I want to like drinking tea. The kind of tea that doesn’t add to my caffeine count each day. I love earl grey and bold black teas, but those aren’t much of a relief for my body after my three daily espresso. Sleep is also a struggle from years of pregnancy and babies keeping me awake and disturbing my rhythms. Now, a year and a half into covid, work and relationships have a contender for stress. All of this shared, my interest in gardening has led me to trying my hand at my own chamomile and calendula tea. While I waited for the flowers to form, I purchased a good bag of loose leaf tea online - something that shared these two ingredients, good reviews and sounded delicious. It was! Each night for the past few weeks, I make myself a cup. I do this for my babies to train their bodies to fall sleep - create calming rituals. Now I’m trying to do the same for my own. Boil water in kettle. Scoop one tablespoon into tea bag. Pour water. Wait 10 minutes. Sip. A small, manageable ritual. I hope when the bag runs out, I will begin scooping from my own glass jar. I also hope I like how it tastes.
So far I have purchased the seeds, planted and grown the flowers. Today, I harvested my first round of chamomile and calendula flowers to dry. Researching how to dry flowers has told me basic steps:
Collect the flowers in the morning, harvesting the flowers when the petals are all open.
Lay them flat on paper or mesh to dry - someplace warm, dark, with good airflow.
You can also dry them in your oven on extremely low, with the oven door cracked.
Do not place them in the sun to dry (it will steal the color and the oils).
Here is what I am not finding a clear answer to though - bugs! I dislike bugs. Most articles say nothing of them. Some articles at least say, “pick off any bugs,” but still there is a disconnect here. Calendula is also regularly praised as a sacrificial flower in the organic vegetable garden. A prize companion plant. What does this mean? It means aphids L- O-V-E them. Many of mine are covered in aphids. Green aphids. What I hope are black aphids. So many aphids.
I have spent the past week trying to decide what to do with these bugs before harvesting and drying my calendula. Strangely, when I went to collect them today, I didn’t spot ANY bugs on my calendula. This could be that the good bugs finally found the party and ate them up like organic gardeners say they will. I’m not sure. But I wasn’t willing to risk it. I took all my calendula and I drowned them in water, rinsed them around, and then spun them in a salad spinner. Then I set them out in single layers in several metal mesh strainers and hung them out on my front porch where it stays shady and warm all day. I’m not sure if that will be better or worse, but I didn’t want to be bringing in countless little bugs and leaving them in my kitchen to crawl off in all directions. I may have lost the oils though in the bath?
I’m considering the oven tonight.. I have a natural gas oven, which apparently the pilot light is enough heat if you just set them in there, in a single row on cookie sheets. I like the romantic idea of leaving them to air dry in my kitchen best… but as I spend much of my life in this space between the romantic ideal and the reality of being a bug-paranoid human, I just might settle for the cookie sheets.
My “how do you dry flowers and herbs” rabbit hole today led me to these good sites, articles and sources:
University of California Master Gardener Program of Sonoma County
Building a Habitat Garden: Part II
“Other books I consult over and over are: Deer in My Garden Volume 1 by Carolyn Singer, Plants and Landscapes for Summer-Dry Climates of the San Francisco Bay Region from the East Bay Municipal Utility District, Bringing Nature Home by Douglas W. Tallamy, and Attracting Butterflies and Hummingbirds to Your Backyard, by Sally Roth.”