Making Tea From Native Plants

making tea from native plants

After the Sons of Liberty dumped thousands of pounds of tea into Boston Harbor in 1773, patriots were faced with a difficult question: just what were they going to put in their teapots now? Since they could no longer in good conscience buy the taxed Bohea tea brought in by the British from China, they maintained that the solution could be found in America’s own native plants.

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Harvesting And Canning Wild Greens

harvesting and canning wild greens

Winter’s dreary end seems to drag on and on into early spring. We itch to get planting the garden, poring over seed catalogs and babying those tiny light green tomato, pepper, and other infant plants in the south windows. How lucky we are that the very first delectable greens that our bodies crave are already growing in sunny, protected areas around the homestead, planted for us by God, himself.

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12 Sugar And Gums Plants You Can Find In The Wilderness

Close-up of natural tree sap dripping from bark, showing how sugar and gums plants produce resin in the wilderness.

Long before refined sugar filled supermarket shelves, resourceful pioneers and Native Americans relied on sugar and gums plants found in the wilderness to satisfy their need for sweetness and energy. These natural sources of sugar were more than treats, they were vital survival foods that provided quick calories during long journeys or harsh winters. From the towering sugar pine to the sweet-sapped maple and the fragrant sweet gum, the wild offered many ways to sweeten tea, preserve food, or simply sustain energy on the trail.

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Foraging For Wild Edibles All Year Round

Foraging For Wild Edibles All Year Round

As the first long hunters and early settlers explored and tamed this country, they fit the very definition of the term, “hunter-gatherer.” Absent were cultivated crops or convenient trading posts at which a person could obtain needed supplies. These early settlers killed and foraged for just about all the food they consumed.

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