Why drink straight water, when you can enrich it with the goodness of fresh herb teas. And how about diluting your concentrated juice with herb tea instead of with water.
Eight Glasses a Day
That's what we are supposed to drink daily, right? Well, I don't. I simply don't drink water. To me, drinking straight water is a missed opportunity for enriching my body with the goodness which is all around me in the herbs which Nature provides in abundance right outside my kitchen door. I know a lot of people who religiously drink their 8 glasses of water and then make up for their nutritional deficiencies by popping pills of dried herbal supplements.
My garden is full of fresh herbs and I don't intend to insult my body by substituting dried ones. Remember the friar in Romeo and Juliet preparing a potion for Juliet? Where did he get his herbs? Right in his garden. Fresh, not dried, and certainly not in capsules or bottles.
Nibbling on Herbs
As I work in my garden or just pass through it, I am always pinching herbs and nibbling on them. Even the children of the neighborhood have learned to follow my example. Invasive perennial herbs are welcome to grow uninhibited. They are everywhere, mingled with wildflowers, vegetables, and fruit. Herbs which get in the way of other plants get yanked out. They are then passed on to neighbors or to the compost bin.
Many a summer day, I have no appetite for meals, because I have been nibbling herbs all day. I don't really care what remedial powers these herbs have. I am sure that they are just effective for their preventative powers if not more so. At no time of the year do I feel as good as in the summer when herbs make up a good part of my food allowance.
Drinking Herbs
Back to the 8 glasses of water a day. Whenever possible, all the water which enters my system is enriched with the goodness of the herbs in my garden. Take stinging nettle, for example. I cannot nibble it fresh, because it would sting my tongue and mouth. A friend in church tells me that this plant alleviates the symptoms of arthritis. I take some fresh stinging nettle to church for her on Sunday mornings.
I have known all my life that this plant strengthens the immune system. It is therefore my number one remedy for allergies, and certainly the least expensive one. Allergy sufferers in Germany are instructed to drink stinging nettle tea daily. So one of the teas which I drink instead of water is stinging nettle, and I must admit that I don't have allergy problems in the summer when I enjoy this wonderful remedy.
Homemade Snapple
My husband is used to drinking herb teas only in small quantities, like a cup at a time. He prefers juices to alleviate thirst. All right. Let's compromise.
Everyone raves about Snapple. It is a mixture of juice and tea, black tea to be sure, but how about substituting herb tea for the black tea?
In a 2 litre softdrink bottle, I empty a can of commercially frozen concentrated juice. I then fill the bottle with cold herb tea, and voil�, I have 2 litres of Snapple for my husband.
Snapple Shortcut:
When I am in a hurry, I simply replace the herb tea with two or three teabags and top the bottle off with filtered water. So the recipe is this: Pour one can of frozen juice concentrate into a 2 litre bottle, add 2 or 3 teabags (depending on the strength of the teabag) of any type of tea, black, green, or herb, and top off with filtered cold water.
That way, Ernie gets his juice as well as his herb tea. The bottle stands beside his desk, and he drinks from it all day long. Tomorrow I will fill another bottle using a different juice and probably a different mixture of herbs. So my husband does not drink water either.
