Wintergreen

[Hinotori]

First I'm from the northwest and wintergreen isn't native here. I want to use it to make tea so hopefully someone here can help.

Ive read that the leaves need to be fermented for 3 days before drying to make good tea. Do you do this like you do for actual tea leaves? Roll in your hands and keep warm for a time?

 

[Mini Horses]

Don't have any idea but, someone may.

 

[wyoDreamer]

Sorry, not able to help you. We used to make wintergreen tea with my mom when we were kids, haven't even thought of it for decades.

(1) I am not a tea drinker, so I don't know how to treat tea.

(2) We would pick the wild wintergreen leaves, make sure every leaf was ripped in 1/2 and then steep in hot water until as strong as we wanted it. We didn't dry it for use later because we could always pick more and use it fresh.

 

[Hinotori]

That's still helpful information.

My plants are young. Some were sold as ground cover at some garden center. The two I picked up a couple days ago from the grocery store that gets random, mostly outdoor plants have bigger leaves and are covered in berries.

 

[wyoDreamer]

I don't have any wintergreen on our property where we live. I wonder what if I could re-create the right environment for wintergreen to grow at our house. It grows on the sandy hills around our cabin, so it should be do-able. I'll have to look into it. It is such a pretty little plant.

 

[flowerbug]

I don't have any wintergreen on our property where we live. I wonder what if I could re-create the right environment for wintergreen to grow at our house. It grows on the sandy hills around our cabin, so it should be do-able. I'll have to look into it. It is such a pretty little plant.

yes, i recall it being all over like around places where the oak trees would grow and the low wild blueberry bushes. we'd build tree forts in the oak trees. not too many back there but a few. that entire field is now gone though. i spent many happy hours back there playing, there were two different ponds we would swim in, and a big dirt hill that eventually got over grown.

as an aside (what me go on a tangent? haha! ) we once tried to pull a tree fort down using a chain and a rope. when the rope broke this chain came down on my head and i swear i had chain pattern lumps on my head. those were the good ol' days. perhaps explains a few things i may not want y'all to know, but there it is... heeheehee...

ok, back on topic, we picked the berries and ate them a little, but we never harvested the leaves or used them. i always thought they were very cheerful and nice plants.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

Wintergreen grows well here. I've never made tea of it, but... when I run across it in the woods, I will chew a leaf. I find it to be quite strong.