Ivan tea (fermentation of fireweed leaves) - master class

Tasha ... this is a reason to think that such grass clings to your yard. As healers used to say that the medicine is growing at the doorstep. And try to gently pull out the root by the stem (combine, so to speak, pleasant with useful) and get rid of excess plants and try to eat the root.
The second time I took May tea, I came across sugar stalks, ate "cracking behind my ears", I had not seen this before. Yes! I came across one plant with a flat stem (as I wrote earlier, the girls asked to post a photo), and so there is a photo, but I'm old) I forgot how to insert it here (how to press the button). Sorry. I tasted the May one from May 18 ... "neither in a fairy tale, nor describe with a pen."

[Citizen]

Citizen, Garik, but mono fireweed does not suit me at all! no, everything is fine with the body, it takes! It seems to me too fragrant. Here, in the mixes with the garden ones, it turns out that!

[Radushka]

Radushka, but it seemed to me that it gets lost in the mixes ... I would love to do mono for a year in advance. From Togliatti Lyudmila Luna Nord passed a parcel with foliage, so it turned out so magical !!! It's fragrant, of course, but I also got a black taste as a bonus in it! Apparently fried well

[Yuri K]

Yuri K, Yuri K, so I like it in mixes that does not dominate! I love the aftertaste. When you have to guess what is delicious there?

[Radushka]

Radushka, Welcome! We have this stuff! ... Today I brought such a decent armful. Let the night drift, and tomorrow I'll pluck the leaves into the freezer.

[Tashenka]

Tashenka, Natalia., I don't even dream of an armful! I collect from what I grow (they sent the roots by a parcel) on a leaf. Last season, only 300g was collected for the entire time

We also climbed ivancha in the sun. I keep thinking whether I need young milk tea or not ... It smells honey, tastes sweet, the leaves are so delicate that the meat grinder itself turns away from them - infanticide. But such a light brew is already uncomfortable for me to drink - I love strong and dark. "Macho" mine is almost from such leaves.
Except for gifts ...

[Citizen]

Citizen, Garik, we have this grass "clings" to all the yards in the village. True, people look at me in such a way that they will start twisting that finger at the temple. It is generally accepted that the best tea is black with currant leaves, etc. When I tried to campaign for the preparation of tea 2 years ago, and not just dried leaves, they did not understand me. Thank you, at least they allowed me to pick up cherry, apple, and raspberry leaves (my bushes are so small that my conscience does not allow me to tear off the leaves from them).
The fireweed has such rhizomes that a break will only give the opportunity for the growth of new plants! But on my next trip I'll try this delicacy. Just educate how to taste it.



Tricia, Nastya, yesterday I read about "Macho". MK is wonderful, but I'm afraid that such beauty will not work for me ...

I wanted to ask on the topic of wild-growing, but maybe it’s more convenient here, I saw it somewhere, I don’t find how to dry flowers for tea (not only Ivan's tea, but others), I collected a little here, but it was raining heavily, while they dry out. And what flowers are generally used for decoration?

[Tashenka]

Tashenka, Natalia., The only difficulty in "Macho" is to knead with your hands. Now both wrists hurt me again, I can't even knead the dough, not like tea leaves ... This is the only obstacle, it seems to me, not to make such tea
But seriously, this is generally just ordinary loose leaf tea.Due to the fact that the leaves are young and tender, they turn into strings, twist themselves along the main vein of the leaf and therefore turn out to be such long springs.

kartinka, Marina, it is better not to take any raw materials for tea in the rain. Verified personally for more than one year of fees. The leaf is not just wet, it is watery and much inferior in taste to what was in the bright sun. So Ivan tea from sunny meadows is much tastier than that in humid ravines. Or in our ravines in Len. the area is some kind of special swampy land, which gives the leaf a not very pleasant taste.
Even during the rain, the layer of wild yeast is washed off, some believe that the presence of yeast is also an important condition for making tea.
And as for the delicate flowers, the more I would not dare to pick it in the rain, because the petals stick together, wrinkle ...
In any case, the color of ivan tea is harvested carefully, without seed pods, so that they do not fluff up later and spoil everything. Dried in the shade, on paper or special. perforated pallets, stirring regularly, it is better in the dryer at the lowest temperature.
Keep in mind that the stamens of willow tea are large and dry longer than the rest of the flower; it is better to keep the flowers on drying longer. Store in a tightly closed container in the dark.
I add dry leaves of sea rose, the flowers of willow tea, the color of hawthorn, mock-orange, pink clover, the color of lungwort, basil, sage, monarda, mint, conifer tops, buds of birch and currant, the color of linden and meadowsweet. Dry meadowsweet flowers generally smell awesome - honey, summer, sun, heat ... But I just add a drop of everything, just to shade the tea itself.
I know that the petals of cornflower, sunflower, marigolds (red, burgundy, yellow, orange. Although some do not like them for the brightness of their taste), peonies, etc. are used. Also berries of hawthorn, viburnum, mountain ash, goji berries, lemon grass will greatly decorate tea. But that's to your taste. The Chinese, won, add chrysanthemums, but I don't know which ones you can. Although, there is a salad chrysanthemum, maybe wait for its flowering in tea?

[Tricia]

Tricia, I here on occasion collected a crumbling peony, and some other flowers from the children on the site, near the house, they do not know what it is at all, me too (except for the peony), but about fireweed, I don’t know him at all yet, that's just I want to collect just waiting for it to bloom in pink - I'm afraid to confuse it while we drove around the region - the lupine is growing, it's visible, but there is nothing pink yet, so I asked incorrectly, I would like to define what I have collected ... otherwise, maybe she collected something that was not edible in the wild, she asked, but there is no one there yet ...
Can someone here help determine? I wanted to dry them and just add them to the tea for beauty. ..
This is something KushikoM was growing, blue and pinkish, like bells, but strange and blue arrows are kind of like a burdock cone, but the taakach is rather big and she has such blue petals-petals (I’m trying to describe this in Yunnati way)

And this is a peony and was like an onion - it tastes bitter, but the smell .... very pleasant - can you pluck it, or don't you put it in tea?


For the rest, I understood
Nothing else blooms with them, although there is nothing more, the apple-pear-cherry-flowers have already dried




They all write in the meadows, I'll google what it is, and where it grows

[kartinka]

kartinka, Marina, in the first photo it looks like an aquilegia or a catchment. I don't know if it's poisonous or not ...
Onions are definitely not needed in tea, then it will give a 100% onion flavor.

The meadowsweet has carved leaves and paniculate cream inflorescences.

[Tricia]

Tricia,: rose: yes I found aquilegia - this is what it is, poisonous, it turns out, I'll go throw it out with the onion, the peony remains

I'm not asking Lyudmil, p

And I never thought even once)))))

It seems to me too fragrant.

So we are the same. She wrote that her husband's head starts to ache from the strong smell. But I can't stop, I cook and sell for nothing, the main thing is that I like the process)))))

For several years, without turning, I did a simple chain of picking-withering-breaking off the leaves-unfolding into bags-freezing-defrosting-meat grinder-drying-drying. Now, having read the experienced tea-makers, I fell into a slight stupor. The leaves were frozen by simply spreading them into bags. But I read from someone that leaves wrapped in cloth are put in bags. It is fundamentally? Double freeze-thaw is understandable. Scroll twice. Is this also important? I want to move away from my stereotype, which is why I bother with questions.

It is fundamentally?

I don't freeze at all. I froze it a couple of times, the leaf is good, pliable, but still returned to simple withering. When I did not wrap it in a cloth, I just folded the leaves into the freezer. Maybe they are wrapped so that less dust spills out during defrosting? After all, tea-making is actually a "dirty" business.

Scrolled twice.

Scroll twice, I think, so that the granule is dense, does not crumble during drying. I noticed that granulated tea is stronger, rather, very strong. But I like to knead it with my hands according to the recipe of Nastya, Tricia, good, beautiful tea turns out (((Italian macho hair!

Ivan's tea season has begun.
Today is Trinity, but Ivan's tea does not tolerate delay, it is already ready for rolling, the leaf does not crunch along the central vein, such a dry, figuratively speaking, the arrows have moved from twelve "to half past five"

In fact, you can still wait two or three days with the collection, the tops break off when you hold them to collect the leaves, but right now the young leaves have the most tannin and tea can be of the highest quality.

I rolled the entire batch of Ivan tea on an ash roller. It turned out tangibly: two full, tamped bowls, in the evening it will be necessary to stop fermentation in the oven at 100 degrees for an hour, and then into the dryer at 50 degrees. It is also important not to overdry, otherwise it will be just hay, dust.

Now + 23 ° C outside, this is a good temperature for fermentation, almost ideal. Fermentation takes place at about 8 o'clock, I put everything in the gazebo at 13-30, which means it will be ready by nine in the evening. I think that by seven o'clock the temperature will drop below 20 degrees, so the last two hours I will finish the fermentation at the neighbors in the greenhouse, now there is + 35 - too high temperature.

The main thing here is not so much the time as the smell - it should reach maximum strength, floral-honey, pleasant smell of correctly fermented willow tea. At its core, it is a silage for the species Homo sapiens sapiens, neoanthropus.



He collected this batch as usual on his plantation in a young birch forest, a tender, light green leaf. Tomorrow I will go to the clearing under the power transmission line, there is a hillock and the sun, I need to see what kind of leaf is there.

At its core, it is a silage for the species Homo sapiens sapiens, neoanthropus.

[Tashenka]

Tashenka, Natalia.,

But I read from someone that leaves wrapped in cloth are put in bags. It is fundamentally?

Usually, the leaves of garden plants are frozen, since they are often dense and it is difficult for them to damage the leaf cells and squeeze out the juice necessary for fermentation.
And ivan tea is often frozen due to the lack of time for processing, since it is not necessary to prepare its leaves by freezing - they are already soft and wrinkle well. Someone freezes small batches, collecting gradually.
I freeze or just put the wilted willow-tea leaves in a sheet in the coldest part of the refrigerator, when I don't have time to twist them and put them to ferment, because I don't want to dry the leaves again from condensation, which will surely fall out during thawing. And why then wither, if they are damp again ... And the leaves frozen without drying cannot wither. So I always use fabric. For raw leaves won't give me the flavor I want in my tea.

Now young Ivan-tea has grown up, can you make tea from it? We usually did what was before flowering.

[Sashunesha]

Sashunesha, well, here's a colleague ussr-55 I posted a whole report with a photo about the collection of Ivan tea on Trinity!

[Sashunesha]

Sashuneshado.And from the young and from the very late, pre-autumn, you can say)) There are a lot of variations, I read about many - but it's rather exotic for me to try, this wonderful "weed" does not grow in my area

To whom is something bald a comb. We drove around the neighborhood again, looking for Ivan tea. Maybe someone will take a picture of a still young Ivan-tea before flowering, so that he knows exactly what to look for, otherwise, they only collected ticks on a small dog

Here

Here

VERY CAREFULLY it is necessary (((Strongly similar to Canadian Goldenrod (if I am not mistaken). Foliage from several plants will fall, and it is cinch and poisonous as Vyazemsky says, the whole batch is thrown away ... And if you mix up and make the whole batch of goldenrod .. It will be a pity for the spent forces.

[Yuri K]

Yuri K, so that's why it's scary! does not open for me, it does not recognize it. Is it Vyazemsky? We looked at it, we just need to see it very closely ...

[Natalo4-ka]

does not open for me, it does not recognize it.

Not quite understood, link Natalo4-ka does not open? There is not Vyazemsky, just the view of a young fireweed was filmed))

[Yuri K]

Yuri K, goldenrod differs in the arrangement of veins on the leaf most of all. Goldenrod has THREE well-visible LONGITUDINAL veins. The fireweed has many small ones, extending from the central at an angle close to 90 degrees

[Radushka]

Radushka, but agree, very similar. Here is a video about fireweed and goldenrod:

Well, here I have brought my report on May Ivanushka! Yesterday until three in the morning I was "roasting" my tea, because the first batch of the collected Ivan arrived at midnight. I deliberately under-fermented it, but the smell is quite strong, so it looks black-green, and when brewed it is green tea. And the leaves unfold also green. Very tasty, delicate aroma, and Ivanushka to taste))))

Made in the technique of Nastya Tricia. The hair of the Italian Macho))) Of course, my hands hurt a lot.
Today in the morning my husband and I went to the fields again, picked up two large packages, it’s hard to tell, either Ivanushka is running out, or really hasn’t come out yet.

For seven hours on the balcony I have wrinkled well and now I am turning it into macho hair.

Since it is very difficult to knead with your hands, and the volume of raw materials is quite large, I helped myself with a rolling pin
.
It turned out two large bowls with a strong smell, my cat sniffed them intensely and sat next to them.
I put one bowl in the refrigerator, I don't want to mess with tea anymore at night, I will finish fermenting tomorrow, and left the second one on the balcony until morning, if it starts to smell strongly, I will put it in the refrigerator. At night there is no option at all to "fry", even with the hood turned on. The spouse can't stand the smell of Ivanushka, and at night, when you sleep, you generally feel him stunned! And tomorrow he will leave for the flight and start.

[Luna Nord]

Luna Nord, Kisyun with the eyes of a drug addict is straight, it would not be covered - everything would be washed away

Kisyun with the eyes of a drug addict is straight,

So it was sharpening, only when everything was still in the leaves, ate and ate, now we are waiting for the milk to be given!)))))

So the sharpener, only when everything was still in the leaves, ate and ate, now we are waiting for the milk to be given!)))))

I love strong and dark.

In general, I am a greyhound, I put three tablespoons on the teapot, though in a glass-strainer Aliexpress, so there it is almost dry. The teapot in the teapot of a vigorous color turns out to be Like this, it fits very well into the teapot in height and volume, and is covered with a lid:

and I didn't even know that goldenrod is poisonous ... I propagate it along the fence - I really like how it blooms and acts as a hedge)))
my vanechka is still growing up. small) I will go in search of a neighboring region no earlier than mid-June

I didn't even know that goldenrod is poisonous

[Luna Nord]

Luna Nord, and even if it is poisonous, I would not refuse it in the country. very decorative!) And by the way, Ivan-tea and goldenrod are planted not far from each other. there is still meadowsweet between them.and considering how all three grow rhizomes ... in a few years I will have willow-goldenrod-meadow-meadow thickets along the fence, by the way, I look at the young shoots of goldenrod and fireweed. they are very different

-tavolga

Zhen, Tavolga is this ... Spirea?

[Luna Nord]

Luna Nord, they belong to the same family
for a very long time looking for her in the wild. I bought a seedling and planted it on the site. I decided - if I can't find it, then I'll grow it. as with Vanka

[Luna Nord]

Luna Nordwhat a cute little girl !!!! Korolevishna. ) Immediately you can see -2in1 and- smart and beautiful. And what photogenicity!



Yuri K, but it does not open, but we looked at Vyazemsky, he speaks very generally.
Yesterday they found only this - I picked it off on purpose - it looks like it is not Fireweed, his top is formed by a broom of leaves. The leaf itself is elongated; it grows consistently unpaired on the trunk.
The leaf itself has a central vein, and starting from 2/3 of the leaf, about 45 * lateral veins on the sides. These lived at the very bottom of the leaf - from the point of attachment to the trunk, the edge of the leaf - the lower half - even-top-toothed, the distance between the tops is from 0.5 to 1.5 cm.
The stem is soft, dense, green

Maybe this is goldenrod? Is this poisonous? Grows in the company of lupine, horsetail, night blindness and raspberries. It costs itself exactly. There are whole thickets. ..



Radushka, in Cypriot as N2 N1 is what we ripped off

in general, what is ripped off is growing everywhere.
And one more question about raspberries - is it better to simmer or harden?

Found yesterday just this

This is not Cyprus! In Vanka, the trunk is often reddish, especially at the bottom, the leaves are different, longer. And the aroma is immediately pleasant when you break it. I do not tear, I hold the top of the head and run my hand down the trunk, the leaves remain in my hand.

[Linadoc]

Linadoc, I have Ivan-tea growing, which is brought / sent from three different places. And they all three differ in some way. But, I saw their flowers. This is all Ivan-tea. By the way, rhizomes were planted from one bush in different places. Part in the city along the fence. Trunks from spring to autumn are GREEN. And those that grow on a tin in the village are RED. BUT, they are taken from the same plant !.

And my Ivan tea grows right in the country, on the site of the former chicken coop. I already dried half of the pillowcase, and did not ferment. I read that it is active in milk in May, like sprouts. And she blanched fresh for 1 minute and fried with asparagus in butter. It turned out very tasty and crispy.

Here is my treasure.

Irina, thanks for the method of frying fireweed. It would be nice to have a separate recipe, otherwise it will get lost, like your way of making tea.

Such flat stems sometimes come across. I saw a lot near Valdai on a clearing of power lines. What is this anomaly?

[Citizen]

Citizen, Garik, they themselves noticed ... "Power line clearing"
here is the answer. I don't think that due to this mutation, fireweed has become less useful, or less tasty.

and in my dacha Vanya is going to bloom very unexpectedly! baby after all)

[sweet_blondy]

sweet_blondy, Evgeniya, mine does not grow higher than 40-50 cm. The steppe is a steppe ... Grass up to the waist can be found only in a floodplain meadow. And then ... not every year

and today in the morning they threw leaflets from the dacha to me, although instead of a van they picked two types of some kind of smelly
such:
and such:
well, a little vanechka, for a change

Gradually finished with the spring Ivanushka. cooked 957 grams, a lot, the pillowcase is almost full))), although the pillowcase is small.

And put to dry in an already preheated oven?

[Citizen]

to sew to put in an already heated perfume

Marina, I set it to 90-100 degrees and after five to seven minutes I put the tea to dry with the door ajar. But in principle, I think there is no difference in which oven to put.



Citizen, Garik, what a noble Ivanushka, would tear and tear)))) Here are the grabbing hands)))