26 September 2020 - Blackberry Leaf Tea | The Everyday Lore Project

I’m not sure I’d recommend this one. Six weeks ago on St Lhuany’s Day, I picked a load of blackberries and their leaves, washed them, stuffed the blackberries into my mouth, and stuffed the leaves into a jar and left them on my car dashboard. And today I drank tea made from the leaves.

Previously on The Everyday Lore Project.

Apparently, the whole dashboard trick was to ferment them. I don’t really know what that means unless we’re talking sauerkraut, but when I finally managed to get the jar open with my old lady lid-gripper, the smell was thick and sweet like blackberry jam. The next step was to dry them out in the oven. Some of the leaves were quite moist and even after an hour on a low heat, remained rubbery. The dried crackly ones, I put through a sieve until they became tea leaf-like. The kitchen smelled a bit like a baked potato on the turn.

I don’t have a strainer, and didn’t fancy knocking back a mug of bits, so I put a heaped teaspoon in a mini cafetière and waited for five minutes.

Blackberry leaf tea amongst other things, is supposed to be good for diarrhoea, rashes, periods, mouth ulcers, wounds and boosting immunity due containing lots of vitamin C. None of which I’m in immediate need of, except maybe some souped up immunity. I mean, there is a pandemic going on.

All the sources said the leaves would taste sharp and recommended adding honey, but I thought the tea was rather mellow. It tasted like the jam smell and very full bodied. But I just couldn’t shake the feeling that I hadn’t done something right. After all it’s been in my crappy car for six weeks sweating on the dashboard. So I didn’t drink a lot of it. Not least because it looked like pond water in the cafetière.

So now the not-so-innocent-looking remains are in a ziplock bag stashed next to the kettle. If I survive the night, I might have another mug for breakfast. Or not.

As for the stars, it’s super cloudy out just now. But it’s also very windy, so I’m hoping the sky will clear up later on for the count. If not, I’ll have to start again tomorrow. UPDATE: 7 out the back.