"Neighborhood meeting and more on "Local" "Tea" and July gardening here in the desert.

[Catherine, The Herb Lady]

Dear Folks,

If you want to meet like-mind folks interested in sustainability,
local and all the 'green' ideas I talk about, there is a meeting
tomorrow morning in the area of Rural Road and Elliott.

Here is a little bit about what organizer Nayeema S. has provided:

"A group of East Valley residents are getting together on Wednesday,
July 6, 9:30 am at Bunna Coffee (NW corner of Rural and Elliot) to
talk about ways to get a transition group started in our
neighborhoods. Whether you are into gardening, composting, biking,
canning, homeschooling or organizing community events, you are already
practicing transition. Please join the conversation and contribute
your ideas on how to get transition started in the East Valley.

What is 'Transition Towns'?

'Transition' is a community based approach to become 'resilient' -
self sufficient and interdependent, creative and celebratory,
ecologically mindful and socially interconnected. Due to
globalization, we are at the end of long supply chains for basic
products, goods and services. At the same time we are disconnected
from each other, and our economy is dependent on non-renewable fuels
that degrade natural systems and deplete resources. Our communities
are not resilient in the face of peak oil, climate change and economic
turmoil.

Transition movement is a process for planned, immediate and voluntary
energy descent by neighborhoods, towns and/or cities, envisioning the
resulting future as positive and better. It's a social experiment on a
grand scale, with 350+ official initiatives worldwide, including 90+
in the US. List of official transition initiatives in US -
http://transitionus.org/initiatives-map"

Bunna Coffee (independent and locally own coffee shop)
7520 South Rural Road
Tempe, AZ 85283-4652
(480) 377-2886

. . .

GARDENING - As Local As You Can Make!

We just celebrated "America's Birthday" and one of the subjects that
is frequently discussed, is the history of our country, "Tea" and of
course the sacrifices citizens and soldiers made to give us our
country.

Always support our troops regardless of your political feelings.

Now on to TEA.

Susan Wittig-Albert is one of my favorite fiction authors and while
her work is fiction, her knowledge is not - she is an enthusiastic
gardener and user of herbs.

Her newsletter yesterday had a great piece on "Labrador Tea" - the
"tea" patriots encouraged citizens to use before and leading up to our
Revolution.

http://www.abouthyme.com/dayletters/feature_110704.html

Tea became a symbol of the cause, as you may recall from your history
classes. If the colonists were addicted to tea because it was
something they were accustomed to and brought with them to America,
the powers-that-were in Europe made it a political means to control of
the ever-restless colonists.

Read up on the main plant for which Labrador Teas named

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhododendron_groenlandicum

So, this "local" plant and other ingredients were used to 1) keep
costs down for a beverage enjoyed by most colonists, and 2) gave rise
to the symbolic Boston Tea Party episode. It is generally believed
that Bee Balm was one of the herbs used to make the "Tea" of the tea
party episode in 1773.

For a very interesting read on Tea as a beverage and a political tool,
be sure to read "The History of the World in Six Glasses" - a
wonderful, informative, and readable work by Tom Standage

In Susan's short piece, she names several herbs used to make tea by
the colonists - mostly taught to them by one of several Indian tribes.

The Labrador plant is native to the upper mid-west-northwest third
part of America into Canada, and included New Jersey and above and
Pennsylvania to the west into Ohio. Because it is a water (bog) plant
it would not do well in Arizona except inside the colder, running
creek areas of northern Arizona.

One or more species of bee balm is native to the upper areas of
Arizona and can grow well here in the valley with a bit of afternoon
shade. My bee balm variety "Oregano de la Sierra" comes up every
winter, it just finished blooming and generally dies back some by the
end of the summer.

A Tea Garden:

I have tried and will try again to grow Camilla Senisis (the true tea
plant) because I want to, but the truth is we have some wonderful
herbs which grow well here in the desert garden and provide lots of
flavor options to use with or without white, green or black Tea. Be
sure to note Susan's recipe for making your own her tea.

Tea, Beverage and Liquor herb gardens are not new by any means. The
gardens of Monks in centuries past were the source of not only food,
but medicinal plant remedies, often the only access to medicine in a
village. Along the way, Monks created some of the liqueurs still
popular today like Benedictine. They were created originally to keep
the 'medicine' pure and safe for long periods by creating alcohol, but
obviously became as popular for the 'feel-good' aspect.

Since water and its purity were issues of long standing, finding ways
to keep the liquid from causing disease and also to make it taste
better, steeping, brewing, boiling and fermenting water with other
things became popular as far back as the stone-age time of the first
beer creation. Standage traces more of that in his book.

What's growing in your garden, or that you would like to grow, to make
your own "Tea Garden" Recipe. And don't forget about adding fruits
from your garden to teas to give them another layer of flavor. Some
of the 'savory' herbs make nice additions in combination with other
flavors, such as basil, thyme and sage.

. . .

READY, SET, PLANT! Seeds

Despite the fact that we just had a doozy of a heat spell, if you want
a fall garden you need to get ready now. As early as July 15th you
would be seeding in pumpkins, other winter squash and getting ready to
seed in August 1st and thereafter for all the fall crops of cabbage,
kale, cool weather herbs like dill and cilantro, root vegetables,
winter flowers like violets, pansies, nasturtiums (nick the seeds of
nasturtiums to enhance germination and be sure to cover them - they
germinate in the dark), bee balm, borage, sweet alyssum and stock.

And don't forget herbs in the grill, as part of the marinade, dusted
food, for smoking, and of course added to your favorite potato and
other cold salads.

Have a great week, stay hydrated with herb-infused water (Spearmint
and lemon verbena - or lemon balm (also used by the colonists - are
great together with a piece of stevia).

Catherine
The Herb Lady

http://stores.lulu.com/herbs2u