Gathering my own herbal teas? Suggestions?

[txcanoegirl]

I'm wondering about that holly now. Is there only one type of holly in the Americas? Mine is a medium sized bushy tree that makes lots of white flowers, which my bees love and sometimes has these red berry looking seeds.....I guess they are seeds. Birds mainly eat them. Doesn't really matter if its not enormously medicinal, so long as its ever so good for something or another and isn't poisonous.

http://www.foragingtexas.com/2012/05/american-holly.html The American Holly is the variety of my trees, and I know the leaves (not the berries) are edible. The leaves can be dried and made into tea, but I found it kind of bitter. There are many other varieties of hollies. Do not eat the red berries from the holly tree, but they are an important food source for birds and other wildlife.

 

[Denim Deb]

Heather, I can't say for sure that this will work since I do this anyway, but grow beans around your corn. It's supposed to keep the coons out since they don't want to go thru the beans to get to the corn. If you don't want to do the whole area, maybe do a test area to see if it works.

 

[rhoda_bruce]

Or Heather can set some traps and eat the coons....works for me. My holly trees don't have leaves like that. I'll google and see if I can determine the exact name of what I do have. There are no points on mine. Apparantly I have a yaupon holly. It seems to grow in zones 7 to 9 and can tolerate salt water and droughts. The berries were used to make a black drink to encourage vomitting.

 

[txcanoegirl]

Or Heather can set some traps and eat the coons....works for me. My holly trees don't have leaves like that. I'll google and see if I can determine the exact name of what I do have. There are no points on mine. Apparantly I have a yaupon holly. It seems to grow in zones 7 to 9 and can tolerate salt water and droughts. The berries were used to make a black drink to encourage vomitting.

I believe the Native Americans also used the berries in rituals, drinking the tea made from the berries in large doses. I won't be imbibing any drink made from the berries!

http://www.foragingtexas.com/2008/08/yaupon-holly.html (website) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cvl1cNk0-Bo (his youtube video on yaupon holly)
Tea or coffee made from the dried leaves of Yaupon holly is a good source of caffeine and antioxidants. Yaupon Holly = caffeine. American Holly = No caffeine
Don't use the leaves of Chinese privet, which looks simiilar to the yaupon holly. He describes how to tell them apart.

Here's a quote from his youtube video on yaupon holly:

The leaves of yaupon holly and Chinese privet are very similar in shape and size. An easy way to tell them apart is the leaves of the Chinese privet grow in a uniform pinnate manner. The leaves of yaupon holly have a random, chaotic growth pattern. Just remember "chaos = caffeine"!
http://www.foragingtexas.com/2008/08/...

Yaupon holly leaves are an excellent source of caffeine. There are a few different ways to prepare yaupon holly leaves for brewing tea. The easiest and most effective method for freeing the caffeine is to air-dry them by cutting of a branch, hanging it indoors in a warm, dry area (not in direct sunlight) and let the leaves dry naturally. Most of the leaves will fall off the branch as they dry so lay a towel or something under it to catch the leaves. This method can take two weeks or more depending on the temperature and humidity. Slow-drying it like this allows naturally-occurring enzymes inside the plant cells to begin breaking holes through the cell wall. These holes allow the caffeine to escape into your hot water when making tea.

Forced-drying the leaves in a dehydrator or an oven set at 200F is popular. It is fast, usually taking just a day and this quick drying but will not allow as much caffeine to be released compared to slow air-drying. Leaves done this way are somewhat similar to green tea in mouth-appeal. It doesn't taste like green tea, but it has several similar "under-flavors", if that makes any sense.

The most complex, richest flavors comes from roast-drying the leaves in an oven set at 400F. This requires some practice and experimentation. Lay the leaves on a cookie-sheet. There can be some overlap but each leaf needs some exposure to the air. Put the cookie-sheet in the oven and watch the leaves as they turn brown. The darker you let the leaves get the more roasted and complex flavors you will release. Warning: if they get too dark they have a scorched flavor.

Caffeine has recently been shown to help protect the brain from Alzheimer's disease, which is pretty dang awesome!!

I just watched his youtube video again and noticed he likened the flavor of the American Holly to wintergreen. I can't say mine tasted like that at all, but it could have something to do with my drying process, time of year I harvested, tea making method, difference in taste buds...who knows. Makes me want to try it again, though.

I've been a fan of this guy's website for a long time. He just started putting his videos up recently. I find they are pretty useful. I'm also a facebook fan because his daily posts are about something that is growlng that day, or in season, so it makes my own ID easier since he's in the same geographical location I'm in, so if it's in his field or woods, it's in mine. Unfortunately, that won't be true for many of you here, unless you live in our neck of the woods, like Baymule or Frustratedearthmother.