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Wanted to update you on my last stevia sweetener experiment. This time when i pruned, i dried the leaves and then steeped them in hot water. I put maybe ten dried leaves in two cups of water and steeped for a very long time. It got a little sweet, but it took two cups of the concoction to...

Heehee! Actually, it turned out pretty good. Although, i will say that the amount think you harvested and the amount that cooks up are not similar. You really need to harvest quite a lot for a decent side dish. I think, though, that when i do it again, i will harvest only the very tips to...

I almost forgot to report back about my stevia brew. I like it, but it isn't a sweetener exactly. You know that other flavor that's in the leaf when you just pick one and chew it up? Well, that flavor is magnified in my brew by quite a bit. The sweetness - not so much. Next time, i'll dry...

My concoction is very strong; it also has a lot of the flavor of the plant - as opposed to just the sweetness of it. I'm wishing now that i had dried half of the leaves and THEN steeped them in hot water. I'm thinking that would make a sweeter concentration, possibly with less flavor of the...

Me too. I noticed my one plant outside, and i grabbed a leaf to see how the flavor was this early in the season. YUM. I pruned it, and now i'm simmering the leaves i pruned to see if i can make some sweet "tea" to add to my -- well, whatever i want. ;) Snagging a leaf to eat while working...

At some point on this thread, we've mentioned pruning stevia. It's looking like it's time to prune mine, and i got to looking and found this article. It doesn't get super descriptive, but it's sort of helpful, and i thought i would share. http://www.bellaonline.net/articles/art10528.asp

You MUST know that i am counting vines in my head trying to figure out if i can pull this off with the honeysuckle around here. How many flowers would you say you picked? What a wonderful thing to have to give as gifts!

Hattie, you are certainly no idiot. :rolleyes: And you are very helpful. I had watched Green Deane's first video on smilax, and frankly, it wasn't very helpful. But the one you linked to is very helpful. I shall recommend anyone who is interested in this eating the smilax business watch it -...

psst! Hattie. what video? :idunno :D

hi hoodat! i read that they should snap clean in your fingers if they're ready to be harvested. is that true? the ones i tried to harvest yesterday were very tough. i could snap them - i couldn't even rip them. i would'v needed shears to cut them, but i left them instead. are they just too...

Part of my yard is a virtual garden of smilax that grows wild. I have been reading about how it is edible - you can harvest the stalks and prepare like asparagus - or green beans for the smaller ones. This is SO intriguing to me, but when i went to harvest, i think my plants are still too...

That is intriguing! Is the whole flower edible? I really want to know how this turns out for you.

Oh, i love the flavor of stevia. It doesn't taste anything like saccharin to me. I can't stand the taste of synthetic sweeteners. I don't like stevia in coffee, but in tea or as as sweetener for cranberry juice, it's just amazing.

yes, it did try, but that doesn't say much. i'm just not very good at it - or don't know what i'm doing. i had a couple that looked like they might make it, but then i let them get too dry or something - so i ended up dumping the whole bunch. i planted my original stevia - or transplanted it...

Me too. Mine is coming back very nicely. I read some where between last year's miniscule harvest and now - that you're supposed to prune the plant during the growing season to keep it from getting all long and gangley like it does. I want to do that this time, but i'm curious if anyone can...

yep

hahaha! that is wacky!

I wish someone would bring rhubarb (from someplace where it grows) to some farmers markets here. I love love love rhubarb. But it's not even worth trying to grow here.

wow! that's an awesome option for flowers - especially wild flowers. i'll have to look it over, but i'm digging the possibilities.

ha! i totally didn't see that column. maybe i'll get some pots to plant them in. i really hope mine do well.