Each time I walked in the woods, visited a friend's garden, or wandered through my own yard, I gathered anything that would be a worthy ingredient.
Onto a screen they went: violet flowers and leaves, rose petals(and hips), elderflowers (and later the berries), raspberry leaves, mints, thyme, sage, marshmallow root, and comfrey, echinacea, bee balm, chamomile, catnip. On and on the list of ingredients went.
Then, since we had a well stocked herb shop at the time, I added bits of licorice root, star anise, hibiscus, and a few other interesting elements.
All winter long that jar of dried botanicals served up different and delicious cups of tea - no two ever exactly like the other.
Since the spring yeilded a good 1/2 gallon of dried materials, there was very little of any one ingredient, and so little worry about potential side effects. Still I was careful to identify any addition.
It kept the spring clear in my heart for the cold dark winter.
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