Exotic Plants: Grow your own tea!

So I was sitting at work in our canteen on break one evening with some colleagues, drinking the tea I always bring (whole-leaf green tea), and a friend who knew I had a balcony garden asked if my tea came from my balcony too! I at first chuckled, but after digging around on the internet some, I came to the conclusion: WHY THE HECK NOT?!

What I hadn't realized before was that green, white, oolong, and black teas all come from the same plant, that being the Camellia Sinensis! Who would have though! Wow! There are 2 varieties, the var. sinensis and var. assamica, one being broad-leaved and one narrow-leaved. What makes the different kinds/flavors of tea is how the leaves themselves are processed, basically the conditions and amount of time under which the leaves are dried and oxidized. Of course the region on which the plants are grown affects the flavor as well!

my Camellia Sinensis var. sinensis, about 1 foot tall

So after realizing how cool that would be to grow my own tea, I did some snooping around and found a company that ships tea plants. Wasn't sure how that was going to work out, but I figured it was worth a shot - was around 7€ ($10). It came all wrapped up with foliated cardboard and in a big box. All was well!

It's been several months now since it arrived, and it is still doing well! It's gotta lots of new leaves, too. I guess at some point I'm going to have to prune it back - fully grown it can get up to 3 yards tall, too high for my apartment!

some new leaves!

For now I'm keeping it indoors on the windowsill facing my balcony (southwest), which is fairly warm and dry, which it seems to like.

Of course I'm super anxious to make some tea, but I think I'd better just be patient and wait until the plant gets bigger :-)

leaf close-up

In the meantime, The Fragrant Leaf is a nice website that I found on the history of tea, how to best brew tea, tea customs and cultures, types of tea, etc.

At the International Garden Show, which I recently attended, I also bought some tea seeds! They're pretty big, look kinda like a hazelnut. Can't wait to see if I can get them to germinate and prosper as well! 

"Organic-Box" thanks to CSA

Example of one week's goodies, organic, 10€!

Although it's bitter cold outside and am itching for the time when I can finally start my seeds indoors, I think I have found a way to keep my gardening head high for now - with my Biokiste!

Biokiste is something I heard about from some colleagues here and thought sounded like a great idea - and it is! For those who don't know, the idea is that you can order a subscription from a local (!!!) farmer of vegetables, fruits, and other organic products, and you get a them delivered to your door either on a weekly or bi-weekly basis in a nice green box - thus the name "Biokiste", literally meaning "organic crate".

In the box pictured at the left that I received one week this fall, got a huge head of lettuce, plums, apples, tomatoes, brussel sprouts, and green beans, yum!

And there is a similar system in the States too, available in all regions! It's called CSA, or Community Supported Agriculture. To find or join a CSA near you, visit Local Harvest or Just Food - you can do a search by for example Zip Code, find the one nearest you, and see their specific offer. For my German readers, CSA is also offered in many cities by various companies around Germany - I use Biokiste (also the company name), specifically the "Regional Vegetable and Fruit Box", but I'd recommend just doing a Google search for "biokiste + your city" to find one nearby.

Besides the fact that they deliver directly to your door (and do all the other customers in your area on the  same day) and the obvious fact that you get fresh, locally-grown produce by farmers from your region, there are lots of things that I absolutely love about CSA:

1. Again, regionally-grown vegetables! I've even chosen the box with only regional produce...Biokiste offers the option of more diverse boxes with organic produce from around the world, but I wanted to go totally local.Good for the environment, and local, like I think is best to eat.
2. Since they're locally-grown, the vitamin content is high because the vegetables aren't prematurely harvested due to ensure that they don't go bad on long transits. Plus they are suited to the climate in which they are grown, which is just more as nature intended.
3. Because of this, they taste absolutely wonderful! NOTHING like from the grocery store!
4. It's a way to get your veggies - and you'll want to since they actually taste like something
5. You get to experience new varieties - can't tell you how many new varieties and types of vegetables I've gotten to experience so far (and it's only been about 5 months in so far!) - even stuff you can't get at the store! I've also gotten things that I have of course seen before, but wouldn't have bought, so my eyes have been opened :)
6. My Biokiste includes a few recipes on the back of the bill, which is nice in case you're not sure what to do with the new vegetables.
7. And best of all....it's not expensive, especially considering that it is organic produce! I get about 10lbs of fruits and vegetables each week for 10€ - unbelievable and unbeatable.
8. Not to mention they offer a great service - a nice mixture of produce every week (not just cabbage all winter), and if you don't want something one week or do want something in particular, they will honor your wishes if at all possible! So if you get sick of something or just plain don't like it, you can request something else to replace it!
9. ...and it's all supporting farmers from around the area!

So for me it's a win-win situation - fresh, awesome veggies delivered to my door, AND I get the feeling of having homegrown produce until I can actually grow some myself! And in the meantime I can enjoy lovely organic, homemade squash soup to keep me warm in the frigid cold!

Barely Alive

As a follow-up to the last post, of indoor plants that are doing well right now in my apartment, unfortunately the edible ones are not doing that great at al!

My chili pepper, is on its way out (pictured here left) - I had started it indoors last spring, taken it out on the balcony to flower and fruit last summer (picture below from the same plant outside on the balcony), and brought it in late this fall, at which point the fruits ripened and were delicious.

My favorite way to enjoy a chili that I grew myself is to make a spicy butter Parmesan cheese sauce for pasta -basically just melt some butter in a pan, then add the chopped chili, allowing it to sizzle in the pan for a minute (longer and the yummy flavor is not preserved), then adding some grated Parmesan cheese to it right before pouring over your pasta - you could even add some garlic (either freshly-pressed, slightly fried in the butter, or a little garlic powder) if you want!


Unfortunately at some point I think the heat from the heater underneath the window sill was too much - it seems to have some sort of spider mite and can't seem to get get over its droopy and browning leaves. Not sure how to rescue it! Even if I can't, I will soon be able to start the next generation indoors!

I also have another potted experiment which was...well, at least an experiment for now! I had gotten some mini eggplant seeds last spring, and wanted to keep an eggplant on my window sill as well.

The grown plant is supposedly suited just for a balcony or window sill, so I thought it would do better than it did - but here is how it looks today:

Haha, I know, VERY sad. Not only did it go through a major aphid epidemic a few months ago (which I was able to pretty much get rid of by wiping the entire plant with soapy water), but it now seem to not like living on the dry heater.

I was about to give up on it, but after watering it a few times anyway (they say here in Germany "hope is the last thing to die"), and then letting the soil get really dry, it re-sprouted some leaves (arrow is pointing at one) - gotta love those cute furry thick leaves! I guess it isn't ready to go just yet!

Getting it to fruit has proven to be a whole other issue....it actually produced two small eggplants (about golf ball size) earlier this summer, but despite multiple hand-pollination when there are flowers, I haven't been able to get it to do anything much since then.

Guess it's sort of a project for now!


And so it can also enjoy its glory days on this post, here is a pic of what this plant looked like in July on my window sill (pic right):

Here's to new starts coming up soon for the season....and hanging on to hope for the what you still have!

Here are some tips to start off with for growing this "finicky crop", which I will also take into consideration:
http://www.finegardening.com/how-to/articles/how-to-grow-eggplant.aspx

Rosemary Parsley Pesto

As you can see, Winter is back and my outdoor balcony herbs are not looking great! Winter was already here for a while before Christmas, and then subsided for about week, during which we got above freezing temperatures and my parsley tried to grow back, only to get covered in snow once again!

Since it and my rosemary were still looking pretty good around Christmas, I decided to harvest them and make something so they didn't freeze, die, and in essence, go to waste....but how could I store them? 

Wasn't really interested in drying them, since I like the fresh taste so much better, so after googling for a while, I came upon this recipe at food.com, which uses both the rosemary and the parsley - and it is so yummy!

Rosemary Pesto

Ingredients:

1/3 cup fresh rosemary
1 1/2 cups fresh parsley, rough chopped
2 garlic cloves
1/2 cup parmesan cheese, freshly grated
1/2 cup walnuts (or favorite nut variety)
1/2 cup olive oil
salt and pepper

Directions:

1) Thoroughly wash fresh herbs and pat dry. Strip rosemary from stalk and chop.
2) Combine rosemary, parsley, garlic, cheese, nuts and oil into food processor and blend well.
3) Season to taste. Yield: 1.5 cups.

Read more at: http://www.food.com/recipe/rosemary-pesto-307438?oc=linkback

I used walnuts like they suggested, and the mild nutty flavor was wonderful! I also used kitchen sheers to cut the herbs, and used a hand blender to mix the ingredients since I don't have a food processor, which still worked pretty well. Don't forget to store in the refrigerator. You can see my result next to the recipe above!

Not bad for my first pesto! Great on meat or fish due to the stronger flavor (of the rosemary) compared to a normal basil pesto.

And now my herbs have also been put to good and found a way to survive (at least part of the) winter!

I'd recommend making pesto using a number of different herbs...what's your favorite way to preserve your home-grown herbs?