Gathering My Winter Berries
Well, some goji berries anyhow!
Date: 2/12/2010 11:10:37 PM ( 14 y ) ... viewed 2149 times
It's a colder winter than we usually see here in Central Texas and I feel a bit like a squirrel huddling with my berries...
I have a satisfying little hoarde: my winter tea makings of Chaga (medicinal tree mushroom which this time around I am purchasing pre-ground), shredded Astragalus (which seems like a bark but I think it's really a root), Pau d'Arco (which really is a bark, and I get it shredded) and Cat's Claw (which comes looking fairly shredded and I believe is actually a vine -- and is the #1 medicinal herb used for flus and other things in Peru!). I love to put these four ingredients in cotton teabags and make a brew of the four of them, letting the water get hot (generally just below simmering) for days at a time, letting it brew night and day until the color gets pale, at which time I know it's time to take out the old teabags and put in new ones (sometimes continuing with whatever pale tea is left over from the previous tea).
I also put in a new half of a cinnamon stick every day or two for a nice flavor -- and add about 1 tsp. of raw cacao powder per cup of poured tea, just stirring it in.
Maybe I already gave you this recipe, but I guess I love it enough -- and my guests love it enough -- that it bears repeating if that is the case!!
Have really been getting into buying in bulk when I can. The local places that sell these herbs are all importing them and charge twice and even four times as much as I pay to purchase them online, so this time around I got my tea fixings (except for the cacao which I get at EarthShiftProducts.com) and the cinnamon sticks (which I still purchase locally) online at http://www.MountainRoseHerbs.com.
They offer some of these ingredients in powder form as well, but I really much prefer the shredded kind for making teas!!
I also got some goji berries from DragonHerbs.com recently. They cost more than some, but are moister and I really like them. Because I pay more for them, I'm putting a lid on how many I use. I know that anything more than a handful per day is fairly wasted nutritionally speaking, so that's where my cap is -- at about one ounce. I will start putting about exactly one ounce of goji berries in my future cacao drinks, and am also using them a bit -- in my new kombucha brews.
There was a kombucha I made this week with organic green jasmine tea and white tea and then sweetened with a cup of honey plus a cup of goji-sweetened (but pre-strained) water. It came out SO ELEGANT...!!!!!!!!
Now my current kombucha experiment is with molasses. I put in a LOT of molasses (about 1/2 cup) along with a cup of unrefined sugar for the gallon of tea. The molasses is really a strong flavor in it thus far (but it's not ready yet, and I have added a wee bit more sugar and a wee bit of goji berry juice to it, hoping to "lighten it up" a bit).
Less-than-perfect-raw eating the past couple days have included organic popcorn popped in coconut oil in my 316 Ti stainless steel pot (quite a new kind of experience) and then topped with olive oil, Celtic sea salt and spirulina or chlorella. Not the best food -- but not the worst -- and cheaper more pure than buying something non-organic and cooked...
Thanks for reading, and here's wishing you the Best Day EVER...!
Michele / Avocadess
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