So anyway, I drink LOTS of tea and I am not ashamed :) I really don't care for just plain tea, so I go to my herb garden to give it a little lemony taste during the summer. During the winter, I try to grow a little inside, but there isn't enough room, so I usually settle for a cap full of concentrated lemon juice if I haven't been to my mom's house in California and brought home fresh lemons!
I start by heating filtered water on the stove. While it is heating, I get my pitchers out and visit my herb garden.
I generally make 2 pitchers at a time. And no I didn't go steal a pitcher from a bar. I bought these at a Good Will store up by Chicago for $3 each.
I go out to my lemon balm patch.
I cut a handful for each pitcher I am making.
Or I might get some lemon grass. Both of these herbs have some powerful antioxidants going on. I use the lemon balm for canker sores and lemon grass is known for it's ability to aide in the shrinking of tumors. Sorry I don't have enough of these marvelous herbs to share. I am working on that for next year.
If I'm using lemon grass. I cut 5 or 6 blades for each pitcher. I decided to use both for this blog post.
I rinse them off in the sink.
Then I get out 7 tea bags for each pitcher. I'm not known for my delicate palate, but I think Aldi's has some pretty good black tea and I'm cheap so that's what I get!
I wrap the tea bags around the herbs.
And place them in the pitchers.
Then I add some hot water to each pitcher and let it steep for about 5 minutes, longer if I get distracted. I've been told that tea gets bitter if you let it steep for more than 5 minutes, but I've never noticed mine doing that unless I'm not using filtered water.
After it steeps, I fill the pitchers with cool water from the filter and fish out the tea and herbs. I put them in my "compost bucket", which is actually a little bucket that I put kitchen scraps in for the chickens. They love tea leaves! If it is getting near tomato planting time, I will leave them out to dry so I can put a bundle under my tomato plants along with crumbled egg shells. The tomatoes love them too!
Then I pour it into my Grama ba-ba (as Grampa Tom calls it) and sip on it all day long. Hey! I spill it enough with a lid on!
God Bless You All!
~Grama Sue
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