Anyone tried growing their own tea before?

[joeblast]

Just curious if anyone has tried growing their own tea before. I have yet to do any digging on how its grown or if its even feasible to do around here...

I'm a fan of home grown stuff...its (pretty much) always the best.

[thelerner]

I suspect growing tea is hard. I've wanted to get into growing exotic mushrooms though. I think you just buy an impregnated 'log' and keep it moist and in the dark for harvests of fresh shrooms.

 

 

Michael

[Franklin]

actually growing tea was something that i wanted to try for some time

 

i don't think it should be that hard

or at least not harder than growing other plants

 

right now i have some parsley, chives, banana, lemon grass, eggplant, bell pepper, red pepper, thyme, oregano, sage, and some other stuff around

some fruit trees

 

tried to grow goji but did not have any real luck with it

 

i am going to wait untill my compost bin is ready and then i will start seeding some more things

 

 

the best way i have found- is just try it.....

its kind of fun either way- either it works out or it doesn't

 

franklin

[Uncle Fester]

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Edited September 19, 2021 by darebak

[steve]

Well the best tea seems to be grown at very high altitude, in just the right climate and picked from plants that are hundreds of years old.

And then there is turning it into something drinkable. White tea is pretty much young leaves picked and dried.

All other teas have some processing involved, whether it be aging, cooking, oxidizing, etc.

It is pretty amazing the extent of effort required to produce the really good stuff.

It would be interesting to see what would happen though. A seed today may lead to the worlds greatest tea in a few hundred years.

Well said... it depends on what quality of tea you're looking to drink. The best wulong is very difficult to produce, hence the very high prices...

[joeblast]

Good points, thank you! ya know, plant the seed now...

[JackSquat]

If you like herbal tea you can easily grow yourself a variety of time-honored herbs that are actually as good for you as they are tasty. For example, right now I am drinking tea made from homegrown Lemon Balm, Lavender, and Sage, sweetened with local raw honey, and spiked with an optional but recommended teaspoon of internet-obtained Blue Lotus stamens; not only is it magically delicious and slightly psychoactive, but every ingredient has some sort of health benefit (especially if you can't sleep).

 

All of the homegrown ingredients were very easy to grow where I live in northern Alabama, and we have several other herbs that stayed in the yard for this cup. The majority of them were purchased either as seeds or small plants from hardware stores. Plus, your local health food store probably sells extremely cheap individual ingredients you can use to, say, add caffeine, change up the flavors, treat indigestion, etc.. You can actually grow or buy herbs to help alleviate many minor ailments, many of which taste quite good in teas.

 

Oh, and I agree: homegrown is usually better. At least in this case it seems to be; our Lemon Balm, Spearmint, and Lavender particularly are better fresh than any my wife or I can recall ever buying dried. The best part though is that you get to custom-mix your herbal tea exactly how you like it.

 

 

 

 

"Calm yourself and claim yourself"

~Yogi Bhajan

[joeblast]

Awesome, thanks Jack! my parents have a huge patch of spearmint in their yard, I've been planning on transplanting some for years, just need a spot for it Come to think of it, I would also like to transplant some peppermint from the beach at my uncle's cottage in isle la motte vt.

Another reason I'd love a house, would love a garden!

 

Any good references handy on ingredients/combos/etc? (I'll google it but if anyone has some that would be appreciated!)

[sirius]

you can grow many herbs in your garden - as some other tao bums already mentioned. but - be careful with the peppermint, because he likes to invade the garden step by step with his roots!

 

one of my favorite herb tea mixtures for the season (it`s autumm now here in germany) is: dried leaves of strawberry, blackberry and raspberry, dried ribwort leaves, dried elder flowers, dried calendula flower buds (for the colour) and some lemon balm leaves and peppermint leaves for the good taste. this tea mixture will help you not to catch a cold in atumm or winter - or if you have caught one it will help you to feel better soon. usually i add a spoonful of honey to every cup of tea.

 

the leaves of the citrus verbena can be used for a fresh summer tea with a lemon flavour. you can grow this plant easily - even on the balcony. but the plant has to be taken inside the house in winter because it can`t cope with frosty temperatures.

 

i like to cultivate herbs in my bio-dynamical garden. and i like to go out and look for herbs in the countryside. i use them for cooking, for tea mixtures and for my compost. i like the simple life in the country.

 

greetings from a simple tao bum