Monday, June 22 through Thursday, June 25

Our daughter Diane drove here from Maine on Friday, June 19 – to spend the next nine days with us, and their Pennsylvania children and grandchildren.

She offered to make mint tea with every stalk in our tea garden – and knew that it would be no small task.

She began her work early Monday morning.

After cutting enough tea for one day, she put large kettles of measured water and sugar on the stove to bring to a boil.

Our next job was removing leaves from the stems.

She measured the leaves to match the amount of water/sugar mixture in each kettle.

When the water was boiling, she turned the burners off, put the leaves in the kettles and let it steep until the next morning.

Our daughter Deb came on Wednesday to help with several batches, so she could take some home with her.

Diane, Deb, and Lydia wanted their concentrate canned due to lack of freezer space.

Ours was frozen in 1/2 gallon containers.

Imagine how much each of us will enjoy this delicious drink during the next year. Because Diane steeps the tea overnight, it creates a concentrate. When making it to drink, you add 2 to 3 times the amount of water – depending on your taste.

Cerwin and I enjoyed supper – in our garage – with Lydia, Deb, and Diane on Wednesday.

By the end of the week our tea bed was empty and Diane had processed more than 80 quarts of tea concentrate.

We have some family and friends who want Diane to move in with them for a week. 🙂