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Rookie farmers get herbal
PAUL DALBY
SPECIAL TO THE STAR
In a sometimes turbulent history, tea has started a war of independence, been traded as smugglers' contraband even more prized than cocaine, and suffered a stinging condemnation from the church pulpit for causing "paralytic disorders."
But for Matt and Karen Caruana, tea has proved to be a truly liberating force.
Three
years ago, the Caruanas were just two small cogs in
the big wheel of
So the Caruanas bought a 100-acre farm just north of here in
eastern
Armed only with great conviction, strong backs and precious little farming experience, they have transformed Porcupine Creek Farm into a new kind of homestead. Traditional pastures have been replaced with rows of herbs to produce their range of herbal teas.
In late fall, it offers a great splash of colour: the purple flowers of the mallow, the orange and lemon blooms of the marigolds, ruby red bergamots and the blue giant hyssops.
It's all eye-candy for the Caruanas. "We wanted to get out of the city, we liked to work outdoors and we were avid gardeners, so the farm seemed like a great idea," Matt explains. "Anyway, I grew up surrounded by farms and the best times I had were as a child, so I figured this would be good for my kids, too."
The Caruanas have two children Thomas, 20 months, and Martin, 10. Matt also has two daughters by his first marriage, 10-year-old Janie and 13-year-old Annabel, who spend long weekends and holidays at the farm. They're all squeezed into the cheesemaker's tiny house now, but hope to move into the much larger farmhouse high on a ridge overlooking the property next summer.
The Caruanas' life-change strategy seems to be working well. They started small by setting up a website to sell organic herbal teas and culinary herbs from their farm gate and by mail order via http://www.porcupinecreekfarm.ca/.
"We started our herbs from scratch using certified organic heritage seeds supplied by the Village Green store in Foxboro (Ont.). We had chosen herbs because they're easier to grow and most of them are perennial," says Karen.
"Using them to make herbal teas seemed like a good idea because we wanted to find another outlet for our herbs that would generate extra revenue to keep the farm running."
The first
and biggest hurdle was to get organic certification for their herbs from the
Organic Crop Producers and Processors (OCPP) of
"We had to prove the land had only been used for grazing and then do soil testing to ensure there was no residual chemicals or fertilizers," Matt says. "We also had to show how we were going to keep the weeds down by hoe and mulching, then go through an inspection after the first transition year."
The Caruanas passed their organic certification and quickly signed on with the Quinte Organic Farmers' Co-operative, which jointly markets the products of 10 other local organic farmers.
Their
distinctive teas, like the After Dinner Soother with its heady blend of
spearmint, bergamot, lemon marigold and calendula, quickly made a splash
throughout eastern
Now the
rookie tea farmers have their sights set on the big time: the GTA. Every week
their Porcupine Creek Farm tea, sold under Quinte Co-operative's banner, goes
to market at both the Riverdale Farmers' Market and the Thornhill
Village Market. And their new range of culinary herbs is stocked by the Healthy
Butcher on
"I think our herbal teas and our culinary herbs are so much fresher and more colourful than that grey-looking stuff you buy in a supermarket," says Karen, who doubles as the chief blender.
The Caruanas certainly have the perfect place to dry, store and blend the herbs and blossoms from their fields: the old cheese factory, built to last in 1907, but closed down in the late '50s when demand waned for locally made cheese.
As big as a barn, the two-storey cheese factory has concrete walls two metres thick and a metal roof supported by massive oak trusses.
"We use the attic as our drying shed," says Matt. "All I had to do was build a staircase up from the ground floor and cut a hole into the attic. The sun warms the metal roof and then the whole attic and there are no windows to let sunshine in. It's just perfect."
Herbs and flowers such as lovage, spearmint, yarrow and thyme are dried on stainless steel mesh racks in the attic for two to five days (depending on the sunshine hours), then packed into food-grade plastic bags and stored in cardboard drums on the ground floor of the cheese factory.
Then it's up to Karen to find the magical mix that makes a great herbal tea.
"The recipes and blends are pretty much our own ... Then we do our own taste-testing, usually with friends and family helping us."
Here are a few of their blends:
· Cold Comfort Blend (spearmint, yarrow and mallow blossoms): Yarrow, the aromatic wild flower, is an old favourite for herbal cold remedies, and mallow blossoms are a staple in wellness teas.
· Lemon Spice Digestive (spearmint, lemon balm, thyme and coriander): Aromatic with the sparkling flavour of the spearmint and lemon balm coming through in every mouthful.
· Dreams Away (catnip, marjoram, spearmint and hops): Mint and spice aromas. Soft, soothing and buttery.
· Citrus Cooler (orange marigold, sage, yarrow, lemon verbena and lemon grass): Beautiful to look at and delicious to drink. Soft, round, slightly fragrant flavours. The lemon verbena gives it quite a tang.
· Downtime-Sleeptime
(yarrow,
· Hyssop Tasty Tea (blue giant hyssop): Liqueur manufacturers use hyssop as an important constituent of bitter aperitifs like Chartreuse. But the delightful licorice scent comes through every time. Hyssop has a slightly menthol aroma and flavour and a dry finish on the palate.
· After Dinner Soother (spearmint, bergamot, lemon marigold and calendula): Great aroma and the dominant taste is an interesting blend of spearmint and the spicy flavour of the calendula.
· Nursing Mothers' Tea (caraway, fennel and aniseed): The Caruanas cannot grow enough of the herbs used here to meet demand and must buy extra herbs from other organic growers. You don't have to be a nursing mother to like this, as the same herbs that increase breast milk supply also aid digestion. A sweet licorice flavour with peppermint undertones.
Says Karen of their creations: "We're looking for a blend where it's not one single herb that stands out but a subtle fusion of flavours. But most important, we have to like drinking it, too."
Paul Dalby is a Warkworth writer.
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