As I was beginning to plan a medicinal garden, my mind wondered off to what possible berry bush and fruit tree leaves I might be able to use in infusions or teas as they are called but really aren’t since there are no tea leaves in them? The number surprised me. Every couple years I place an order from Celestial Seasoning as I feel better when I drink them since they are another source of natural vitamins and minerals. But I’ve a hankering to create infusions of my own from what I can grow in my own yard. So exactly what leaves can I use?
The number surprised me?
Elderberry leaves
Raspberry leaves
Strawberry leaves
Blackberry leaves (I’m putting in a few canes this year)
Black Currant leaves
Gooseberry leaves
Honeyberry leaves (They are 5 to 10 times more nutritious than the berries they say)
Apple leaves
Sour Cherry leaves (in moderation)
And of course the rose leaves from the future rose bushes I will plant.
But why stop there?
I have a friend who has a lot of wild plum trees growing well, wild. It is one thing I might be able to forage for as Wild Plum leaves are also used in teas.
We also have hawthorn growing wild but I intend to grow one in my yard at some point too. The berries and leaves can also be used medicinally and in a tea.
The wondrous things these leaves will do for me I’m going to have to do more research on. Most speak of helping the stomach and that is something I’m quite interested in as I don’t think mine works optimally. Well, I’m sure it doesn’t. But most of all, I’d just like to think that part of the teas or rather infusions I drink at night come to me from my own back yard. I hear a mixture of apple, strawberry, and blackberry leaves are delicious. If that is good, then what if I added some dried berries in as well? Wouldn’t that be super delish then? Other leaves like gooseberry, which I hear is a bit bitter, may be camouflaged by chamomile or something else pleasant and used medicinally only. But knowing it is there if I need it gives me peace of mind.
So are you using your berry bushes and fruit trees to their full potential? I know I’m not but I intend to doing some experimentation but right now I’m watching the snow fly. We are forecast to get from 5 to 10 inches. Winter is not anxious to leave.
Easy Living the Hard Way 
I hadn’t realised all those leaves were edible (at least in an infusion), let us know how you get on. I’m rather too fond of normal ‘black’ tea to bother with other infusions, although I do sometimes make cordials.
Things are bursting into life here, apple trees starting to blossom, hope your ‘glacier’ does its job for you and traps the snow!
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Don’t drink tea or coffee or caffeine drinks. Occasionally a little chocolate or hot chocolate , not often so I can’t converse on that level. I like warm drinks though and need the vitamins so I lean toward infusions. I may be asking you about cordials though. They fascinate me. Not for the alcohol part but to transfer that into vinegar. Vinegar I have many uses for. I have a great fear of loosing control due to my Autism. It is tough to keep in the Acting Normal phase and Impossible with certain foods that effects my emotions a great deal. I don’t even try things that I know will chemically create dependence or alter brain function so I avoid them as I do many store foods. You obviously live in a much warmer climate than us. Our grass is green but hasn’t grown much because it is too cold.
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I tend to make sweet cordials or squash – just with water for diluting. Not so often at the moment, as we are on ‘hill water’ rather than the good spring at the moment (not mains) so drinks from boiling water (tea!) rather than cold. I have tried (once) making raspberry vinegar, but I didn’t like it much. Maybe the vinegar I used wasn’t the best.
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Elderberries? That does not sound good at all. We happen to lack the common black elderberries here, but we compensate with our own native blue elderberries. I have not used the leaves for anything though. We also lack sour cherry and honeyberry, although I intend to add sour cherry eventually. Herbs and herbal weeds grow wild (like weeds). I will be picking up some stinging nettle today.
I have heard of dried fir foliage being used for tea, but have not tried it yet. Douglas fir is native here.
We happen to grow camellias at the farm, and although we do not grow them for production, we do (or at least did) have some of the tea camellias in among the potential stock plants. I wanted to grow some for green tea. The process of making them into black tea seems like too much work for me.
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Pine tree needle tea taste like pine. Not real yummy but high in vitamin C. We’ve had a couple different kinds. One tea was green and the other a pretty melon orange. I also used it to disinfect a wound once. In California they have a couple kinds that are poisonous but we don’t have them. We have stinging nettle somewhere my hubby says but not on our place and none I’ve seen though I hear a great deal about them. Your climate is so much different than ours. Had to look up camellias as I’ve never heard of it. A really pretty flower and of course not suited for here. In fact wa…..y off. So much more lush there but I’d never want to live in California. Too many people, too many rules, too much pollution. Our cultures are opposite too. You live in a dependent society. I NEED my wide open spaces. We are the least populated state in the Union and I love it! We say “Cowboy Up!” or in other words toughen up and ‘Git er Done!” We are an independent group of natives and expect others to take care of themselves too, though we are quick to pitch in when a need arises. We are also quick to spot an out of stater on the highway because they don’t look out for others. A new comer attended a branding last year and was shocked to see women riding, roping, and flipping calves with the best of them. His comment, “They raise em tough here.” We don’t have many people and we expect all to “Cowboy up!” and pitch in. My dad, a rancher, always told me, “If you can’t keep up, you can’t come.” I was needed but not if I intended on being a burden. No time for that as it created danger for all.
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California used to have room for everyone. Now, it is hard to keep the farm going, not because of the innate hard work that goes into it, but because there are so many developers that want the (formerly inexpensive) land that they are always accusing us of polluting something or importing some disease in our stock. They want to force us into selling the land. Ironically, the farm was established there to be out of everyone’s way, but everyone came out there too. So much of a normal lifestyle is illegal now, and I could not built the home that I want, with the old technology that I want. Well, I could write a book about the weirdness. It is my home nonetheless. My ancestors have been here for generations. I intend to live the way I want to. I try to not offend, but sometimes I just do not care. (When I lived in town, a neighbor built a monster home behind me and then complained about what he could see in my back yard, and notified ‘code enforcement’ that I dried my laundry on a line. He did not approve of me doing my own gardening or driving the same old Dodge that I drove since I was 16, among MANY other complaints. He had not been here a year.) San Jose, which is nearby, probably still has more people than your entire state, and almost none of them are from here.
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Quite a few Californians have migrated here. Not something that makes residents smile for the same reason. They want to change the state laws.
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GADS! When I go to towns around Seattle, I find that there are more Californians than there are natives! In the town I stay in, ALL the neighbors are from either the San Francisco Bay Area or the region of San Diego. The complain about how small their town is, and were thrilled when the Kitsap Mall was built! If they wanted a mall, they should have stayed home! It angers me because I know what it must have been like for those who were native there before the Californians arrived.
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