Homegrown Tea by Cassie Liversidge
As Heard on The Daily Gardener Podcast:
Homegrown Tea by Cassie Liversidge
This book came out in 2014, and the subtitle is An Illustrated Guide to Planting, Harvesting, and Blending Teas and Tisanes.
I have been waiting to share this book with you.
If you don't know what a Tisane is, it's an infusion: dried or fresh herbs are infused into liquids, and then you have a beverage you can drink to enjoy or get some medicinal benefit from.
A sample Tisane might be made with Juniper berries or white peppercorns, grapefruit, and orange peels. It's a great little drink. Juniper is outstanding and is a common ingredient in Tisane.
Now, one of the things that I want to say about Cassie's book right off the bat is that it's stunning. This is a St. Martin's Griffin book with so many beautiful photos.
I love illustrated guides because they are so helpful. Sometimes, when exploring a new topic or venturing into a new area of gardening, you need lots of photos to help you find your way and inspire you.
Now, Cassie is a huge tea fan, and she sees the garden through the lens of tea. When
When Cassie sees a garden, she sees a living tea cupboard because all kinds of plant materials can be harvested to make her own teas and tisanes.
As Cassie says in her introduction,
Homegrown Tea is a gardening book for tea lovers. It explains how to grow a large variety of plants from which you can make your own teas and tisanes. your garden, balcony, or window sill could become your tea cupboard.
One of the other things that I love about Cassie's approach is that she also shares some of the history of tea and how some of these ingredients have been used over the years. Her sample drinks include plants like rose hips, mint, sage hibiscus, lavender, chicory or angelica, apple geranium, and lemon verbena.
Another thing I want to tell you about Cassie is that she's a garden girl. She grew up in her parents' plant nursery, so she knows about plants—they're in her DNA. That's why Cassie is so thoughtful and knowledgeable about plants in the garden and how to incorporate them into teas.
By the way, her debut book was Grow Your Own Pasta Sauce, which is also excellent.
But if you are a tea lover, you've got to get this book. And if you have a friend who loves tea, this would make an excellent gift or even just a wonderful hostess gift. Give this book to a summer party hostess and a few teabags of your own concoctions.
This book is 288 pages of tea in all its glory and fresh from your garden.
SI HORTUM IN HORTORIA PODCASTA IN BIBLIOTEHCA HABES, NIHIL DEERIT.
