Health, welness and whealth

Healthy Tea

    Lately I have been getting into doing things in a healthier way.   It may seem a little late in my years to be thinking about doing things in a healthier manner (66-years-old) – but really it is never too late to change to better habits.

  I now make my own brew for my daily tea.   I do love tea and found that most “store bought” teas contain ingredients that I really do not care for.  

   Here is how I make my own tea.  

    First I gather – Blackberries, Black berry leaves, Black Mulberries, Black Mulberry leaves, Sassafras leaves, Clover leaves, white and red clover flowers, Day Lilly flowers and a little Kale and fennel and dried cranberry powder.

  The two berry ingredients take about 2 ½ days to dry in a low temperature dehydrator, when dry I put them in my blender and grind them up to a fine powder then I add some dried Cranberry powder to this.   I put all the finished product in a plastic 1-quart bag.   During the berry season, I can fill that bag about ½ way with the ground up ingredients.  

   Now I gather the Day Lilly flowers the same day that they fold up and are ready to fall off the plant.   During the season, I can gather over 1,000 flower heads.   It takes about 3 hours in the dehydrator to dry them enough to snap them in pieces.   When they reach this point, I grind them up into a powder using the blender, The Day Lilly powder will fill a quart bag about ¾ full.  

   Then I dry all the tree leaves and clover leaves in the dehydrator which takes about 2 hours.   I crush them by hand and place them in the blender.   I do not try to grind them up to a powder, I want the leave pieces to be about 1/32 of an inch or smaller.    I do enough of these leaves to fill a 2-quart bag.

   To make the tea – I use my coffee pot – I put in a regular coffee filter in the basket.   I then add 2 ½ Teaspoons of the Day Lilly powder and 1 ½ teaspoons of the berry powder in the filter and mix it up a little.

   Now when filling the reservoir with water I leave enough water in the coffee pot to cover a small “tea ball.”  I put the tree leaves into the ball about 3-teaspoons and place it in the bottom of the pot. I put the coffee pot on the stove on medium heat and bring it to a slow boil.  When the water turns a deep greenish orange, it is ready so I turn the stove off.   The reason I cook the leaves (in the tea ball) on the stove first is that it takes longer to extract the nutrients from the leaves then what the coffee pot would allow.

  I now place the coffee pot on the coffee maker and finish making the tea.   The incoming hot water flows through the berry mix in the basket and into the pot.  The color of the tea is a rich dark brown and smells exactly like regular hot tea.      

   The taste of this combination is almost as good as regular tea – but the thing is all my ingredients are natural and are full of nutrients and anti-oxidants.   I sweeten my tea using pure Stevia instead of sugar.   I have one cup of this tea every day – I can feel the difference if I miss a day so I know it is doing me good.  

   I also grow my own Mint plant and make a delicious cup of mint tea.  I do the same thing with Fennel leaves and seeds to make a great tasting Licorice tea.  

  You can look up all the separate ingredients (like I did) on Wikipedia and see the nutritional value of each.   I am still experimenting with the amount of each ingredient for flavor and maximum health effects.

   NOTE:   Another reason why I put the tree leaves in the “tea ball in the bottom of the pot and brew it on the stove first.” When the leaves become hydrated again they swell up – this swelling will plug up a coffee filter real fast and the basket will overflow because the water will enter the basket faster than it is going through the filter this caused a huge mess (I learned this the hard way).  

What to do with the pulp?  - soon to come – stay tuned.    

In the previous post, I shared how I make my own tea from the plants around my property. Well there is something else I do with those tea ingredients.

When I did a study on each of the ingredients I was impressed not only with what you gain from using water extraction to make the tea but also on the value of the “pulp” that is left over after making my tea.

I have been learning that we Americans throw away a lot of the so called “left-overs” that the people of other nations would love to get their hands on. We also have a tendency to “think” once something is used for one thing it is then no good for any further use. I have found that to be so un-true – I am gaining a lot of great things by investigating ways in which to use what we would normally toss in the trash.

That takes me back to my tea. When I am done making my batch of brew there is a lot of pulp that is left over. Now I use that pulp.

I take the coffee filter that is full of wet pulp (the ingredients I use to make the tea) I close up the top of the filter and then hold the filter over the pot of brewed tea and then I gently squeeze the excess water out.

Now I spread the wet pulp as thin as I can over a sheet of plastic. I get the tea ball out of the bottom of the pot and remove the leaf pulp and spread it on the plastic sheet with the rest of the pulp.

Then I air dry this pulp (about two days) until it falls apart easily by being rubbed between two fingers. Then I let it dry for another two days.

Once it is completely dry I crumble it up enough to put it in a shaker. Now when I eat a meal I shake these dried ingredients on my salads, toast and meat. In other words, I use it as a seasoning. When I cook up a couple eggs I sprinkle it on the eggs and it all taste great.

Because I drink a cup of my tea every day I am making a new batch of tea before I am able to use up all the dried pulp from the previous time. So, I found another way to use the dried pulp.

I bought me a small hand operated “capsule” making machine. I can make 24 capsules size “00” at a time. I use “empty Veggie caps” which I buy on line. I take a single capsule every day around noon time when I have my cup of tea.

I do not recommend you doing this unless you have made a good study of the stuff you may be eating – what I can say, is that what I am taking as a capsule of supplements every day is extremely healthy for you and I know exactly what it is all made of.

I still have more dried pulp than what I care to eat daily. What do I do with the rest of that pulp?

All “natural plants are good to use as compost and food to feed to other plants. So, this is what I do with the remaining pulp.

I put ¼ cup of dried (pre-used) ingredients into a quart of water and bring it to a boil. I strain the mixture into a clean quart jar and let it cool. Now I use this water to give my house plants a nutrient rich drink of water once a week – the plants love it!!

Again, I let the pulp dry out and then mix it with more dry tea ingredients and will add small amounts of it to my potting soil (for house plants) as organic material – it is composting on a tiny scale. When I have about a 1 quart plastic bag of dried (pre-used) ingredients I will put it around my plants outside –

I see it this way – God has given me all these beneficial trees and plants all around my property. I would be a fool for not using them (once I learned the value of them). I harvest what the Lord has given me. I use it to the best of my ability, which includes returning the pulp as mulch and as a natural fertilizer back to the plants I took them from.

What a fantastic cycle – it’s a Win – Win for me and the plants God has graced me with.

You may be wondering why I am sharing the post on how I made tea and what I do with the left overs.

If you will hang on for a while and follow this thread I will get into the reasons why I am sharing this kind of information. This has been the birth of a new me as far as taking care of my body's needs for nutrition and minerals.

Just three years ago I was on about 6 or 7 prescription drugs and now I am happy to say that I do not need any more prescription drugs! I have been removed from 3 prescriptions that I was on just for blood pressure regulation and another prescription drug to offset the three for blood pressure.

All of my advances towards getting off prescription drugs is due to finding and using "natural" herbs and minerals to take care of the needs that my body is drastically lacking.

NOTE: I have not removed myself from the drugs until the doctor has stated that I should try and back off of them and see what happens. Within in one month my "readings" were so good that the doctor said no more prescriptions.

So please stay tuned I will get back to the nutritional stuff that will lead into a company that I am currently involved with - and no it is not Herbal life or any of the known MLM in nutrition products.