Food, Wine and Preserves: PEAR LEAF TEA

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

PEAR LEAF TEA

Pears are not only delicious, but also very healthy fruits. I think their benefits are quite underappreciated, and still needing more research. I have few pear trees in my backyard, including the Asian pear, and last year they started to bear fruits. This year the crop looks quite promising - I’m looking forward to the harvest. Even before I was getting my own pears, I used store bought organic pears to make my preserves. Those were: pear syrup, pear jam (great for pies) and pear liquor. Those can all be made from the fruits, but the leaves of the pear tree… the leaves are a whole different story. I prune the pear tree in the spring when its leaves are young and soft, but already green. I pluck the leaves from the pruned brunches and dry them. Dehydrator will work the best, but since I have the stove with a pilot flame… this works the best for me. The oven is always warm and ventilated. I place the pear leaves on the cookie sheet, place them in the oven and leave them there for 2-3 days tossing them over 1-2 times a day. The pilot flame creates enough heat to dry the leaves evenly.

After the leaves are dry, I crush them with hands into flakes. It takes a spoonful of the flakes to make a cup of tea. Some people claim that pear leaf tea can lower the blood pressure. I’ll research that further, but in the meantime, I’ll enjoy a cup of caffeine free, organic, pear leaf tea. It has a delicate soothing, and relaxing flavor.

From Josephine's Kitchen

I never really liked to cook. Meals that don’t require heat are ok, but as soon as the recipe calls for the heat… it is a prescription for a disaster in my kitchen. The burden of extensive watching of the pots on the stove seems just like too much. I look away and the next thing you know things are burned. So I thought, there must be an easier way. And there is; recipes have to be simple and quick to make. I only love it if it doesn’t take long time to make it, and the making is simple. That is my motto for the cooking. I like to cook with genuine, natural, preferable organic ingredients. Back to the basics can be healthy and delicious. I do believe that our health is a reflection of what we eat. Cooking healthy is quite simple: using genuine ingredients instead of processed food is the key. I have a simple formula when I read the ingredients on the box: if it doesn’t sound like food - it isn’t, so don’t eat it.
- Josephine