Dell Food Dehydrator Gets Rave Reviews From Do-It-Yourself Tea Drinker

While Ingles' Laura Lynn brand tea bags (the tagless variety) will only set you back $1.00 for 100 bags if you wait until they are on sale (the regular price is a barely affordable $1.50), FREE tea is so much better for your wallet as well as for your soul. One of my favorite WILD teas is New Jersey Tea (Ceanothus americanus L.). This plant is commonly found growing rampant in roadway ditches throughout the foothills region. Once the leaves have been thoroughly dried they can be crumbled and brewed with the same proportions of "just off the boil" water as store-bought teas. While I do own a conventional NESCO food dehydrator, a more convenient and "free" drying alternative was recently serendipitously provided to me. On my way to work, as I was scanning the ditches for edibles, I noticed a small patch of New Jersey Tea and picked a few sprigs to later dry and enjoy. Once at work, I placed my fortunate find on my Dell laptop and simply forgot about everything else as I quickly became absorbed in many interesting and challenging work-related activities. At the end of the day, much to my pleasure and astonishment, I found that the heat generated by the Dell had transformed my little green sprigs into wonderfully wilted versions of their former selves - ready to be made into a relaxing cup of tea. One note of WARNING - New Jersey tea does not contain caffeine...