Monday, November 21, 2011

Tea and The Urban Harvest

The roof garden is nearly gone.  The basil was pestoed long ago, the tomatoes plucked and eaten, and the strawberries finally slowed down.  Left, are the rosemary pots, the oregano and sage, and the mint.

I like coffee and tea, but I really only drink black tea and the very occasional blend specifically formulated for a sore throat.  While visiting a middle-eastern cafe in Harvard Square, my group was seated at a small intimate table and given a beautiful pot of mint tea, which suited our stomachs well after the winter gorging that immediately proceeded our cafe visit.  The tea was fresh, hot, leafy, minty, and delicious.

This weekend, I harvested 90% of our roof-garden mint before the cold got too far into it.

 Picked and de-leafed.


Dried in the oven (120f for 45 minutes).


Crushed and scooped into a teabag. 


Boiled.  Unlike black tea, you can boil mint tea instead of just steeping, and it's impossible to over-steep.


 It turned out nicely, and I generally despise herbal tea.


 No caffeine, so Jr. can sip one too after filling winter meals in the city.



It's not quite as good as bitters for settling the over-stuffed stomach, but it does help.  The rest of the pot was cooled and poured into ice cube trays to make minty ice for liquor drinks later on for an autumn cocktail party.  Hello, winter.




Happy Thanksgiving, all.

5 comments:

  1. I am impressed at how you can do a whole lot of things by your own hands while rest of us assume them as paid service. Reviving shirts, roasting coffee and now making teabag? And how do figure out the time and temperature of that oven?

    Chenlong

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  2. This is a clever use for mint, of which I always seem to have too much. And the china is beautiful! Wishing you and yours a Happy Thanksgiving!

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  3. Excellent. Just made mint tea from an old NYT recipe. I am inspired to garden this coming spring (whenever that may come). Sum

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  4. Great suede plain toe bluchers! Difficult to find these days. May I ask your source?

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  5. I love the trouser/sock/shoe combination. Perfection. Happy Thanksgiving.

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