New Tea Ball and Chamomile Tea

I've grown chamomile for several years, not because I planted it, but because it reseeds itself each year.  That is fine with me because I adore it.  Not only is it a pretty plant, but the flowers can be used to make a soothing tea.  

There are two varieties of chamomile, Roman and German.  Roman Chamomile is a low-growing perennial herb while German Chamomile is an annual.  Both of them contain Chamazulene which is an antioxidant that serves as a powerful anti-inflammatory agent.  No wonder chamomile has been used as an herbal medicine for thousands of years.

 My chamomile is the German variety.  The flowers look like this.

I wrote about using the fresh flowers to make tea in the following post.

http://windyacresnaturalfarm.blogspot.com/2011/05/chamomile-tea.html

This year, however, I made a point to save some of the flowers to dry so that I could have chamomile tea this winter.  The flowers are easy to dry.  I just laid them on a paper towel on the kitchen counter for several days.  Here's what they looked like after they dried.

I recently purchased a nice tea ball that I like a lot.  

The end turns and causes half of the ball to rotate so that it opens up like this.

I put about a tablespoon of the dried chamomile flowers inside, filled a cup with hot (almost boiling) water and lowered the tea ball in the cup.

After a few minutes, it looked like this.

When the desired strength is reached, I add a little honey to the cup.

There is nothing better than a nice soothing cup of chamomile tea at bedtime to help one sleep.