August 10, 2024

Cool Sun Tea

August 10, 2024/ Bluebird Gardens/ Charlotte Ekker Wiggins

Sun Tea

Do you remember making sun tea in the 1970s? It was a very popular drink back then. Suppliers offered large gallon glass jugs with spigots built in so the tea could be enjoyed straight out of the glass container. Some of the concoctions were even offered through Trader Vic’s, a series of restaurants and tiki bars that dotted the US countryside.

I never bought one of those large glass jugs, we just made the sun tea in large glass containers. After all, the important part was being able to place the container in the sun where someone would not knock it over.

This year I am making green tea in the sun in a good sized jar that fits nicely in a window.

A plain jar with a lid works well for making sun tea. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Now how many tea bags to add depends on how strong you like your tea. I prefer mine more light than dark so I started with two bags per jar.

Since I also have a nice supply of apple mint growing, I collected some I am keeping in a flower vase until I’m ready to add it to the tea.

This batch of green tea will get apple mint added. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Sun tea has a different taste than a tea made out of hot water. I also tend to think it’s a smoother-tasting tea.

If you prefer your tea sweeter, add sugar or honey when you are getting ready to store it in the refrigerator.

Here’s to summer!

For more gardening, beekeeping, cooking and easy home decor tips, subscribe to Garden Notes.

Charlotte

July 24, 2021

Homemade Sun Tea

July 24, 2021/ Bluebird Gardens/ Charlotte Ekker Wiggins

My little half a gallon jug steeping green tea bags for sun tea. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Homemade Sun Tea

If you’ve never made sun tea, this is the summer you should try it. It is not only easy to make but a nice refreshing change to ice tea made out of tea bags steeped in hot water.

When it comes to making tea, it doesn’t matter if the water is hot or cold. Hot water steeps the tea; cold water makes it an infusion. Either way, wet tea brings out the flavor.

What makes sun tea different, in my book, is that it is slow steeped, bringing out the tea flavor.

A friend of mine who had not tried sun tea was telling me it takes too long so she prefers to steep her tea in hot water. Hot water does release tea flavor quickly but I can get a similar reaction letting the sun heat up my tea water and I’m not heating up my kitchen in the middle of a record hot summer.

Homemade Sun Tea Recipe

You Will Need:

Glass container with a lid (gallon or half-gallon)

Tea bags or loose tea with a tea infuser to taste

Fresh honey

Mint springs or lemon slices (optional)

My tea making glass jar and three tea bags just placed in the sun to steep. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

To Make:

I like my tea on the lighter side so I use 3-4 green tea bags per half-gallon. You may need to try a few combinations to find your tea strength preference.

You can mix tea bags, too, it’s a great opportunity to clean out your random stash of tea bags and try different combinations. A green tea with a fruity tea would be a nice first choice to try.

I fill my glass container with cold water, then add the tea bags with the tags hanging over the side. Cover.

Place the glass jar in a south-facing window away from traffic and curious little hands and paws.

Now the magic.

Depending on how strong you like your tea, it can be ready in an hour or steep for a day, it’s up to your personal preference on strength and color.

Once it’s the tea strength you want, add honey to sweeten if you like a sweeter tea. I add a teaspoon per 16 oz. glass or drink as is so adjust the sweetness to your taste.

Fresh spearmint spring straight out of my garden. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Pour over ice cubes.

Serve with a slice of lemon or a sprig of fresh spearmint straight out of your garden.

If you enjoy making drinks, pick up our reprinted 1946 vintage Trader Vic’s Food and Drink book. Bet you will find some interesting drink recipes there, too!

Charlotte

May 15, 2021

Creeping Charlie Tea

May 15, 2021/ Bluebird Gardens/ Charlotte Ekker Wiggins

Creeping Charlie makes a tea high in Vitamin C with a light mint taste. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Creeping Charlie Tea

Creeping Charlie (Glechoma hederacea) is a mint that can provide spring nectar to pollinators including bees. It’s also often considered an invasive weed because it can easily take over an area, which to me is a bonus. Gardening on a Missouri limestone hillside means I need help, and if a plant can retain soil, provide food for bees and be beneficial for me, it’s a win all around.

Creeping Charlie, also called Ground Ivy, growing in my north apiary. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Besides a spring nectar source for bees, Creeping Charlie is high in Vitamin C. As a mint, it can be made into a tea. The leaves can also be consumed in a salad; it has a spinach-like flavor.

Creeping Charlie from my garden ready for salads and tea. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

European settlers intentionally brought Creeping Charlie to North America. Along with some of its other “weedy” predecessors like dandelions. Creeping Charlie used to be valued for its culinary and medicinal uses, primarily as a tonic. High in Vitamin C, it was often made into a tea to prevent scurvy.

All parts of the plant can be used; it was often made into a tea, tincture and poultice.

How to Make Creeping Charlie Tea

Because this mint plant runs so rampant, one way to embrace and use Creeping Charlie is to make it into a tea. It has a pleasantly subtle mint-like flavor.

Before you start, make sure you are collecting plants from an area that hasn’t been treated by chemicals.

A quart jar repeatedly infused with hot water makes 3-4 servings of Creeping Charlie tea. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Pick enough plant material to loosely fill a quart jar.

Thoroughly wash the Creeping Charlie.
Place the plant material in a quart jar.
Fill to top with boiling water.
Cover jar and steep for one hour.
Remove plant material and drink either hot or cold or pour tea into a separate container and refill with hot water to steep again.
Add a teaspoon of honey. You can also add lemon or lime slices with a sprig of fresh mint.

There is a lengthy list of medicinal claims for this tea according to the Lamb Shoppe Wellness Center, Since I”m not a medical professional I will leave those claims and assertions to someone else.

Charlotte

August 30, 2020

Versatile Glass Charms

August 30, 2020/ Bluebird Gardens/ Charlotte Ekker Wiggins

These wine glass cat charms make great additions to punch cups.

Versatile Glass Charms

It was time to give my little collection of glass charms a good workout!

The first time I rolled out my glass charm collection, it was a holiday neighborhood drop-in, kept simple and informal so we could spend time with each other and celebrate the Christmas season. As part of the event, I made a Christmas punch and dusted off my little glass punch glasses.

Glass charms are an easy way to keep track of one’s glass. Having run out of glasses during drop ins in the past, I thought the charms might keep me from breaking out the paper ones.

For those who might enjoy a glass of wine, I also had a few wine glasses ready, all dressed in their little cat glass charms so people wouldn't loose their glasses.

The glass cat charms ended up on the punch bowl glass handles, all 20 of the little glass cats busily keeping glasses and drinkers connected through the four-hour party.

Now that we are all spending more time at home and sharing meals together, glass charms are a fun way to keep track of glasses and cut down on washing extra ones.

You can find glass charms at hobby stores and sometimes home decor sections of big box stores. I found my first set at a thrift store and kept an eye out for more. One of the sets I picked up at a hobby shop.

A friend of mine made herself a set of glass charms with key rings and favorite cartoon characters. These would make a great homemade holiday gift!

Charlotte

July 04, 2020

Sun Tea

July 04, 2020/ Bluebird Gardens/ Charlotte Ekker Wiggins

Sun Tea

This year I am making green tea in the sun in a good sized jar that fits nicely in a window.

Now how many tea bags to add depends on how strong you like your tea. I prefer mine more light than dark so I started with two bags per jar.

Since I also have a nice supply of apple mint growing, I collected some I am keeping in a flower vase until I’m ready to add it to the tea.

Sun tea has a different taste than a tea made out of hot water. I also tend to think it’s a smoother-tasting tea.

If you prefer your tea sweeter, add sugar or honey when you are getting ready to store it in the refrigerator.

Here’s to summer!

Charlotte

May 09, 2020

Portable Tea

May 09, 2020/ Bluebird Gardens/ Charlotte Ekker Wiggins

Portable Tea

A few years back a friend and I were talking about the challenges of having tea. Maybe because we both had stories of dropping teapots, or cups. Nevertheless, at one point she said she wished she could figure out a way to safely have a cup of tea.

I finally did repurposing items I already had around the house.

First, I like to carry my tea to a comfortable spot, maybe one of my chairs facing the garden. Or a quiet corner with a sofa and blanket I can curl up in with a book. This black wire basket without the handle works quite well as a tea tray. The sides are tall enough to prevent anything from tipping over and it’s small enough I can still easily move it around.

Secondly, I repurposed a red hot pad on the bottom. The hot pad helps to keep the teacup warm once it has tea in it.

I also found an old silver spoon with a flat end to stir the honey I sometimes add. Not that you have to have a special teaspoon but I find keeping this set together makes it much easier to have a cup of tea whenever I feel like having one. My back up are my Bluebird spoons.

I also keep a cloth napkin handy in the white cat ceramic napkin ring. Sometimes I throw another one in but at least this way I have one if I happen to forget to add one

A pot holder on the base keeps the tea in the bottom cup warm. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Finally, the teacup itself. The one I have is a clever combination of teapot and teacup that sits under the ceramic pot. I found this one brand new at a local thrift store. It’s very handy to be able to steep the teabag in the top portion, then pour the tea into the bottom cup.

Sort through your kitchen and see what you already have. You can use a tea ball to steep tea in a favorite cup. And find a lid to add to the top of a coffee cup to keep your team warm. Whatever it takes to make getting a break with a cup of tea easy to do.

Having a cup of tea is a very relaxing thing to do. By having your tea-making items handy, chances are you are going to enjoy this routine more open, Enjoy!

Charlotte

August 15, 2016

Watermelon Juice, a Toast to Rio

August 15, 2016/ Charlotte Ekker Wiggins

Watermelon Juice, an Ode to Rio

They were everywhere when I worked at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I suspect they are also keeping athletes and their families company during the 2016 Summer Olympics.

In 1992, I was the media advisor to the US Delegation to the United Nations’ conference, the first time all countries in the world had come together to try to agree on how to deal with our rapidly changing climate and related issues. It was a highly politically-charged environment. Soldiers lined the sidewalks to our hotel and conference center, and at one point I was wearing 18 access identification badges.

One of my favorite scenes from the Earth Summit in Rio, Amazon Indians seeing computers.

During our time off, a few of us visited some of the nearby fresh markets, especially on the weekend, and ran into vendors with carts loaded with watermelons. They would cut them up, juice, add ice and hand over a cold glass of summer.

I grew up some 180 kilometers north of Rio, on an island literally off the Atlantic Coast. I have very fond memories of monkeys in our backyard. now extinct; chasing lobsters at the beach across the street, and teaching parrots to sing. Don't be too impressed, it would have helped if I could have carried a tune myself.

Amidst those wonderful recollections are not ones of a love affair with watermelon juice. Not that it should be any surprise someone came up with a way to profit from this special treat, who hasn't had to change clothes after eating an especially-delicious piece of juicy watermelon?

I make my own juice but thought I would double-check recipes online in case I was missing some secret ingredient. Here’s the recipe I found on a Brazilian site:

How to Make Watermelon Juice

· Cut the watermelon into wedges and remove the flesh from the green skin.

· Cut it into small pieces, removing as many seeds as you can or better yet, buy a seedless watermelon to start.

· Put the watermelon chunks in the refrigerator until it is very cold.

· Blend the watermelon chunks to a liquid.

· You can either add sugar or honey to make it sweeter.

· Pass the juice through a not fine sieve into a pitcher.

· Add ice cubes and serve immediately.

Charlotte’s Way of Making Watermelon Juice

(you didn’t think I would follow a recipe, did you??)

One of the ways we used to test watermelons for ripeness was cutting a triangle in the side.

· Pick out a nicely-ripe seedless watermelon. Now I do remember how my parents would select a ripe watermelon. The vendor would cut a little triangle in the side so they could check the fruit ripeness. Those days are gone, I'm told farmer's markets rules today don't allow for open fruit.

· Place in refrigerator to cool.

Watermelon balls made with a melon baller come in handy as  a quick desert. — Watermelon balls made with a melon baller come in handy as a quick desert.

Cut in half. Using a melon baller, remove the inside of the watermelon with a melon baller and place watermelon balls in container. The nice thing about watermelon balls is that they are convenient to easily make watermelon juice. They can also be used for a quick desert or a refreshing treat on a hot summer day. Less mess, too!