Eat Your Yard: Sweet Tea Alternative
Most of the time when people weed their gardens, they throw away the things they consider “weeds,” but many common weeds are actually edible and good for you! For example, the “weeds” in this video make a delicious sweet tea alternative that is healthier for you and good for allergies.
In the video below, you’ll see that as I thin out our raised bed garden, there are some common native plants that you can eat or make teas from.
I originally went out to look for speedwell and dead nettle to make my allergy tea. My allergy tea includes lemon balm, Creeping Charlie, speedwell, dead nettle, plantain leaves (not the banana-like fruit, but wild growing plantain greens) and local raw honey. I also like to put in a few evening primrose flowers because they help with metabolism. This tea tastes a lot like regular sweet tea which is such a favorite in the South.
We don’t drink sweet tea, but both Dave and I like the flavor of it. We decided it would be great to make a big pot of this tea, refrigerate it, and sip on it throughout the day like people would sweet tea.
While gathering the speedwell and dead nettle that I knew was in this raised bed, I also found chickweed. I decided to make some Chickweed Hemp Heart Pesto for lunch. Here’s my Chickweed Hemp Heart Pesto recipe.
