March – Stevia

The sugar-substitute herb is said to have the sweetest taste known to man, has virtually no calories or affects on diabetics. It’s a great way to get that sugar flavour without any of the sugary high’s and low’s, weight gain and tooth decay.

Capture the kids interest in the garden and green things, a party trick (“taste this leaf”…totally unexpected), healthy and easy to use.

• non-sugar icing: Add 1 tsp of ground stevia leaf to low-fat cream cheese or yoghurt, and mix in the juice and zest of one lemon.
• add 2 leaves or a pinch of ground stevia leaf to sweeten cold drinks and hot beverages.
• add a couple of stevia leaves to fruit that is being stewed, bottled or frozen

How to STEVIA – garden to table

The best way to make sure you maximise the “stevioside” (that’s the thing that makes it sweet) content of your plants is to harvest from plants that were originally grown from cuttings (rather than seed). ALL Living Herbs stevia plants are taken from cuttings right here in our nursery.

Harvest leaves just after the warmest time of the year, just pick them, that’s all. Then you will need to dry your leaves on a screen or net. The drying process doesnot require excessive heat; more important is good air circulation. On a moderately warm Autumn day, your stevia crop can be quick dried in the full sun in about 12 hours. (Drying times longer than that will lower the stevioside content of the final product.) A home dehydrator can also be used, although sun drying is the preferred method.

Crushing the dried leaves is the final step in releasing stevia’s sweetening power. This can be done either by hand or, for greater effect, in a coffee grinder or in a special blender for herbs. You can also make your own liquid stevia extract by adding a cup of warm water to 1/4 cup of fresh, finely-crushed stevia leaves. This mixture should set for 24 hours and then be refrigerated.

So get growing and healthy with Living Herbs STEVIA from your favourite garden centre – check this LINK for stockists near you.