Tea Totalling
It’s almost Christmas! I can’t believe time has flown past at such a high rate of speed. I haven’t written in a while, I just didn’t feel like there was much to say. I have been pretty productive though, I’ve created a whole store full of products-they’ve all turned out beautiful! I tend to have a little “sample size” left of each so that I’m able to use them and experience what I’ve made. This is very important when making handcrafted products-you learn what is good, needs work and what was a fail.
My husband and I were selling at the local breakfast with Santa & Christmas market this past weekend. We sold lots of the sauces and seasonings and I even sold a couple of my bath and body products. We tend to only sell at 2 local events each year; it keeps our name out there for the sauce business and they are very economical sales, in cost and profits. There are plenty of other vendor and craft sales in our area, but I feel that they are reaching the same market (MLM vender-lovers) every time and the fees tend to be a bit higher.
People seem to be really interested in the tea blends, which I’m a little surprised about, but they are so beautiful to look at AND taste delicious. I already have plans to increase my herb planting in the garden next summer. My chamomile self seeds now, so as long as I keep harvesting and maybe planting a little more, I may have enough to include all-homegrown in my tea recipes. Currently, I purchase some of my ingredients (from an organic herb supplier) that I just don’t have enough of to make large batches of tea, but I’d like to be able to say I’ve grown it all, eventually.
Once again, I forgot to bring in my lemon verbena plants to try to over-winter them. I do have a local source where I find the plants each year, but other than the one greenhouse, I can’t find them anywhere! The two plants I grew this year produced about a 1/2 quart of dried leaves. It is quite amazing how much dried plant matter you need to create tea recipes! My anise hyssop (agastache foeniculum) has seemed to take a solid foothold in an upper garden. It was it’s first year, so I only harvested it in late summer but was still able to dry about a quart of leaves and flowers. I love the fresh black licorice taste! The pollinators loved it too, so sometimes it took quite a while to pick from it…I tend to be patient with the bees and let them have their time. I read somewhere that bees can recognize humans if they’re “regulars” to their territory. I like this idea, so I always move slowly through the gardens, keep quiet, and let them do their thing.
I have quite the population of big, fat, bumble bees on my property, of which there are always one or more that take up their pollen collecting territory in my vegetable gardens and sometimes chase me out! Its quite funny-they’ll fly up near my face and really push me out! I always call these guys Frank the Tank, named after an unusually large bee a couple years ago that seemed to have to switch to a lower gear to get flying! I’ve never been stung, so I think they’re happy enough to leave me alone.
Shhh, don’t tell anyone, I’ve already place a couple seed orders! On the way is tulsi (holy basil,) a new variety of calendula, and two varieties of bee balm-amongst other things! I’ll also be buying lemon balm plants as I think this will be a good way to still have a nice lemon flavor and add lemon balm’s calming properties, while lessoning the quantity of lemon verbena I’ve been using in my tea blends. I’m not sure why I don’t have it already! Lemon verbena is my favorite herb though, It reminds me of lemon drop candy.
Happy Holidays and blessed seed catalogue shopping! I highly suggest a cup of my tea while shopping-the Tummy S.O.S. blend features anise hyssop; It’s delicious, supports digestion and calms the stomach.
Tummy S.O.S tea blend. Full of digestive-supporting flowers and herbs, including anise hyssop.