Time for Tea

Suzie the Foodie has a great recipe for green iced tea, & comments that Prevention suggests cool brewing enhances the antioxident properties (which makes perfect sense!)

For several years I've enjoyed S African Red (rooibos) & honeybush teas, naturally sweet, since they lack tanins, but still full of antioxidents!

I used 5 tsp of Stash's red & white fusion tea, & one tsp of their Gogi Berry green for a bit of pizzaz! With spring comes lemon balm - a nice fresh addition for that 'lemony' taste BoHo mom suggested! Delish! You can dry lemon balm, but it's much better 'straight from the plant!'
Gogi or 'wolf' berries are a bit smaller than raisins, & tasty - I have a rather unruly bush in one of my gardens. I often add a few dried berries to my morning granola, & eat the ones from a cup of tea.

Today was my 'Red Hat' luncheon - & it was my turn to choose the venue. One of our nice restaurants recently added lunch, so I took the gals to Nick's Italian Cafe! A classmate of my daughter's, Carmen Pirano, took over management from her dad (Nick) a few years ago, & they recently added a traditional Pizza oven. (None of us had pizza - tho we were all curious! The 'speck & Arugula, with house smoked pork, mozzarella & fresh arugula sounded so good! But I ended up with the veggie & herb panini)
Nick's is known around the country for its 5 course, Northern Italian meals, so lunch is a nice way to test the waters!

While I was at lunch, my son-in law & his mom ventured over to One Green World for some serious plant shopping - I sent a list, & got a sweet selection of rather unusual fruit. An 'purple rose' akebia to 'balance' (& hopefully cross-fertilize) this white one climbing one side of my porch, a 'cinnamon vine' (diascora, or 'wild yam') which has edible tubers, a tasty Mountain Ash with purple fruit, a gooseberry, & an Asian Pear (I have two of these already - my granddaughter's LOVE them!! Well - we all do . . .

This green 'hose in hose' prim came from a sweet plant (& stuff) shop just down the street - Incahoots. The gal who had my home before me worked there, so some of my herbs were already en residance when I moved in. This was a nice foundation - I've added things like a bay tree (now taller than I am), fig, a couple of combo apples, several rosemarys & more lavender, . . .