We're rolling, rolling, rolling: Tea Rolling

A while ago I pruned my tea tree (Camellia sinensis) down a bit as it was done flowering because that's when I heard it was best to do so.  Since then I've heard potentially other reports as to when to go about it and now I'm a little conflicted and worried, but if anyone has any advice, feel free to give it here.

Anyways, I pruned the darn thing as much as I hated to do so, because everything looks so sad when it's pruned and now I have to wait for new growth, which is the point of course, to create new and exciting branches that will increase my tea leaf load in the future.

I had read that I should prune it a few inches from the ground (pot in my case) but that just was so severe that I decided to demur on that advice and just did about half the plant.  Bah, I need to be more of a risk taker don't I?

The leftover prunings I saved to attempt to root up and thus be able to have more tree trees/shrubs/plants in the future for my use and as gifts for friends.  Cross fingers!

Many of the leaves I stripped, while older than for usual tea drinking use, I really did want to give it a go.  If I only did that one bud and 2 leaves thing that apparently all great tea is made from I'd have very little new growth and probably only a couple good cuppas a year, so I've been biding my time.

My methods were pretty crude and my steps not exact I know:  I rolled and pan fried the leaves, rather than roll them at the final step...but hey, still homemade green tea and hopefully things will be better the more I do it, right?!

My wonderful husband went through the effort of helping me figure out the rolling process, which was first awkward as I just literally rolled the leaf, then I made little balls that didn't hold their shape and finally we figured out a cool pretzel-ly thing:

It's  necessary to allow the leaves to wither first for a day or 2 so that they are not so turgid and brittle for rolling.  After that you want to pan fry or fire the leaves to stop oxidation (for green tea at least) and I'm sure to drive off water that might cause fungus or mold which is not only bad for flavor, but also potentially bad for one's health (funny, 'cuz this is the much touted health benefit drink).  Lastly you roll the leaves (the firing and rolling, I got inverted), probably more for a shape and storage aspect in green tea, because whole open leaves take up lots of room.  In other tea types, like oolong, the leaves are rolled prior to firing, to rupture leaf cell walls and give more flavor.

So what I made was like a weird white and oolong combination...?!

I pan fried my rolled leaves and they took on an interesting characteristic: the leaves got slightly shiny from oil I can only surmise that came from the leaves (unless the pan was not perfectly clean and there was residual oil in it) and they got obviously drier, but emitted a floral, nutty toasty smell that was quite delish to my nose.

I had saved some non-pan fried leaves and made myself a cuppa tea:

There was so little to no color and I was worried that there would be no flavor, but WHOA was there flavor!  Oddly seaweed-like and fresh,  grassy but slightly musky at the same time?! (Musky possibly not so good to some, but I don't mind it, or maybe I totally screwed something up here).

Either way, the unfired stuff was interesting, so I can't wait to see what the fired stuff will be like!


Interesting links:
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_processing
 http://www.o-cha.com/green-tea-processing.htm
 http://www.enjoyingtea.com/teaprocessing1.html

Getting down with the Sickness: in search for the cure-all cuppa

Ironic that I spoke of the hibiscus syrup being "medicine" in yesterday's posting because all week I've been feeling a rather "EH," but yesterday night I started really not feeling good: headache, slight chills, some nausea and what I know is a fever but my dinky old electronic Walgreens thermometer swears I do not by  proclaiming me a cool 97.6 degrees F.

Though I wouldn't be surprised at having a naturally low normal temperature (I'm constantly cold), the fact that the highest this thermometer was getting was 98.3 degrees, and then a 99 reading and then back down at 98.2 degrees made me suspicious, so I am borrowing a thermometer tomorrow or having my lovely hubby purchase one for me because in my slight delirious headache-y state I don't think anyone wants me driving.

I will admit to an odd satisfaction at being sick only because it reminds me that I'm alive?  It sucks during the sickness, but afterwards there's a feeling of "Made it through that one!"

Only with the swine flu going around and my having just read fun statistics, I am feeling a wee bit worried.

As I can't do too much except: sleep, read, avoid throwing up and drink tea (and apparently blog some), out of all of those things that I am sure you would care to read about or at least be of interest or use to you would be the drinking tea part because this is where I can at least utilize my herb garden to the dickens.

I have loose and bag tea up the wazoo because I'm a fiend, but I'd like to believe that the fresh stuff straight from the backyard might have "active chemicals" or something that'll really make me feel better and fight this thing.

Tisanes, herbals teas without true Camellia sinesis tea leaves, are pleasant and relatively easy to make unless it's an herb like lemongrass where if you really want the super fragrant thick white bulby part, you have to bludgeon it with an object like a rolling pin.

Something that I am sadly not in the mood or have the energy for today.

No, I'll stick with some easy plucking of lemon balm, and maybe add some of the tropics to it like pineapple sage or mellow it out with bee balm (aka Oswego tea).

Or perhaps some easy yanks of my overgrown mint, either the plain or chocolate variety, though I am not sure I want to be drinking anything that would make me feel potentially cooler as I already have chills.

I started growing catnip (a member of the mint family, though what isn't nearly it seems?) earlier this year and haven't really tried it as a tisane yet, but this is a good time if any.  Supposedly it has a soothing effect, though you might not know from watching its effect on cats.

Same with my scented geraniums (lemon/citronella, ginger, mint and rose), they're edible, why not give them a go?  Their larger leaves would look lovely in the bottom of a cup.

I also do have a green tea plant, but have been very hesitant to use the leaves partially because there always seem to be so few leaves and of the potential let-down I am worried about as it is my understanding that a little processing (steaming/drying) does it good.

Ugh,  I just want it to be easy and pull off some leaves, toss them into my boiling water and be done with it!  So many choices and too much icky feeling...why can't I train the dog in herbalism, give it my currently useless opposable thumbs (after this post at least) and tell it to make me a cuppa???

Worse of all, what's always good when I feel sick is fresh ginger slices (which I am growing, but would have to dig up and wash) boiled with brown sugar.  Ahhhhh....  now that's a panacea.

*looks out window* AND great, it's storming out.

Lambs ears- Useful and a good pet substitute

I have a soft spot for this easy, potentially invasive generic plant:


It's so FUZZY!

and xeri-scaperific!

As a little kid I had read that it was used as bandages during wars and would often play doctor/medic on the little boy neighbors I played He-man/She-ra with, dressing their wounds with lambs ears (so we stick fought a little hard :/)

I learned recently too that it makes an apple-y fruity flavored tea and along with bandages, can be used like the ultimate biodegradable wash towel (albeit small, but still useable).

More likely this would be a great cotton ball substitute and I wouldn't have to worry about the oddness of a bleached cosmetic product.

Maybe, maybe... though I have always wanted to grow my own cotton for fun...