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Lemongrass Tea

Growing lemongrass this past summer was one of my most successful experiments for both its medicinal benefits and culinary uses. I always enjoy the growing part of starting a plant by seed and watching its gradual development throughout the season but in October when a frost is imminent, I find myself hustling to figure out how to preserve my harvest and put it to work in my daily life. Even though lemongrass seems so exotic, it was easy to grow from seed, it was pest free and its long arching blades gave a full tropical look to the garden so I recommend growing and using its leaves in tea and roots in Thai soup.

When the season shifts to colder temperatures, I often find myself not drinking enough water in that transition. The symptoms of dehydration can show up as fatigue, dizziness or lightheadedness, dry eyes and mouth, wrinkly skin and reduced urination. This Fall, lemongrass is coming to my rescue with its subtle refreshing lemony taste. I refer to it as the universal taste donor because it blends beautifully with other herbs and roots. I especially like adding ginger, fennel seeds and honey to my tea and drinking it in a bowl so my nose has full access to all the aromas. 

As a compulsive maker, I spent many hours making little wreaths from the leaves which felt very satisfying. While the health benefits of lemongrass are numerous from both a Western and Eastern perspective, the aesthetics of having a wreath of lemongrass, a sprig of fennel and a chunk of ginger floating in a handmade tea bowl makes this cleansing calming cold chasing brew a keeper.

To make tea simply boil water and put a wreath or 1 tsp of dried lemongrass herb in a tea ball and let it steep. Add other herbs and honey, if desired. You can use the wreath multiple times.

You can buy dried lemongrass here.

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A Shot of Nettles

In Eastern medicine, spring is the season of the wood element, the liver meridian and liver organ.  The liver meridian is linked to eye health and the smooth flow of energy through our body. Anger, depression and irritability are the emotions associated with the wood element when it is out of balance.

Many of us start spring cleaning in our homes, gardens and craving more lightness and energy in our physical and emotional bodies.

There are many ways to activate Liver Qi like getting acupuncture, increasing exercise, eating more sour and vinegary foods, and eating lots of greens. During early spring when the garden isn’t yet producing greens there are a few common plants like dandelions and stinging nettles that pop out of the soil just in the nick of time to assist us with a Liver activating spring regimen.

Most people are aware of nettle’s intense sting but few appreciate nettle’s nutrient values, making it a fierce physiologic ally.  In fertile soils, the purple hue on the top surface of its green leaves looks almost iridescent, shimmering with potency.  That’s why I consider stinging nettles to be one of the best shots in the arm, a rich injection of vitamins and minerals.

In Chinese medicine, nettles are categorized as a blood builder, cleanser and kidney tonic. Stinging nettles are known to be high in calcium, magnesium,manganese, iron, chlorophyll, vitamin C, and contain more protein (10%)than another other vegetable. As a blood builder, greater vitality, lustrous hair and stronger nails will result. As an antidote to seasonal allergies, it is thought to reduce the amount of histamines the body produces in response to free floating allergens if one drinks an infusion three weeks before pollens are released into the air. As a kidney tonic, it purifies the blood by eliminating toxins and metabolic wastes through its diuretic properties.

In late February and early March when I still feel some sluggishness from wintering and trees are releasing pollens, I start making nettle infusions to build my energy and clear out the accumulations from heavier winter foods. It’s too early to forage for wild nettles so I rely on dried nettles to make the infusions. You can buy organic nettles at your local natural foods market or online at Amazon, Mountain Rose Herbs. I buy a pound at a time. It seems like a lot but if you are consistent in early spring with making and drinking a quart of infusion a day,  you will use it up.

Nettle Infusion

In quart mason  jar or French Press  add nettles and then pour boiling water over it. Stir.

I cup raw leaves or one ounce dried nettles (an ounce is about a cup of dried nettles)

1 quart  boiling water

Let mason jar sit on kitchen counter for at least 4 hours or overnight for maximum infusion.  Strain and drink infusion throughout the day.

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Tea Time

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Yesterday, my friend and neighbor, Jackie, knocked on my door to drop off a little bag of Souchong tea.  The day before she sat at my kitchen counter drinking ginger green tea while we shared very wifey topics like roasted chicken recipes and kitchen remodeling ideas; she also listened to me make a vow to use up and/or throw away all the packaged tea in my cabinet before committing to a very few selections of loose herbal and black tea.  In turn, she made some black tea recommendations, and generously followed up by giving me this sample to try.

Our conversation about tea went something like this:

Me:  “I’m sick of looking at tea bags at the bottom of cups – they’re so ugly – like afterbirth.”

Jackie: “Yeah, they kind of look like an herbal tampon.”

Aesthetics is part of the reason I want to make this change. Saving space is another. Probably the most important reason is because my cabinet of teas has become one of those messy bulging avoidant areas, usually found behind doors or in drawers, which has become dreadfully stagnant. I’m not sure why I’ve had such a block to throwing out those 3” by 5” boxes, which neither I, nor my guests, ever choose.  Maybe it’s because all those colorful boxes give the illusion of having choices, and I’ve been choosing illusion over reality.

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As I write this post, I am sipping on the Souchong tea and it’s good, I guess. I have to admit: I’m not very discerning when it comes to tea. If a tea has a medicinal benefit then I usually can convince myself to like it but I’ve never had strong preferences based on taste alone.  I know I don’t like fruity teas but beyond that I couldn’t even pretend to have an opinion on a tea’s qualities, never mind its aroma.  Which is probably why I have been buying packaged tea.  And I must admit the teas I buy are usually geared towards what’s on sale versus its ingredients.

As I begin the gradual emptying of my tea cabinet, I’ll also have to ready myself for filling the void. Probably the only way for me to feel more connected to my teas is if I actually grow, harvest and store the leaves and flowers in glass canisters of my choosing.  That’s a lot of work.  And so is cleaning out a teapot every day. But that’s how I roll. I suspect my lack of involvement in my tea collection has kept me indifferent and distant all along.

A few years ago, my friend Lizzie actually gave me the tea plant, Camellia Sinensis, which grows well in the Pacific Northwest, but I wasn’t ready for it then and sadly, it didn’t survive.  I’ll have to try growing it again, and perhaps start foraging for other tea ingredients, but in the meantime, come on over for tea.  Right now, I have quite a selection!

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Welcome Aronia

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Don, a neighbor and fellow urban gardener, dropped by the other day bearing gifts from his own garden, a pint of the most delicious honey from his beehive and an Aronia  (chokeberry) plant. Aronia seems like a fine addition to my outdoor pharmacy because it is disease and pest resistant.  And that’s exactly the quality I want in every thing I ingest because I want to be disease and pest resistant too.    I’m sad to say my white currant bush does not have this quality so Aronia will probably replace it.

Aronia is also productive. One plant can potentially produce up to forty pounds of berries.  Not just any berries, either.  Aronia Melanocarpa fruit contains more antioxidants than most other berries, more antioxidants than blueberries, cranberries, elderberries and even pomegranates. I’m not surprised that this superfruit has shown promising results in research studies on cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure and cancer because all you have to do is look at its color to know it’s good for you. In Chinese medicine, we view all the dark purple-pigmented fruit, which are high in phenolic substances, as the most potent blood builders.  Don says it’s very easy to pick the berries off the stems too so the combination of being highly productive, medicinally potent and easy to pick makes this plant very attractive to me.

I might have to convince myself that I like the taste however.  It sounds like it has a dry, sour, astringent taste so I probably won’t be gorging on them raw like I do cherries, grapes, blackberries and red raspberries.   Probably they’ll be better cooked but I’m imagining they will mix well with other fruits for juicing or desserts.  We usually freeze over twenty gallons of blackberries which we use in smoothies throughout the winter. Hopefully by this same time next year, we’ll be throwing in a handful of Aronia berries into our Vita-Mix blender too.

Aronia, I like you already.

 

Parsley Farm Berry Smoothie

(creamy and satisfying)

¾ cup frozen berries (any kind)

½ -1 frozen banana (chopped)

1 cup milk (rice, coconut or almond milk)

1/4 cup cashews

1 -3 dates

Adjust the amounts of banana and dates depending on the sweetness you prefer

 

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Foraging For a Cure

tumblr_mdjyoa93Am1ra92m5Pacific Northwest’s Reishi – Ganaderma Orgonense

In early November, when I tromped through an old growth forest on the Olympic Peninsula in search of wild chanterelle and hedgehog mushrooms, I was delighted when my companion and guide, Liz the Griz, pointed to polypore mushrooms sitting at the base of two hemlock trees. These four to six inch kidney shaped, shiny brown, soft, fresh specimens were Pacific Northwest’s Reishi, Ganaderma Orgonense.  They were perfect for the picking so we gently tore them off and stored them away in our backpacks.

Even though the rest of that drizzly day did not yield much in the way of edible mushrooms, I was satiated by the beauty of yellow maple leaves twittering in the air against the verdant velvet backdrop of the forest.  I also was secretly glorifying in the fact that I only needed to be willing to venture out on a typically wet Northwest fall day with boots and rain jacket to find my cure, I didn’t need billions of research dollars.

In Asian traditional medicine, Reishi has long been venerated as an immunity and longetivity tonic, but research has shown that it has no side effects and many other benefits as well. It has anti-tumor and anti-viral properties, regulates blood sugar, lowers choresterol and blood pressure, and supports the cardiovascular system.  My own experiential investigation into this medicinal mushroom verified its boosting qualities as I felt invigorated by coming into contact with it in its native landscape.  Good enough for me.

When I returned home from my foraging adventure, I sliced and dehydrated my two Reishi conks, storing them in glass jars for later use.  Today, I made a tea by putting a few slices into boiling water, and let it simmer for a few hours before drinking its slightly bitter woody cure.