Sage Tea

JS:
I guess it's time to accept I just don't have a green thumb.

For two years now, our so-called garden has been languishing. Most everything we've planted in there garden has failed to reach their best, their full potential. From potatoes to cabbage, sugar peas to carrots, nothing blossomed, nothing thrived. I've had half a mind to dig the darn garden up and build a roasting pit instead.

It seems like the only thing that has taken a liking to our plot of land is sage.

It is indeed the garden's salvation, the only plant that has managed to survive and even thrive in what I'm guessing is a very harsh habitat (though I have no idea why that is so). Our sage plant has wonderful and beautiful-looking leaves and the leaves are oh-so-fragrant.



JS:
Unfortunately, save for the occasional roast chicken or roast turkey with sage butter and very infrequent squash-with-fried-sage dishes, we don't use much sage in cooking.

Thankfully, sage has a great many uses other than in cooking.

That above is a sage tea or infusion, made from steeping sage leaves in hot water. Drinking sage tea has numerous health benefits. There has been an exciting new study that shows sage might help in lowering blood sugar.

Apparently, gargling with a sage solution also has benefits, healing mouth ulcers and canker sores and soothing sore throats. Or, at least drinking a sage infusion alleviates the pain associated with these conditions.

Sage has powerful antiseptic properties and can be used to clean wounds. It can also be used as an aftershave, given its astringent properties. Quite surprisingly, it can be used as an antiperspirant due to its moisture-drying properties, although I'm not too clear as to the mechanics of how one can use sage leaves as an antiperspirant.

Pretty nifty plant, wouldn't you say? Sage, yea.



For more information on sage and its numerous beneficial or medicinal qualities, visit these links.
http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/s/sages-05.html
http://www.gardensablaze.com/HerbSageMed.htm

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For showcasing SAGE, we're submitting this post to Weekend Herb Blogging, a world-wide food blogging event (created by Kalyn's Kitchen, now maintained by Haalo of Cook (almost) Anything at Least Once) with the goal of helping each other learn about cooking with herbs and plant ingredients.

If you'd like to participate, see who's hosting next week. WHB is hosted this week by Lynne of Cafe Lynnylu.