Growing your own herbs to make tea or herbal infusions is a fun way to customize your daily cup. Discover the best tea plants to grow and how to use them to make your daily drink.
Chamomile
Lemon Balm
Lemon Verbena
Peppermint
Thyme
Drinking tea can be therapeutic and relaxing. Making a cup of tea can be mediative, too — from selecting your mug from the cupboard, choosing your tea while waiting for the water to boil, and then pouring over and allowing time for the tea to steep. For some, it's the best way to begin the morning.
Take a quick browse through the grocery store tea aisle, and you'll find an overflowing assortment of brands and flavors of dried tea to choose from, making it easy to have an ample collection on hand. But did you know growing your own herbs to make your own tea or infusion is easy?
The wonderful thing about growing herbs to make infusions is they don't require a lot of garden space or supplies. You can sow seeds or seedlings directly into the ground — space permitting — or use pots. In fact, herbs from the mint family, including lemon balm, are better off in containers since they love to spread out and will easily dominate in the garden. Other herbs can be grown together, if you wish. Just give each plant its needed space to grow and thrive.
NOTE: These herbs can become invasive! Plant THIS selection in pots, or in buried pots in the ground to prevent that.
https://www.allrecipes.com/article/how-to-grow-tea/
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Homemade Caramel Syrup is surprisingly easy to make from scratch, calling for just sugar, water, vanilla extract, and a pinch of salt and taking less than 20 minutes to prepare. It adds a rich sweetness to drinks, including your morning coffee or evening cocktails. The syrup can also be drizzled over breakfast food and desserts, such as pancakes, French toast, and ice cream.
This caramel syrup recipe works well with both raw and white granulated sugars. Which sugar you use determines the syrup's color as well as the underlying taste. Raw sugar creates a darker syrup with a slightly richer flavor, while white sugar produces a softer flavor and golden syrup.
In general, caramelizing sugar to create candy or sauce can be tricky because it requires high heat and it can burn easily. When making syrup, however, water is added, which makes caramel syrup more forgiving, though it does require your undivided attention. Take care to regulate the heat, watch the syrup as it cooks, and stir constantly except when it's boiling.
Ingredients 1 cup raw or white granulated sugar 1/2 cup water, divided 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract Pinch kosher salt
Steps ....on low heat, combine the sugar and 1/4 c water. Stir constantly until the sugar dissolves, 8 to 10 minutes. Turn up the heat to medium-high, cover, and boil for 3 minutes.Remove from heat. Add the remaining 1/4 cup of water in a slow stream, stirring constantly. Stir in vanilla and salt.Let the syrup cool completely, then transfer to a sealed container and store in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.
What's the Difference Between Caramel Syrup and Sauce? Caramel sauce is a popular topping for ice cream and other desserts. It is thick, creamy, and most often includes butter and milk. Although made in a similar way, caramel syrup is most often dairy-free (including this recipe) and designed to be runnier so it pours rather than drips from a spoon.
Tips Be careful when the syrup is at the boiling stage. When removing the lid and adding the extra water, there is a lot of steam that could burn your skin. As the caramel syrup cools, it will thicken slightly; once refrigerated, it will reach the consistency of maple syrup. So don't worry about cooking the syrup until thick as you risk burning it. If a thin film forms on the top of the syrup while it cools, simply skim it off with a spoon.
Recipe Variations For a thinner syrup, add 1/2 cup of water after boiling the syrup. Add a little more salt—up to 1/2 teaspoon—to create a salted caramel syrup. While it's cooling, add a cinnamon stick or two to the syrup for a cinnamon-caramel syrup. Remove the cinnamon before bottling.
More Ways to Use Caramel Syrup Although the most common use for caramel syrup is as a coffee sweetener, it's also tasty in a variety of food and drinks. For instance, it is a fantastic sweetener for spiced teas like chai and a key ingredient in cocktails like the salted caramel martini. It can also add a dark, rich sweetness to apple cider drinks, either warm or cold, or create caramel-sweetened milk. Use it as an ice cream topping or add it to the blender for a caramel milkshake. The syrup will also work as a substitute for maple syrup on top of your favorite breakfast dishes, and can sweeten up desserts like pound cake (add to slices on the plate). Just keep in mind that since it's runnier than glazes and sauces, it will get soaked up quickly and can result in soggy baked goods.
Coming up for air after almost a solid week of being glued to my laptop, following Iron Dog Snow Machine racers on GPS & comments on Iron Dog Group (FB). Family & the Iron Dog Group are the only reasons I tolerate FB (and Facebook Purity that lets me knock out the majority of the cr@p .... I couldn’t stay on it without FBP).
Anyway, I did get some seeds ordered this week - Dragon’s Egg and Diva cukes and a kale variety called “Dazzling Blue Kale”. I just liked the name of the kale ... plus my dad is on a kale ‘kick’. At the local nursery (went very early .... before the guys were on the trail one morning), I found seeds for French Breakfast radishes, Nero Toscana kale, Jalafuego jalapeno peppers, Jade bush beans (have never grown beans before), & Tokyo Long White onions - bunching/scallions. I’ll buy my tomatoes & bell peppers in 4-packs, already 3-4 inches high) when they come in - very cheap & I’ve always had good luck with them from this nursery. Now I have to figure out my garden plan - I had one more or less in mind, but that’s out the window with some of the ‘extra’ seeds I got this year.
I’m working on ideas to protect plants that are going to have to be outside my veggie raised beds fencing for me to get everything planted. Deer love radishes, parsley & I’ve had them lean over a fence & munch the tops out of tomato plants .... crows like a lot of things too - they’ve stolen tomatoes & pecked up young zucchinis & eggplants in years past. The garden is out in the open enough that I generally do not have to worry about rabbits/squirrels - they’re afraid of the hawks that hang around our place. I’m thinking of simple, cheap frames for bird netting - that would probably do it.
Anyway, the weather is still nuts .... 30-40 one day, high 60-low 70’s the next. We normally take a risk planting in April - late April/early May is when we can usually get things in the ground (but still have to be ‘watchful’ for the odd very cold nights). January/February have gone by pretty fast - I’m thinking March is going to drag a bit because I want to get in the garden so badly.
Last thing - the fox got another 2 chickens in broad daylight this past week. There is one laying hen left. There is a very old ‘retired’ hen as well - the two are now in the same coop and appear to be liking each others company. This coop is totally secure at night and has buried wire & a tight door. The other coop was mostly secure at night, but the run had no buried wire & this last massacre, the fox got in the door down at the corner. My SIL saw the fox 2 days later - big, beautiful red one, just sitting in the deer food plot, surveying the chicken coop scene. My guess is it’s a female that is going to have kits under the barn - in previous years, when the fox had kits under the barn, my SIL lost a lot of chickens. So .... looks like maybe some chicks are in the future for this spring to replace the laying hens. I loved those hens ... great egg layers & interesting personalities, too.
PS - 4-H lamb update - my great-nieces, ages 6 & 3.5 have their very first lambs this year! The never-handled-before wild “woolies”, after 3 weeks, are now eating food out of the girls’ hands, standing (instead of running away) to be patted, wearing halters, & (mostly) leading around the barn. They’re still a little stubborn at times, but the leading gets better every day! The girls are doing a great job taming/training the lambs. They have a 4-H show the end of April & the lambs need to be ready to show by then.