The firs time I tried to grow chamomile I carefully planted neat rows of seeds into nice fertile soil and watered them diligently, and, nothing happened. One stunted little plant grew with a couple of fuzzy leaves but it never flowered.
The following year I chucked what was left of the chamomile seeds into the garden along with some other flower seeds in a last ditch attempt. This time I got a couple of small plants that had one or two flowers each, but that was it.
After those first attempts I concluded that chamomile just wasn’t something that I could grow, and I moved on.
But last year, when the spring rain finally started to give way to some sunshine, I discovered a couple of self seeded chamomile plants, thriving, all of their own accord! I rescued them before the tractor went through and shifted them to the herb bed that wasn’t going to be turned. I wasn’t confident, but a week or two later I had three big chamomile bushes, covered with flower heads!
Don’t ask me what I did to make it grow this seasons, because I have no idea, but I made the most out of it while we had it… I was going to make homemade chamomile tea.
When the chamomile was in full flower Noah and I headed out to the garden with a big bowl and some scissors. It was great cutting practice for Noah who snipped flower heads off the bush and put them in the bowl. We were careful not to get too much stem and no leaves.
We cut a lot of flower heads on the first day, and a week later we came back and cut a whole heap more. We also picked some mint and some lemon balm leaves to add to our homemade tea.
We could have left the chamomile on the window sill to dry in the sun for a week or two, spread out on some trays lined with paper towel, but since we were given a Fowlers Dehydrator to try, we dried our flower heads in the dehydrator and it took only a couple of hours. (We also made strawberry fruit leather shapes with the dehydrator.)
When it was completely dry and crumbly we put it in a glass jar with a tight lid and stored it in a paper bag, out of direct sunlight.
- Fresh German Chamomile flower heads
- Fresh mint leaves
- Fresh lemon balm leaves.
- Cut the chamomile flowers close to the flower head. Be careful not to include too much stem or any leaves.
- Gently wash the chamomile flowers, mint and lemon balm and allow to drain on a tea towel.
- Using a dehydrator – arrange the flowers and leaves in a single layer on the drying trays. Set your dehydrator to 35 C. The flowers and leaves take approximately three hours to dry. They are ready when the flowers crumble.
- Sun drying – place the washed flowers and leaves in a single layer on trays lined with paper towel and place in a sunny window sill. Turn the flowers and leaves every few days until they are completely dry and crumbly.
- Place your dried tea glass jar with an airtight lid and store in a cool dark place. Check after a couple of days, if there is condensation in the jar, the tea needs more drying time.
Along with a little tea pot that has a little mesh bucket do-hicky for the tea (that is the technical term for it I’m sure) our homemade chamomile tea made the perfect present for my Mum who is a tea drinking fiend.
I am not a tea drinker but the smell that came from drying the flower heads may just convince me to try some, and my Mum tells me it is the best chamomile teas she has ever had, though she may be a little biased.
Do you drink herbal tea? What is your favorite combination?
{Disclosure: I was given a Fowlers Ultimate Dehydrator to try. I am under no obligation to blog about this product. All opinions are my own.}
Little mesh bucket do-hickey is definitely the name for it ;-) Will try this – hope my chamomile grows!!
How gorgeous that you can make your own tea from your garden!!!! We have some mint that grows like crazy. I have used a bit of that with lemon.
I LOVE those flowers.. they make me absolutely happy… but I had no idea that this is chamomile (duh!). I do not drink herbal tea (yet!), I need my milky sweet tea in the mornings to function throughout the day…but I really would love to start on some Green tea as i have read, it is awesome for one’s health. Someday I am going to taste this tea as well.
Oh it sounds wonderful. Are you happy with the Fowlers dehydrator? I’ve been looking for one and that one keeps popping up on my list as one I could afford and still pretty good according to the reviews.
I’ve had a play with an Aldi dehydrator that belonged to a friend and this Fowlers one and I found both did what I wanted them to do and were easy to use. My husband says the Fowlers one has a better motor and should last longer which may be important given that we often run it for long periods.
So I’m loving the dehydrator, and wish I had some more trays and another fruit leather insert so I could make loads more at a time! If you can afford one and have the space, definitely get one, especially great for when you have a glut of something from the garden!
Can one just throw the flowers into the pot and boil them? Why does one need to dry them?
You can do that but dried flowers give a more intense taste and it is a way to store them long term.
Thank you! I thought the flowers in our garden were weeds until a friend pointed out they were in fact chamomile. I was thrilled and went immediately to your recipe. We have a ton of lemon balm so I’m drying that too! Thank you :)
Thanks for the recipe I’ve decided that since we can’t get rid of these weeds that we may as well make tea with them.
FYI. They are a noxious weed and are not native to North America. Farmers and Businesses can get in a lot of trouble if the wrong government worker discovers them on your property please don’t let them go to seed uncontrolled.
http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/weedsbc/weed_desc/scentless.html
How interesting… I didn’t know it was classified as a weed in the US. I can’t find any information confirming it is a problem where I live in Australia and it certainly doesn’t spread here (probably not enough water) and I’ve all but given up and decided to grow Roman chamomile instead as I have more success.
Thanks for sharing the information, definitely something to keep on top of.
I dropped a packet of chamomile seeds by accident, and found some plants growing in the cracks of my pavers. Unfortunately, before i got the chance to rescue them someone removed all the “weeds”. I haven’t had any luck with them since. But I will try again. I enjoy some herb teas and prefer them to pharmaceutical medication.
It’s funny because I’ve never grown as good a crop as when they came up on their own as a weed! LOL
I had great success germinating chamomile in an old egg carton. I just put a scoop of “organic choice garden soil” it’s made by Miracle Grow here in the US. It’s just an inexpensive soil full of organic bits and peat moss and made mostly for outdoor gardens (it has no vermiculite or perlite like other potting soils).
I simply dropped a pinch of seeds into each egg compartment on top of the soil and gave a light stir being careful not to force the seeds too deep into the soil. Like with grass seed, I believe chamomile seems to germinate easily at a very shallow depth or even directly on the soil surface. Next I watered the egg carton until the soil almost looked soupy and put the carton in indirect sunlight on my deck. When it dried out a bit I watered until soupy again a second time about 3 days later. Within a week I had nearly 90% germination and let the egg carton dry enough to easily transplant the egg sized plugs into larger containers. Works like a charm!
Great tips!
I am going to try your method when spring rolls around down here – thanks!