Wild Blackberry Leaf Tea

Happy Summer Solstice! The plants are absorbing an amazing amount of solar energy right now, and it’s a great time to take advantage of their ability to turn that energy into food. I encourage you to grab a bag and head out to pick the always abundant wild blackberry leaves. This is not an herbal infusion to drink on a regular basis. Medicinally it is touted as relieving diarrhea, so enjoy it only occasionally for its good flavor.

This video highlights identification, harvesting and preparation of a blackberry leaf herbal infusion. It’s tea time, and what goes better with your herbal tea than a cookie. Here’s the recipe for the cookies in the video. My oven runs hot, so play around with the temperature of your own oven and enjoy.

Rosemary Agave Nectar Cookies

3/4 c butter, softened
3/4 c sugar
1 egg
1/4 c agave nectar
1 T lemon juice
1 t lemon zest
2 c flour
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1/2 t cinnamon
1/2 t wild spicebush berries ground, or nutmeg
1 T fresh rosemary, finely chopped

Cream the butter and sugar with mixer until smooth. Beat in egg, agave nectar, lemon juice, lemon zest and mix well. Slowly mix in dry ingredients…don’t overmix. Turn oven to 300 and drop cookies onto greased baking sheet. Bake about 12 minutes. Yields 2 dozen cookies.