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Traute Klein, biogardener
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Herb Teas from My Garden

by Traute Klein, biogardener

Herb teas are best if picked fresh from your garden rather than being bought dried and packaged. Many herb tea ingredients can be found in every garden. Experiment to determine your favorites.

Herbalism for You and Me

erbalism is alive and well. I grew up in a country where it is taken for granted and where physicians are more likely to prescribe a tried and true herbal remedy than an aspirin. Folk remedies are passed on from generation to generation and from neighbor to neighbor.

North America also has a rich background in herbal traditions which have been brought here from many different cultures. Unfortunately, in our 20th century acceptance of packaged consumer goods, herbs also have become a marketed commodity. This is not what herbalism means to me. Like a frozen dinner, prepackaged herbs may serve their purpose in an emergency, but they should not take the place of fresh ingredients just for the sake of convenience.

Do you remember the friar in Romeo and Juliet? He gathered fresh herbs in his garden to concoct the potion which put Juliet into a temporary state of seeming death. He could have found the ingredients for any other malady in that garden. I concoct my herb teas in the same manner. Every day I pick a selection of herbs which I brew for that day’s tea. That tea may not be designed to heal a specific illness, it may, however, keep my family in good health. And it certainly tastes good.

Herb Teas All Around Us

In my childhood, I learned to pick the ingredients for teas and salads among the weeds in the ditches and forests of Europe. With the present-day use of herbicides and pesticides, however, it has become necessary to be more selective in choosing the sites for picking edibles. My organic garden is the safest site close to home, but whenever I am hiking or camping away from civilization’s reach, I have no problem collecting a good assortment of wild plants for a good tea or for a munch-as-you-go salad.

Let’s see what you might be able to find in your own garden. You will probably be surprised by the many fresh herb tea ingredients which you did not expect. You will also find ingredients for a fresh salad among the weeds which you had meant to compost, and I have written about them in the article "Delicious Weeds" linked in the left column.

If you have preserved your childlike curiosity of everything new, you probably already know which of the weeds in your garden taste good. Fortunately, very few of them are poisonous. Before you become too adventurous, it would, however, be a good idea to acquaint yourself with those weeds in your area which are capable of hurting or even killing you before you become too adventurous. At least get to recognise the nightshade plants and stay away from them. They all contain some poison and the ones which grow wild can be deadly. Other common garden plants to be avoided are lily-of-the-valley as well as several other lilies and bulbs.

Find These Teas in Any Garden

Let me tell you about some of the tea ingredients which I find in my garden or along the roadside. Some of them you may not have given a second glance before.
• The various mints are well-known as herbal ingredients. Most of them are stimulating, but one of them, catnip, is a relaxant and may help to give you a good night’s sleep.
• Raspberry and blackberry leaves taste similar to black tea and are well-known as an aid in female complaints, but they can be enjoyed by the whole family.
• Leaves from rose bushes have a flavor similar to those of raspberry leaves, and the delicate rose petals are reminiscent of jasmine flowers in Chinese teas.
• Strawberry leaves have a more delicate flavor than most berry leaves. They are among my favorites.
• The whole fireweed plant is the herb tea staple of some North American aboriginal tribes. The flavor is quite mild.
• Clover and alfalfa leaves are rich in minerals. Use them along with the flowers. A local herbal distributor sells a very tasty tea called Alfamint, consisting of alfalfa leaves and spearmint, and it is quite refreshing, especially as iced tea, sweetened by a touch of honey.
• Red clover flowers are full of sweet nectar. A well-respected German homeopath recommends their daily use as a cancer preventive.
• Calendula is called pot marigold in England, because the leaves are used in cooking. I use the flowers in teas or in salads. Go easy on them until you get accustomed to the taste.
• Basswood leaves are a soothing tea ingredient when the flowers are not available. The tea from the basswood flowers is often referred to by its German name "Linde" or its English name "lime." It is easily the most palatable tea even for small children.
• Hawthorn leaf tea is similar to basswood leaf tea in texture. Like the hawthorn berries, they are said to strengthen the heart.
• The needles of evergreen trees are good not only in baths, they give teas a taste of adventure. I learned about this tea ingredient from Canada's agoriginal people.
• Rosehip, of course, is one of the best-known sources of vitamin C and it is enjoyed in tea by people who prefer a slightly sour taste. In commercial teas, the acidic taste is often intensified by the addition of hibiscus.
• Many of the herbs used in cooking can also serve as tea ingredients. Thyme, for example, is one of the best remedies for congestion and inflammation, and rosemary is supposed to be a heart strengthener.
• If the flavor of your concoction is too mild for your taste buds, you can spike it up for a few pennies worth of freshly sliced ginger from the grocery store.

Be Curious – Experiment

Did I give you some new ideas to try? Are you encouraged to do some experimenting of you own? You and your taste buds will have to determine which tea ingredients you want to adopt as your favorites. They will help you to get away from the idea that herbalism is merely a substitute for a medicine chest. It should instead become part of your everyday living.

© Traute Klein, biogardener