Wild Strawberry Tea

I've recently discovered and started making my own herbal tea from wild
strawberry leaves. Those pesky weeds that generally pop up in everyone's yard
and flowerbeds. I know mine are over ran with them. Picked, dried in the sun
on cookie sheets with foil on it or even in a dehydrator and popped in my coffee
grinder or just crushed once dried. I've mixed it in with green tea and gensing
teas and it works well with both.

They make a really nice, light, caffeine free tea that has just a hint of a
strawberry flavor. Best of all...it's free.

There's a link from the park service about them so you'll know what they
look like and includes a lot more information about them.

www.fs.fed.us...

If anyone out there knows of some caffeinated herbal coffee substitutes
(not chicory) let me know please. Thanks!

Are you sure they are strawberry?
There is a kind of weed that grows where I live and it looks kind of like strawberries, but they are small and mostly seeds on the outside.
We have blackberries all over the southeast. Strawberries ONLY if you know where to find them.

Originally posted by Clearskies
Are you sure they are strawberry?

I am not 100% sure if they are strawberry leaves but they look very much like them.

[edit on 21-3-2008 by Attari]

This is what looks like strawberry but, isn't. I don't know what it is.



This is strawberry. Now that it's spring, it should be starting to have white blooms on it.

Hey, I just found this;
Indian strawberry

Indian Strawberry (Duchesnea Indica)

You may notice new strawberry plants spreading through your property. Check them carefully -- if they have yellow flowers and hollow, tasteless berries, they are Indian Strawberry. Our native strawberries have white flowers and if the birds don't eat them first, and there are any left for you to try, they are tiny and sweet.

Indian Strawberry is beginnng to spread in Riverwoods. Once it takse hold, it becomes difficult to remove, so pull them or treat them with RoundUp® as soon as you find them. This is not a good groundcover!

Indian Strawberry is on the Chicago Botanic Garden list of invasive plants in the midwest. Check out their site to see the other plants listed.

Yay!!!! At least now I know what they're called! And they're not poisonous!

It's supposedly good for medicine.

A flavor somewhat like a water melon according to some people, it does contain constituents such as sugar, protein, and ascorbic acid (vitamin C), leaves also edible as pot herb. The whole plant is medicinal as an anticoagulant, antiseptic, depurative and febrifuge. Herb can be used in a decoction for stomatitis, laryngitis, and acute tonsilitis, or the fresh leaves can be crushed and applied externally as a medicinal poultice. It is used in the treatment of boils and abcesses, burns, weeping eczema, ringworm, snake and insect bites and traumatic injuries. A decoction of the leaves is medicinal and used in the treatment of swellings. An infusion of the flowers is used to activate the blood circulation and the fruit is used to cure skin diseases. Indian Strawberry is used extensively in China as a medicinal herb and is being studied for its ability to stop the HIV virus and some forms of cancer from spreading through the body.

Nature's herbal



[edit on 21-3-2008 by Clearskies]