Solar Tea! (Sun Tea) and Homemade Poi

Check out our first jar of this season’s sun tea! I added our garden spearmint to a few organic black tea bags and some distilled water and placed it in the sun for the afternoon. After it brewed and was filtered, I juiced a watermelon and combined the tea and watermelon juice, then chilled it in the fridge. Watermelon/mint sun tea. Ugh so refreshing and sweet!

If you dig this sun tea jar, I’m sorry to say you can’t buy it new anywhere. This all-glass relic is a throwback to my childhood. My mom made sun tea every summer in this retro piece of kitchenware. It’s so 70s kitsch, but I love it. With its clear glass dome, the sun’s rays just pour into the jar and charge the heck out of the water. Makes perfectly energized sun tea every time.

Lots of gardening work over the weekend: more squash seeds were sown, another patch of watermelon seeds was put in, more turmeric root was planted, taro root was finally planted (homemade poi? Yes please!), zinnia seeds were scattered on soil (and more to come, I love zinnia), and most importantly – weeding. Weeds are coming in like crazy this year. Their roots are deep. It’s a lot of work to keep them down.

But everything is doing well, despite this schizophrenic weather. Saturday, it reached 90 degrees. Yesterday, it topped at 80. Today, the high temperature will be 65 degrees. This is not optimal for the gardens, but it is what it is. Connecticut can be a nasty hang for gardeners.

Barbie xo