Tea Time

My sweet friend, Eliz Guyer, owner of Laughing Tree Cafe and Laughing Tree Teas invited me to the cafe to blend a special spring tea.










Eliz's got a million different flavors to choose from.

Eliz suggested we brew up a spring time detox tea. "Let's use Nettles and dandelions,' she said.  

Laughing Tree Tea, Fruit Tea

Ummm weeds, I ask? "These are so nutritious! They have nutrients you don't get during the winter. It's a way to get the nutrition of spring," Eliz tells me with her customary laugh at the silliness of life and in this case, me.

Turns out stinging nettle tea is good for allergy relief and is good for your skin, bones and urinary health. Dandelions reportedly help detox the body.  While you can grow both of these in the Cedar Valley, Eliz depends on an organic, fair trade supplier to supplement her 2 acre herb patch.

First she put a teaspoon of the nettles in one cup and a teaspoon of dandelions in another cup.

Eliz adds about 6 ounces of hot water and let's the dried leaves steep for about 7 minutes.  

We smell our steaming cups. Eliz says the nettles cup has a "grassy smell" and the dandelion cup smells like spring. Next we taste each of the teas to get the flavor profile.  I'm no help, the teas taste pleasant, if a little one dimensional.  Eliz, with an educated palate pronounces the teas complimentary.  We both agree they need some zip.

So she pulls out a bag of dried lemon peel from her cupboard of flavors.

Now we repeat the hot water, brew, wait, smell and taste.

Ah, now that's lovely. I can definitely taste spring. But still just a wee bit flat, we agree.

Now Eliz pulls out the big guns....Stevia.  At first I think she means the stuff in little packets.  But she's talking about a dried version of the plant.

She adds a half a teaspoon to our mixture. We brew, wait, smell and taste.  At first I'm in love.  Eliz however wrinkles her nose. "Too sweet," she says.

 "No, wait! I love it," I beg.  

Laughing Tree Tea's official Tea Log

"Take another sip," Eliz says.  When I do and then another, I agree too sweet.  "You have to be careful with the Stevia. It doesn't take very much. A lot of people don't like the annise after-taste of the Stevia sweetners, but you don't get that with the plants. This is natural, it doesn't have the after taste," she says.

After each blending session, Eliz records the combinations so that she can replicate them

So back we go to the mixing pot.  Eliz mixes one part Nettles,one part dandelion, one part lemon peel and just a pinch of stevia. Hot water, wait, sniff, taste.....ah perfection!

Laughing Tree Tea's newest tea Clari-Tea is crafted. 

Everytime I drink one of Laughing Tree Teas now I'll think of how Eliz thinks about her work "I joyfully hand blend loose leaf teas to enhance life's everyday moments."

You can find Laughing Tree Teas at the Laughing Tree Cafe in the Waterloo Center for the Arts, 225 Commercial Street, Waterloo, or The Markit in Grundy Center or brewed daily at Cottonwood Canyon in Waterloo or Cedar Falls

Eliz does custom blends for customers to address health issues or because they have favorite flavor combinations.  Call her to order your custom blend at 319. 610. 7252 or email Eliz at eliz.guyer@gmail.com.  

As we settled into the cafe's beautiful chairs to sip our tea, 
looking out over the beautiful Cedar River, I asked Eliz why 
she does what she does.

Each of us has an inner compass that tells us when we’re on

 the right path. How do you know when your inner compass

 points True North?

I don't know if there is a "true north." That's too goal 

oriented.  You've got to have goals, but you need to say, 'I'll 

try this path and we'll see how it goes.  You know when you're

 on the right path when you smile and laugh and you attract 

people you want to be around and people who build you up.

Wendell Berry writes often that we are “given” our lives; 

meaning “we ourselves did not make these things, although 

by birth we are made responsible for them; second, that the 

world and our lives do not come to us by chance.”

What are you given?

"What I choose to suck out of life! I've been given a little bit 

of sass and sweetness. Enough sass that if someone says,

 'You can't do it!'; I'm going to do it. Enough sweetness that

 I'm going to enjoy what I'm doing."

How do you care for what you are given?

I choose to cultivate joy. I laugh a lot. I make stupid, stupid

 jokes. We often associate that you can't laugh and be

 responsible adult.  But you can!

What sustains you and gives you hope?

Every time I hit a low I learned that if I just give it another day or two, or just take another step, it works out. I found people to help me celebrate failure. It's OK to not be perfect and make mistakes, as long as I rebound and keep working on it.

Want your own special tea, or the newest Clari-Tea?  Just give Eliz a call, 319. 610.7525 or stop by Laughing Tree Cafe.

Wishing you a lovely weekend!

Daffodil Season

Nature's first green is gold
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
— Robert Frost








Dear friend Dorothy posted this on her Facebook page recently. Don't you just adore having friends who post Robert Frost poems? I do.  I'm reveling in yellow and gold.  And my daffodils are just holding on a little longer as the roller coaster ride that is spring in the Heartland took a dip.  The high today might be 50 degrees.

See how the daffodils are open and the tulips are closed protecting themselves?

I thought it might be fun to do a "high" and "low" like some of the decorating magazines do, contrasting dandelions with daffodils.  But the dandelions were hiding from the cold weather.

Can you spot those little flecks of yellow hiding in the grass? No wonder some days it seems like there are no dandelions and the next when the sun shines warmly, a field erupts.  They were there all along, just hiding from the cold.

I brought some inside to get a better picture for my 

High (above)

and low.  Dandelions may be common and some consider them a weed, but they are delicious, nutritious (as long as no one has sprayed weed killer on them) and beautiful.  True I pull my share of dandelions, but that's because they sometimes wander into the "wrong" place.

Just a few more days and then the daffodils will be gone.

So get out and enjoy.

I want everything to last just a little longer, but I'm reminded “To be interested in the changing seasons is…a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring.”
– George Santayana, “Justification of Art”

Here's the perfect lemon bar to go with a cool spring day from dear friend Joanie's kitchen courtesy of AllRecipes

Joanie's Lemon Bars

2 1/4 C Flour

1/2 C Confectioner's Sugar

1 C Butter softened

4 Eggs

1 1/2 C Sugar

1/2 C Lemon Juice

1 T Lemon Zest

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Mix 2 cups of flour and confectioner's sugar together. Cut in the butter or margarine. Mix well until the dough resembles pie dough consistency. Press the dough into a 9x13 inch baking pan.
3. Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown.
4. Beat together eggs, sugar, 4 tablespoons flour, lemon juice and lemon rind for at least 1 minute. Pour the mixture over the baked crust.
5. Bake the bars another 20 minutes, or until the lemon topping has set. Sprinkle with confectioner's sugar when cooled.
6. Enjoy!
   

Save Room for Pie!

On a perfect spring day I drove through the rolling hills of Northeast Iowa to the rural home of the Pie Lady near Gladbrook.







The flowers and trees were popping with color.

The cows rested in green pastures.

In the middle of Paradise,  I found Laura Bru, aka the Pie Lady, mixing up an order of apple and raspberry pies.

Laura believes in finding the freshest ingredients.  Some of the key ingredients are right outside her back door.

The eggs for her pies, rolls, breads, muffin and cookies come from her beautiful backyard flock.

While Laura won't give away her secret pie crust recipe, she will share that in addition to the freshest eggs possible she uses real lard......

Some of which comes from her children's 4-H show pigs.  This is the second year for the pig project for Lilly, 11 and Jay, almost 10.  

Laura Bru, The Pie Lady

To supplement the lard from her own pigs, she purchases lard from local lockers. "Everything that comes out of my kitchen is baked fresh and from scratch and as fresh as it can be," Laura says.

The secret to her crust, Laura says, is the local lard.

 She's experimented with store bought lard, but she says it's full of preservatives.  "You know it's good (lard) if it goes bad.  If it goes bad, it's fresh!"

Fresh and locally sourced are the guiding philosophy for the Pie Lady. The fruit for most of her pies comes from local farms and apple orchards.  

Jay Bru, Photo: Pie Lady

The Pie Lady's top seller is strawberry-rhubarb, son Jay's favorite too.  

Lilly and Jay Bru, Photo: Pie Lady

Daughter, Lilly prefers the raspberry, and husband Ryan favors the coconut cream.

Laura is generous with tips on making pies. She showed me how to use a knife to get perfectly fluted edges.  The secret to her smooth pie crust?

Rolling the dough out on waxed paper.

This project is bigger than providing the best, freshest baked goods and ice cream (more on that in a minute) to her customers at the farmer's markets in Cedar Falls on College Hill on Thursdays and at Overman Park on Saturdays, it's a way to teach Lilly and Jay about business, people skills and incorporate them into the life and business of farming.

Photo: Pie Lady

"The biggest thing I wanted them to get out of it is the people skills. I want them to learn to talk with people and remember their manners."

Pie Lady's Jay and Lilly at work, Photo: Pie Lady

 Laura is a stickler about money management too, teaching the kids how to count back change, an art lost to most.

Photo: Pie Lady, market day

Lilly is following in her mother's footsteps in the pie making business.  Last year, her first in 4-H, she won the top award for her age category.  This year, she's got her sights set on making it to the state fair.

Photo: Pie Lady

In addition to pies, Pie Lady specializes in what she calls gourmet rolls.  She puts raspberry, apple butter or mixed berries in the rolls.  Jay and Lilly cross their fingers that the rolls don't all sell so they have some at home. "The kids are the quality assurance team.  They take their roles very seriously. They are my testers."

You'll find the Pie Lady at the farmers markets by listening for the sound of her motorized churner making home made ice cream which she sells to go with the pies, breads, rolls and cookies.

"It's not just a business. It's a way to raise a family," Laura says. The Pie Lady will also take custom orders and deliver for free within a 30-mile radius (including the Cedar Valley) of her farm.  Fruit pies sell for $11, pecan for $13 and cream pies for $15.  She bakes the day before market, or the day the order is due to get the freshest product to her customers.

You can reach Laura by calling 641.473.2429 or emailing her at iowapielady@gmail.com. It's the best tasting, freshest pie I've tasted in ages.

Know someone with a passion for growing or making the freshest, best local food?  Drop me a line at feleciababb@gmail.com.

Tour Middleton Plantation

Photo courtesy of Middleton Place

Put on your best bonnet as we're touring Middleton Place today. It's a historic plantation across the Ashley River from North Charleston, about 10 miles outside of Charleston.

Middleton Place consists of 65 acres of the oldest landscaped gardens in the United States.  They have one of the largest and centuries old collection of camellia's in the U.S.












The weather was so warm in February when we toured that both the camellias and azaleas were blooming.

Camellia in foreground, Azalea in background

The camellias come in a stunning array of colors from white

to pink

to red

John Williams first established the plantation in 1730 with it's stunning views of the Ashley River.  He situated the house to catch summer breezes. At his death, the plantation passed to his daughter Mary as part of her dowry.  She married Henry Middleton who eventually became one of the wealthiest South Carolina planters, owning 50,000 acres and 800 slaves.

The remaining south flanker (photo courtesy of Wikipedia)

The main house was completed in 1741 with two flankers built in 1755.  The main house and north flanker were destroyed by Union troops in 1865.

The Middleton family played a large part in U.S history.  Mary and Henry's son, Arthur, signed the Declaration of Independence. Later Arthur was imprisoned for several years by the British during the Revolution.  He was eventually freed.  The British signed the terms of surrender to leave the southern colonies at the Middleton Plantation in 1783.

Arthur's son, Henry, experimented with both plants an animals, importing water buffalo from Constantinople to use in the mucky rice paddies.  Henry entertained the French botanist Andre Michaux. He presented Henry with a house gift of Camellia's, the first in America.

Oldest Camellia

Three of the four Camellia's presented still grow in the gardens today.

Williams Middleton inherited the plantation from Henry.  Williams was one of the signers of the Ordinance of Secession, igniting the Civil War.

South Carolina's Century Live Oak

Middleton Plantation fell on hard times after the Civil War, the houses and gardens in ruins. A new roof on the south flanker kept the family in place until 1900 when the house passed to Williams daughter, Elizabeth.

When Elizabeth died in 1915, she passed the plantation on to her cousin, John Julius Pringle Smith, a great-great-grandson of the original Henry.

Smith and his wife, Heningham, labored for years to restore the house and gardens, using the house as their winter retreat.  In 1920, they opened the gardens for public tours.

In the 1970's, the house restored, the plantation was transferred to the Middleton Place Foundation, and is now run as a non-profit.

In addition to the house and extensive gardens, visitors can tour the stable yards home to heritage breeds which would have been part of the plantation.  

Visitors can also see the many contributions of the slaves to the plantation, where they lived and how they worked.

Hope you enjoyed this tour of the Middleton Plantation.  If you missed the Brookgreen tour last week, you can find it here.