and produces and the third year it dries out and dies? This all happens randomly in a patch so you will see canes with no flowers, canes with flowers and then berries and then other canes that are old and dried out prickers.
Next, I brought the leaves inside where you can wash and pat them dry.
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Though I did put the leaves to dry in my food dehydrator I opted not to turn it on as I did not want to heat the leaves at all while drying (I learned from doing this with my peppermint leaves last year that it does alter the taste of the tea). It took a few days to get the leaves to the point where they were "crunchy" and able to be crushed into my tea ball.
I have to admit that I am pretty excited by this as I can now dry and store my own tea!!! This will be pretty fantastic come winter time when a hot cup of tea is just perfect by the fire!
