backyard tea

It's time again for backyard tea around here.  Because my girls are natural foragers and flower eaters, I have looked up many wild and weedy plants in our area to see if they are edible, medicinal, poisonous, etc.  They know to only eat what they can absolutely identify, and only in very small quantities at first to make sure that their bodies are happy with it.

Basically, we like to toss some flowers and leaves in a jar, let it sit in the sun for awhile, and drink it.  We love our backyard tea flower water.  Well, some like gathering the plant goodness more than they like drinking it, but that's just fine, too.  :)

 Yesterday's tea had nettles, wild mint, violets, creeping charlie flowers, and cherry blossoms.

Our favorite leaves for backyard tea: nettle, raspberry and strawberry leaves, any mints, clover, lemon balm

Our favorite edible flowers for backyard tea:  violets, clovers, rose petals (and rosehips), cherry and plum blossoms, apple and pear blossoms, lilac, pineapple weed, elderflower, creeping charlie (ground ivy), columbine, calendula, snapdragon, pansies, hibiscus, red sumac berries

Other edible flowers we like:  day lilies (NOT other lilies), nasturtium, chives, squash blossoms, marigold,  dandelion

There are so many more possibilities:  cultivated and/or medicinal herbs, citrus fruit blossoms, roots, and wild edibles common to where you live.  Of course, always be sure that you can positively identify edibles in your yard and in the wild before consuming.

 apple blossoms                                  plum blossoms

 cherry blossoms

Other goodness around the yard:

wood pile, laundry line, solar panels

under the deck

'Featherfoot' in the 'sand box'

Carly and some hens, all named 'Rainbow'

journal writing in a tree

Sylvia with one of the 'Disco Chickens'

That'll do.  Wishing you lots of goodness in your backyard.