STEVIA

[littlechickenfarmer]

Anybody have any luck with herb, I like to hear your thoughts.

[Pharmerphil]

I think my wife added something here about stevia, we raise it successfully in Mn.

[littlechickenfarmer]

ok i'll look for it

[SelfSufficientOne]

I have to think it grows better in a warmer climate as I have heard a lot of problems from northern climates but it grows like a weed here in GA and comes back year after year. I also have to say that while the fresh leaf is incredibly sweet I see very little use in it for the home gardener. I have found no use in it myself for 3 years now. After the leaf is dried it is not nearly as sweet and is not nearly as useable. It cannot be used for a sugar substitute unless refined. Not a really useful homestead herb.

[SelfSufficientOne]

However if you only care about making money or trades off the seeds it works pretty well that way because even though the seed companies call it rare and hard to germinate it produces tons of seed and is very easy to germinate.

[Skywalker]

hummm we grew it this year in W. Ky. and had good luck... We have been using it and sold many packets with directions for use. We dry the leaves and powder them in a small blender. Then bring 1/2 cup of water to a boil, add 4 teas. stevia powder, cover & cook 3 minutes. Then chill and strain through a coffee filter. Store in a bottle with an eyedropper in the fridge. 5 drops of this liquid are = to 2 tsp. of sugar. 1 TBS. = 9 oz. of sugar.

[Pharmerphil]

most everything grows better in a warmer climate! :D Really tho, it does very well here, it will not come back next year, but it grows lush, 4 ft, plants that have been outside as late as nowember here...of course, this wouldn't apply every year in Minnesota! :rolleyes:

[brassi]

I've been growing stevia for about 10 yrs. It is a tender annual here in NJ. I start new plants from cuttings that I bring in the greenhouse for the winter. My diabetic friends love it. I make sun herbal tea every day in the summer to drink while working in the greenhouse or outside. One leaf can sweeten one gal of herbed tea. I even have the gals at my local gym using it instead of artifical sweetners.
This plants also roots easily from stem cuttings. I make up container gardens in the spring and sell them. My biggest seller is an *Herbal Tea Container* I have all types of herbs for tea's and a big stevia plant in there for sweetness. If you have not tried growing this plant, please give it a try.

[tabitha]

i am excited to hear that you can process stevia at home. like others, i'm sure, i assumed that it was something modern scinece was only capable of- really i am ignorant about stevia. i have tried it once in tea and thought it was great. i have a friend who uses it for her whole family.

the tea idea is unique and charming! (brassi) i am impressed. we will have to try our hand at stevia soon.

tabitha

[Pharmerphil]

Tabitha...You be quoting my all time favorite...John Prine
blow up your TV, throw away your paper
move to the country, build you a home
plant a little garden, eat a lot of peaches
try and find jesus on your own.

[wildseed2u]

Hi,I have not grown it myself, but use it a lot to sweeten my herbal tonics and teas with. at some point I may try growing it in a container. It sweetens Roselle tea very nicely. if it is not refined it does impart a green herb tast to a degree, some people do not like the flavor, but I find that it blends in well.
George W. Z5 Mo.

[Sprocket]

I found stevia after I was diagnosed as diabetic. WIth it and a couple of herbs and a relatively decent diet I am pharmacetucal free. I have grown it but does anybody know how or why it takes on that white look...I am having an oh duh moment. It must be the way it is processed.

[arianna]

This site needs to come with a warning label! USING THIS SITE WILL BRING OUt COMPULSIVE GARDENING IN PEOPLE WHO DIDN"T HAVE ANY PRIOR KNOWLEDGE THEY WERE COMPULSIVE! Although I had heard of stevia I never wanted to grow it....after all these comments I can't wait to get my hands on some. I will add this to my rapidly growing list of things I need to plant...I don't know which is driving my husband more crazy...my scrapbooking or gardening! Keep the inspiration coming....

[brassi]

Stevia is a tender perennial in zone 6 where I live. I do keep some in a clay pot that I bring inside for the winter. It gets very straggly lookin by april.. but usually I can get a few cuttings from it by then. I like adding Stevia plants to large potted containers that I also fill with tea herbs. It is a great presentation and a helpful way to grow your herbal tea needs.

[wildseed2u]

Hi all, I just wanted to say that I'm now growing my own Stevia, for my herbal teas, and will be drying a lot of it, it does have a bit of green herbal taste that some people don't like when dried, and not chemically bleached. I find that even though that I have to add more of the dried leaf to my tea, it blends in quite well and takes some of the bitterness off some of the tonics. The plant will not over winter here in Missouri, so I have to bring it in and watch for any pest problems Aphids and Mites love it.
George W. Z5 Mo.

[hippiehillorganics]

I read somewhere that sale of stevia may be banned. Unfortunately, I do not remember what herb mag or forum I read it in? Anyone else hear that?

[Pharmerphil]

YES, but Guess WHO is pushing that along....Oh Yeah...The Sugar Cane Industry! ;)

[littlechickenfarmer]

I hate Sugar People

[hippiehillorganics]

Should have known!

[Pharmerphil]

I suppose anyday now a car will drive... slowly....by and me wifey will find me face down in the steviahttp://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/chobb/agree.gif

[SelfSufficientOne]

My stevia here comes back year after year. So far I haven't found anything I like to use it for. The leafs are wonderfully sweet when you taste it but just isn't real good to use without refining. The best use I have found for it is trading the seeds to other people who want to grow it, lol.

[littlechickenfarmer]

Well where do I start..Have to find it in some seed catalog and get me some started.

[Pharmerphil]

I'm adding some links this week, along with all the other work and promises (seed List) sorry folks, I been busy, plus fighting some really bad sinus thing...I will get it together soon. Stevia seed is fairly expensive, so buy a few and propgate!

[dandelion meadow]

Quote from Fedco catalog,"...as sweet as it is, it retards plaque and inhibits tooth decay."
Seed costs $1.80. Website is www.fedcoseeds.com
Requires light to germinate.

[GreenCap]

OK OK you have talked me into it, now I have to plant it too... :) . How can they ban the sale of stevia? It makes me sooo mad that with all the horrible things in the world that need to be banned they pick on sweet little stevia.

[Biscombe]

I bought some sweet dried leaf once in a whole food shop, i instantly forgot it’s name!! It sounds like this Stevia! Does it have a slight liquorice flavour??

We have lots of orange trees so I make orange blossom, mint and 'Stevia?' tea Yummy!!!

If my sweet leaf is Stevia I will be seeking seeds!! anyone out there want to do a swap??

[Biscombe]

Lots of Stevia ideas on this site

www.cookingwithstevia.com

[dandelion meadow]

Haven't heard anything about banning it. It is in the latest catalog for Frontier Herbs. They offer bulk, 1#, stevia herb - cut and sifted, stevia herb powder(green), stevia herb powder - cert. org. Also, stevia 85% stevioside extract (white) powder, 1/4#. A quick glance at a search for stevia shows they are currently out of stock of some of the above selections. http://www.frontiercoop.com/products.html

[GreenCap]

Biscombe, OH I love the smell of orange blossoms!!!! We used to live in Florida and there is NO smell better than the smell of the orange blossoms... Man do I miss the beach, hey zebra step outside and take a whiff of that ocean for me will ya. I will step out and take a sniff of the cow dung for you.....lol, hey it is ohio what do you expect!!!

[Gardenurse]

http://www.stevia.net/growingstevia.htm

Easy to read/understand stevia growing information located here. It also lists three sources for obtaining quality stevia plants high in steviocides (the stuff that gives leaves their sweetness): Herbal Advantage in Rogersville, MO, Richter's Seeds in Canada, and Well Sweep Herb Farm in Port Murray, NJ.

[zebraman]

Hey Greencap;I did what you asked,I am however not a big beach type.I am in the Ocean 2-3 times a month in my Kayak.I almost never go to beach in Venice because of the crowds.There is however a great Hill(Hiking area)south of here.4 miles.On top you can see from Downtown LA-The beach in Venice.

[GreenCap]

THANKS ZEBRA!!! ;)

[JackiMac]

We grew some Stevia then we dried the leaves and used our mortar/pestle to crush them good and my daughter...who always wants to make money - at 11 cash is important! - she mixed up her lemonade, one with sugar and one with Stevia, and sold almost $250 worth of the stevia lemonade. The other went over ok...brought in about $70....the kid can sell! She kept $75 for her saving and donated the rest to a children's HIV home here in town....this was last summer and I think she has her school involved this year so we are donating a whole lotta' leaves!

The stevia grows very well here but the humidity can cause some problems....the spittle bugs luv this plant :( Bleck

Jacki

[GreenCap]

Sounds like you are raising a lovely kind hearted young lady. I wish there were more parents like you out there, teaching thier children about giving instead of taking.

[JackiMac]

Thanks Greencap :) I just raise'em the best I can and hope for the best as most parents do...I hope. I will say I was a little surprised about her donating most of the money but I supported that idea without a qualm :)

They are good kids for the most part and I hope they grow up thinking of others with consideration and open minds...not that they use these qualities with each other.... :rolleyes: Maybe one day they will look at each other as a human-being rather than the big sister and the little twerp :D

[aberration]

Maybe one day they will look at each other as a human-being rather than the big sister and the little twerp :D

Heh. My siblings and I are in our mid-twenties and finally getting to this point. :-)

[Rosie]

I like planting stevia and chocolate mint side by side in containers then offer then as an after-dinner mint. Sure are tasty together as fresh leaves and lovely to garnish a plate or cold drink with. I used processed stevia in canning peaches this summer too and they are still tasting great over hot homemade bread and yoghurt.

[finnteara]

Cut the plants back just before xmas and brought them into the greenhouse. They are growing back quick. Sweetness through the winter.

[Orgarden]

Here's my experience with Stevia... I've used the refined liquid and powered Stevia for over a year now and when I found out that they were sold as seeds I tried to grow it this last summer. While the seedlings sprouted I read everything I could get my hand on about growing the thing.

I remember reading about low germ rates and varying degrees of sweetness when you grow from seed (they say it's best to get a cutting from a known extremely sweet plant to really experience the benefit). 2 out of 6 seeds sprouted and out of the 2, only one was powerfully sweet. The difference between the two was like night and day.

I didn't see where the helpful sites said to take a cutting before flowering, I read that as the buds popped up. And yes, it does become VERY bitter after flowering.

I brought the plant inside and it was immediately overrun with aphids! They did not seem to damage it but the poor thing was constantly harvested by my cat, insisting that she have a taste every single day until there were no leaves or even branches left, no matter where we put the plant.

Strange thing is that my cat does not like catnip (go figure) but LOVES bitter stevia.

http://www.holisticmed.com/sweet/stv-faq.txt I can't find the original site where I read the info first, but this is a pretty good run-down of what happened for those of you curious about why we, here in the US, do not have stevia-sweetened foods.

[Sandbar]

I like planting stevia and chocolate mint side by side in containers then offer then as an after-dinner mint.
Rosie, that sounds like a really cool idea. Do you make a tea with the fresh leaves, or how do you serve it as an "after-dinner mint?"

And, where did you get your chocolate mint plants? I've been searching the Net tonight for seed, but found out that you can only propagate it from cuttings.

[Phantomfyre]

Rosie, very cool idea about the chocolate mint/stevia combo! I just got some stevia seeds in the mail and now I know where I'm putting one of the plants - right next to my CM! Mmm... :)

Funny stevia story: I was working at a local greenhouse summer before last, and I saw a label for stevia, but couldn't find the plants. So I asked a friend/co-worker, who is an herb afficienado if we had any left, because I wanted to try it. So we hike over to the herb section, she says, "Here it is!" snaps off a leaf, hands it to me and says, "Try it!" So I pop it in my mouth, chew vigorously, and it's just AWFUL. "Mary, are you SURE...?" I choke out. She looks at me, and then at the plant and her eyes fly open in horror, and then she starts to laugh. "Oh... OH! Oh, I'm SO SORRY!" she manages to gasp, nearly rolling on the floor of the greenhouse now. The leaf she had handed me in error was off of a plant we sold as cat/dog repellant! :eek: (I did try the "real" stevia after that, and it was MUCH better, lol.)

Sandbar, wish I could help you with a source for chocolate mint seeds, but I got mine as a plant.

Diana, who can't wait to try stevia as a coffee sweetener for DH, who insists on using those pink/blue/yellow packaged sugar substitutes - blech!

[Sandbar]

Phantom ... LOL ... did the neighborhood dogs and cats leave you alone after that? LOL

[bunkie]

yay a stevia thread!!!

up here in the north it won't survive the cold and snow...at least haven't dared to try it. for two years we have kept ours potted in the house/greenhouse during the winter months. we dry it and powder it and use it and love it! will have to try using some of the raw leaves combo mentioned above, tho have found the raw stevia leaves to have a bit of an aftertaste?! :O) peace, bunkie.

[Phantomfyre]

Sandbar, EVERYTHING left me alone after that, including DH! :eek: :( :confused:

Bunkie, ya know, I didn't notice any stevia aftertaste, but the aftertaste from the repellant plant *might* have had something to do with that... ;)

Laughin' at myself,
Diana

[bunkie]

bwahahahaha phantom!:O)

sandbar, we bought our chocolate mint plants at Nichol's Nursery in Oregon. peace, bunkie.

[Sandbar]

Thanks, Bunkie. I'll look for some locally grown, otherwise, I'll have to bite the bullet and order some. It's on my "must-have" list this year. :)

[louanne]

stevia seeds I ordered...wont be comming....dog gone it.... really wantd to try that this year....sigh

[Sandbar]

stevia seeds I ordered...wont be comming....dog gone it.... really wantd to try that this year....sighPM me your address, Loanne. I received a small packet from SSE this year. I'll send you a few.

[louanne]

Where did you get your stevia seeds....I got a note and a refund for mine...
really wanted to try it too

[louanne]

I got stevia seeds ...hoo ya....