Leafing It Up With Tea

Hello again, everyone, I am finally back.  Himself and I both had the flu, fortunately at slightly different times, so one of us could get meals and hot drinks.  One of the prescriptions is to get lots of rest and drink plenty of liquids.  Such an oxymoron.  Think about it - the natural result of drinking a lot is many bathroom trips - that's not really restful.  Ah well.

I haven't been trying new teas - my palate has just barely recovered and I don't want to give an off-base report.  However, there are many tea festivals coming up and I can let you know about them.

As many of you know, the fall Tea and Coffee Festival was cancelled due to Sandy, but it is rescheduled for March 23-24 in NYC at the 69th Regiment Armory, 68 Lexington Ave.  If you go to their website before Jan 31, the tickets are half-price.  A good deal.  www.coffeeandteafestival.com/nyc

The second annual San Francisco International Tea Festival is March 10.

The World Tea Expo  is in June, in Las Vegas.  www.worldteaexpo.com  World Tea East will be in Atlanta in the fall.

There's one for the Northwest in Seattle in the fall.

Then there are the ones in Toronto,(February 2nd), Victoria, British Columbia, (February 9th) Ottowa in December and the First Flush Festival at the Charleston Tea Plantation in South Carolina, which is on May 19th.

Wouldn't it be fun to go to all of them?  If only there were "world enough and time."  Probably money, too.


I got out my old Fannie Farmer Cookbook to make something over the holidays. My grandmother gave it to me when I was about 13 - many years ago. It reminded me of our marriage. Stained, battered, underlined, given to falling open at certain passages, but still capable of producing wonderful things, a base for memorable times, sweetness in times of sorrow and difficulty, a steady diet of day-to-day goodness. Here’s to battered cookbooks and long marriages everywhere. In some countries, brides are given old spoons as a testament to the solidity of long marriages. I have two that have survived from our wedding, nearly 40 years ago. Maybe it is time to pass one on. 

There should be a tradition for passing on teapots.  What say, we start one.  Wouldn't that make a nice 13th birthday or graduation or wedding gift?  Although our children may be at ages to poo-poo tradition, passing it on is still a good thing.  Family traditions give us anchors in a crazy world.