May I Recommend the Carrot Top Tea?

My garden in a jungle of plant parts that I don't eat! Granted, they are food for the insects that make the soil, but many are quite edible by humans if we could find a tasty use. Carrot tops are especially worrisome to me because they just look so green, healthy, and edible. I guess it's their similarity to parsley. When you pull up 4 or 5 carrots for a salad, you end up with a peck of greens.

Last year I found a recipe for soup that included carrot tops. It was okay, but not good enough to try again. The greens are too bitter for soup, in my opinion. This year, I ran across a recipe for carrot top tea, so thought I'd give it a try. It's for iced tea, but as a Southerner, that's fine by me. I think the carrot top tea is as good or better than most of the herbal teas I've tried. I think I'll try microwaving a cup for hot tea from my next batch.

Here's the recipe. It appears on many websites, so I'm not sure where it originated. My guess is that it's been around for a while, due to the plant's medicinal claims to fame. I've added proportions as a starting point, although you should experiment to make the tea conform to your preference of tea strength.

Carrot Top Tea

Put washed and torn carrot leaves from 5 or 6 carrots in a pot. Pour two quarts of boiling water over them. Leave to steep until the tea is cold. Strain to remove the leaves; put leaves in compost. Place the pitcher of tea in the refrigerator to chill.

According to the folks at the World Carrot Museum, "carrot tops are edible and nutritional, rich in protein, minerals and vitamins. The tops are loaded with potassium, which is what makes them bitter." In addition, the World Carrot Museum (a virtual museum by the way) has dedicated a page to carrot tops with all sorts of information about how great carrot tops are as an antiseptic and for conditions like flatulence and bad breath. The page has recipes that include carrot tops in soups, salads, tobouleh, and gumbo.

Other useful carrot information that I took away from the World Carrot Museum site included storing tips: cut the tops off before you store, put water in the bag to keep carrots from going limp, and store carrots away from fruit because that causes them to emit a gas and become bitter.

Eat more carrots . . . and carrot tops!