A wild cup of tea

All the forest is quiet as a light snow falls. There is a peacefulness this slumbering landscape provides that we can pause to appreciate. Yet how do we pause? A cup of tea will do. A wild cup of tea, even better.

Foraging undeniably has the power to attune us to place, to the natural landscape and her inhabitants that form our more-than-human community, to its rhythm. It is easy to experience this connection under the summer sun when the plants abound. We take to the yard with a basket in hand to gather greens or to the woods with pruners to harvest barks. However, even now in the cold of winter, that opportunity for nourishment – both figurative and literal – is here.

Tea is so simple: water and plant. Yet when we make tea of a plant, not only are we extracting flavor and fragrance, but medicinal constituents. These chemical compounds – volatile oils, tannins, polyphenols, polysaccharides and many more – are what lend those qualities to your cup of tea and what benefit our bodies as well. Water is the best solvent for extracting most medicinal constituents from herbs. Given that we tend to think of medicine as encapsulated in pills, it can be hard to believe that a cup of tea could do us much good. However, every time we brew a cup of tea we are quite literally preparing herbal medicine.

Dig into those jars of wild harvested herbs or bundle up and take a short walk. Black birch and sassafras twigs lay within reach, white pine needles still glow green, scarlet rose hips beckon from a thicket, perhaps some hardy dandelion leaves still linger in the yard – these are all perfect for a cup of tea. Steep your wild tea longer than you would a tea bag, 10-20 minutes. This is what herbalists call an infusion and ensures that medicinal constituents are fully extracted. This also enhances flavor and fragrance and gives you more time to ponder the symmetry of that snowflake on your windowpane. Be sure to add a dollop of glistening honey courtesy of the bees.

Medicine is not just found in chemicals, whether from a plant or a pill, but in the act of slowing down, in connecting with other living beings, in giving our minds and bodies nourishment. Taking the time to prepare a cup of tea from plants you’ve harvested can provide just the winter medicine we need to bolster mind and body.