How to Grow and Make Your Own Tea by Tom Oder (www.treehugger.com)

Imagine a cup of tea that started in your own garden. If growing your own food isn’t your cup of tea, Cassie Liversidge is out to change your mind. Be forewarned, though, that if you love tea, Liversidge has already won half of the mind-game battle. 

Liversidge, an artist, writer, and gardener who lives in London and says that one of the best parts of her day “is sitting in bed in the morning, reading to my children and drinking a cup of black tea,” has written a book that explains how anyone can easily plant, grow and harvest a large variety of common plants from which they can brew teas and tisanes. "Homegrown Tea: An Illustrated Guide to Planting, Harvesting, and Blending Teas and Tisanes" (St. Martin’s Press) is due out March 25.

“One of my main reasons for writing 'Homegrown Tea' was because I would like people to utilize and understand the plants they grow so that we can all live in a more sustainable way,” said Liversidge, who came to love plants and develop a healthy respect for sustainability at an early age when she was growing up at her parents’ plant nursery. “When you have grown your own, you naturally learn about that plant, not only how to grow it but also when it is good to harvest as well as knowing what effect consuming it has on your body.”

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