365 IN 365 - A Day of Tea

Jennifer Armstrong is the creator of this series of posts, published bi-monthly, entitled 365 in 365. These posts will help guide us all as we accept the 6D opportunity to diversify our plants in order to nurture and nourish our microbiome and thus improve our health and wellness. You can join us for this year-long event either via our 365 Facebook group or by following along via our 365 website page.

There are few better ways to experience a wide diversity of plant foods than by traveling. I for one always try to get to local fresh markets when I travel, and if no fresh market is available, at least the local grocery store.   With phones apps for translation in your pocket, you can decipher pretty much any label you might encounter, and at least have a general idea of what the food is or how to consume it.  Even more exciting, for me, is actually seeing crops growing.  From acres of sunflowers glowing in the Tuscan countryside, to giant combines crawling across South Dakota plains, ranks of allotment gardens spotted from British trains, or date palms dropping their fruit in a Moroccan casbah, farms and food crops have always fascinated me.

And then there’s tea.  On a trip a few years ago to Vietnam, I spent half a week in the far north near the border with China, photographing rice terraces (stunning).  As we drove south, the rugged, hilly terrain smoothed out into rolling hills of tea.  It wasn’t at all what I was expecting.  I don’t know what I was expecting, actually!  It basically looked like row upon row of parallel hedges.  It wasn’t until we actually stopped at a tea plantation to investigate that it began to make sense to me.  True tea is a shrub with glossy green leaves (Camellia sinensis), and only the new tips are harvested for tea - which means these tea bushes are constantly being pruned.  Some of it is done by hand, some done by skimming a sort of vacuum clipper along the tops, supported on either side by a tea harvester. 

The fresh tea leaves are gathered into huge bales and taken off for additional processing, whether that be quick steaming or roasting (for green tea) or drying, smoking, and fermenting for black tea.         

So that’s true tea, but of course there’s a world of other plant infusions that we drink hot and call “tea.”  There are teas made from leaves, roots, flowers, bark, fruit, seeds.  Often these infusions have long traditions for medical use - teas to promote relaxation, teas to aid digestion, teas to relieve constipation, teas for sore throats and congestion.   One option I really enjoy is Rooibos, the red “teat” from South Africa, but there are dozens to choose from.  When I go to the herbal tea section of my local natural foods store I face an entire wall of “tisanes” as the French call them.   Just since the start of this challenge I have sampled steaming cups of sarsaparilla, milk thistle, dandelion root, and white clover, not to mention the more familiar lemon verbena, chamomile, peppermint, and ginger, and I’ve barely made a dent in the list of options.   If you’re having any trouble whatsoever bumping up your total number of plants consumed, you’re only a boiling kettle away from adding to your list. Go have a cuppa!

About Jennifer Armstrong

Jennifer Armstrong has spent her life making things; she has had a long career of writing books for children, decades of gardening, painting, making music, and cooking. A 2023 graduate of the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies course in Plant- Based Nutrition, she has also combined her interest in sustainability with her love of food by learning how to can and dehydrate, saving as much of the local harvest as possible for use throughout the year.  She lives in upstate New York.

Jennifer is both a blog writer and event moderator at 6D Living. Her blog post series 365 in 365 will explore how we can all diversify and improve our microbiome. Jennifer is also an administrator for our public, world-wide event of the same name. This free event is a year long community activity with one goal only - get more people on the planet a wider variety of plants.

About our 6D Community Activity - 365 in 365

This is a 365 day challenge to try 365 different plants in your nutritional routine over the next 365 days. We will explore new and known plants, share their nutritional benefits as well as recipes so we can all enjoy the splendor of the plant world and improve our health - as a united community.

We know that the diversity of plants we eat determines our microbiome health, which in turn determines our overall health and wellness. Our goal at 365 in 365 is to try to get as many different plants as possible into our bodies over the year - steadily becoming healthier together.

We invite all our members to share recipes, new plants they have 'discovered' for themselves as well as resources where we can all find these wonderful gifts from nature no matter where we live in the world.

This is an international plant-based community for curious minds which want to learn how to be healthier, happier and more balanced in their lives. This is a group of hope and encouragement for all sentient beings on the planet we call home. This activity/event is taking place both on Facebook as well as our 6D Blog - you can join via either venue, or join both by sharing your journey through comments and posts!

Be well

Stop.Breathe.Focus.Move.Flow.