Stevia has become quite a cant in late year — a sweetener that seems to satisfy the changeless human quest to have our cake with no consequences .
To be decipherable , I believe insugar — existent , new dough , that is . The body use simoleons for energy , and once upon a time , it asked for what it postulate when it take it . Sugar and sorghum cane , maple and other Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree sap , and honey provided any sweetening that humans needed beyond what ’s naturally in yield . Then we started figuring out how to super - polish these sugars , and sell them cheaply — if you do n’t count the human toll , that is , from slavery to Type II Diabetes — and what was once a instinctive and reasonable craving for a little sugariness became what total to an addiction that now crosses many cultures .
I believe in sugar . I do n’t consider in overabundance .
End of rant .
So I neglect stevia when it first appear on my microwave radar , but as I learned more about it , I became intrigue . purportedly , it had been in enjoyment by Asian cultures for millennium and was 100 times sweeter than sugar . I interpret a little — and memorize that in fact , it was never used in Asia , but in South America , specifically Brazil and Paraguay , and for more like 1,500 years . Also , according to theGlobal Healing Center , it ’s only 40 times sweeter than sugar in raw foliage form , though the powdered sweetener you find oneself in fund is up to 300 time scented .
Giving Stevia A Try
If it was really a plant , and not something humans had made in a lab , then I decide I might be interested . I looked for it at my local natural health food storage and gasped in electric shock at the price — that lilliputian bottleful was somewhere in the vicinity of $ 16 ( though , for 644 servings ) ! I bought some , and I care it . Because I still do n’t trust in excess , and because I also believe in sugar , those 644 portion lasted me more than two yr .
Being me , I shortly began to enquire if I could grow it . Last summer , while buying starts forother herbs , I happen upon I could buy a toilet of four stevia plants at a local gardening center . I sneaked a bit of leaf to chew . It was , indeed , super sweet , but it had just a speck of herby bitterness . That was OK with me , but also made me wonder if , as usual , the whole industrial plant had a lot more in it than the refined blank gunpowder in the bottle at the store .
I drive the pot and planted them in my kitchen herb garden , which grows right outside my front doorway . Stevia was effortless to originate , and in fact grew taller than I expected , so next year I ’ll plant it farther back from the edge of the bottom . I make out the plants on half the garden but not the other , so they ’d bloom and I could save their seminal fluid ; this year I ’ll plant more . you may take them indoors over winter — I’m going to render that with one or two .
my_amii/Flickr
Using Stevia
I apply stevia mostly for things like dulcorate teatime ( herbal , in my case , which should really be call a tisane ) . One fresh twig can be immerse with afternoon tea leaf and will dulcorate to my taste perception . experimentation to see how much you require .
Stevia alsodries welland keeps its spirit . you may , of course , dry in a dehydrator , but if you do n’t have one , simply find a affectionate , ironical situation . If you have an old gun stove with an oven pilot light , use that . you may also dry out on top of a icebox , Deepfreeze or microwave oven , or advert in bunches in a obscure , dry spot .
When you steep leaf in tea , you are only get their core and oil . Another way to use dry herb is to grind it up and use the whole matter . In early fall , after I had collected all the bloom germ I could , I slue the whole plants and dried them in the dehydrator so they would be well - dry . Then I put these into my VitaMix ( that thing is worth its weight unit in gold ! ) and amount up with about 3/4 cup of gunpowder from those four plants . ( This does not reckon what I had used over the trend of the season . ) I use the gunpowder to dulcify cocoa , which I make myself from real , 100 - percent chocolate powder . However , there is one disadvantage : This pulverisation float on top of the boozing and gives just a pinch of grittiness . I find I do n’t bear in mind it ; I stir the cup now and then . This way , I ’m getting all the health welfare of the herbaceous plant .
I have not yet grown enough stevia to prove it in baking or homemade candy , but I will . Bottom line : I wish it !
Karen P/Flickr
