Alternative Kitchen Garden: coopette.com: AKG094

AKG094 - Tea

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Tea plants

I’ve been thinking a lot about tea lately, as it turns out that the majority of tea bags aren’t entirely compostable after all. I guess it’s just evidence of the problems of the industrial cup of tea. We could all switch to loose leaf tea or grow our own herbal teas – which would get us much closer to the permaculture cup of tea. The PFAF list of possible tea plants is huge.

But how easy is it to grow your own real tea? In this episode I’m looking at three varieties of plant:

The flowers of Jasminum sambac, the Arabian Jasmine, are used to flavour green tea

Manuka, Leptospermum scoparium is most well-known as a forage plant for honey, but it can also be used to make a herbal tea similar to honeybush.

If you were looking forward to an episode on gifts for gardeners, try the one from last year :D

My book – ‘The Alternative Kitchen Garden: An A To Z‘ – is out now. Follow the link for reviews, interviews and more. You can order a copy online from the Green Shopping Catalogue or Chelsea Green or via Amazon UK and Amazon.com.

Posted 3 December 2009, 15:00.

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