By Katy G. Wilkens

Two years ago I planted two tea plants in my suburban Seattle garden, and they have just provided me with my first cup of homegrown tea.

Tea bushes are related to the camellia, which does well in our area too. Both like sun or partial shade. Tea bushes are also evergreen, so they can add to your landscape year round and don’t take any special care. If you don’t have yard space, you can grow them in a pot. You can find tea plants at specialty nurseries or order them from Raintree Nursery in Morton, Wash.

Though the flower is pretty, it is the leaves you want for brewing a drink. I didn’t harvest any leaves the first year because I was worried about my “baby” tea plants. Last year I picked about 20, and next year, I should be able to take even more.

Tea is amazingly high in antioxidants with lots of health benefits, most of which disappear if you add milk or sugar. So drink it on its own.

If you don’t have room for a true tea plant, consider making herbal teas. Chamomile grows like a weed in my garden. Mixed with lavender, it makes one of my favorite herbal teas. I put the dried flowers in a tea ball and steep them for an evening cup of tea when I can’t sleep. Mint is also easy to grow and it makes great tea that everyone enjoys. If you grow hibiscus in a pot, you can use the flowers to make a ruby red brew. The only rules with herbal tea are to know what you are picking and to avoid picking near weeds that may be sprayed with herbicide.

Real tea
To make green tea from a true tea plant, choose leaves with green stems, not brown ones. Pick the top two leaves and bud. Dry them for about eight hours. I picked my leaves in the fall, because I thought that season would be least stressful for the plant.

Heat the leaves in a pot of boiling water for about 2 minutes, until they turn bright green. Then put them in cold water to blanch them. Roll the leaves with your hands or a bamboo mat. Dry them in the oven for 10 minutes on low heat.

Add about five leaves per cup into a teapot, fill with boiling water and let steep for three to five minutes. No calories and no blood-pressure-raising sodium. Just a satisfying ritual that is thousands of years old.

[Katy G. Wilkens is a registered dietitian and department head at Northwest Kidney Centers. A recipient of the Susan Knapp Excellence in Education Award from the National Kidney Foundation Council on Renal Nutrition, she has a Master of Science degree in nutritional sciences from the University of Washington. See more of her recipes at www.nwkidney.org.]