Teas now available from Homestead Herbals

Our herbal teas for 2013 are now ready!  For now we have five varieties, including a new delicious Immune Boosting Herbal Chai just in time for winter cold and flu season!  We love these teas, and have tried to create blends that can suit a variety of needs - there is

• After Dinner Tea which is a relaxing digestive blend; 
• Women's Vitality Blend which is rich in iron, calcium and hormone regulating herbs; 
• Sweet Dreams which promotes rest and relaxation; 
• Winter Flu Fighter which has herbs to ward off coughs and colds; and the 
• Immune Chai blend which is a sweet spiced rooibos & immune herb blend

The herbs we use are grown using sustainable methods in our own gardens, ethically wild-harvested, or purchased for certified organic sources.  The teas will be available during our Dec 7 Handmade Holiday sale, through our online shop, and also by pre-order online from Bailey's Local Foods here in town.  Here are some photos of tea herbs as they were growing this year, and the finished product.   What a sweet reminder for summer in our garden when we sip these teas.

Calendula in blossom

Fennel and echinacea in flower

Hops on arbour

Sage in flower

Calendula drying

After Dinner Tea

Immune Boosting Herbal Chai Tea

Sweet Dreams Tea

Winter Flu Fighter Tea

Women's Vitality Blend

Calcium rich tea for kids!

Tea parties have become a daily event at our house - and we have special tea cups, tea pots and spoons that little hands can use, served picnic style on a quilt right on the floor, or at a low wooden table for two.  A nice ritual.  We have made up several special "kids" blends using herbs we dried from our gardens, including a sleepy tea (with lavender, chamomile, lemon balm) and a calcium-rich tea that we sweeten with a little honey, store in a glass mason jar, and serve as a cold drink later in the day.  Any tea can be made into a "juice", and berry or fruit teas are especially nice.  The calcium tea has become a favourite around here.  This is what it includes: chamomile, rosehips, rose petals, red raspberry leaf, oatstraw, lemon balm, lemongrass.

Herb Share 2007

Fall is a busy time here at the homestead. We are harvesting the last garden produce; canning, preserving, pickling & drying foods; planting greens for the winter (in our greenhouse and raised bed coldframes); planning the garden for next season; gathering black walnuts; making apple cider; and (new for this year) preparing herb shares for our members.

Many of us already know all the benefits of eating/supporting local food. Now, we hope to have our community consider supporting locally produced natural medicine. The herb shares are a new project of a little natural herbal business "Homestead Herbals" that has grown out of my passion for natural healing, working with medicinal plants, and sharing this with the broader community.

Herb shares are similar to the concept of a CSA vegetable share - members purchase a share in the spring, and receive their harvest in the fall. Herb shares can take many directions (e.g. women's health; children's herbs; herbal first aid kit; chef's blend; aprodesiac). For this year our herb share is focussed on general health & well-being for the whole family and so include several teas, an all-purpose healing salve, a sage cough syrup, migraine oil, and an immune-boosting echinacea tincture.

All herbs for the shares are grown organically in our gardens, harvested at their peak, and created into natural health products with care. We have 12 share members this year, and are very happy to have such great support in this first year! Herb shares will be ready and shipped off or delivered locally by the end of this month.