The Essential Herbal Blog: Taking Tea

 When we took a good look at the 2023 calendar for events, this tea jumped right off the page and we signed up months ago.  We weren’t disappointed. We found ourselves seated at our old class table from A Way of Life Herbal Class taught by Susanna of The Rosemary House, and one of our classmates was there, along with several other interesting companions.  I’m not saying we were at the best table, but we were at the best table.Each of us were able to choose our own small pot of tea.  I chose Vanilla Sugar Cookie.   There was a menu on the table that was very cleverly put together, weaving superstitions in with the creative offerings.  I forgot to take a picture of the Copper Pennies, but it was a delicious salad of carrot slices, cauliflower, and onions with lettuce garnish.  The sweet dressing made this dish amazing.Starting from the left (9 o’clock) is Green Apple and Cheddar Cheese Chicken Salad, Peach and Brie Tea Sandwich, Cucumber with Garlic Cheese Spread Sandwich, Maple Cream on Pumpkin Raisin Bread, and finally Radish Rounds with Parsley Butter.  The Blackberry Jalapeno Jam and Cream Tartlet is held above the plate.  Our table discussed whether it was making us feel like arguing amongst ourselves as was mentioned in the menu. I was shocked to find that the radish and butter was my favorite (and I liked them all).  I will be eating that at home.  Who would have thought?  There has never been a bad scone come out of the magical kitchen of Sweet Remembrances.  I was pretty full by the time the desserts got to the table, so enjoyed the umbrella cookie and the banana cream pie, but saved the truffle for later.Then it was time for the talk.  Rissa Miller is a consummate speaker, completely at ease and knows her subject matter inside out.   She set about explaining the origin of many superstitions.  Maryanne and I had a mother who was as reasonable as the day is long, but would do a lot of things to avoid leaving a building through a different door than the one she used to enter, and she once gave me an icy glare for opening an umbrella indoors.  We won’t even discuss placing a hat on the bed.  We don’t know where these came from, or why, although during the discussion, Rissa explained that in the Victorian era, umbrellas were not the flimsy things they are today.  One could accidentally impale someone standing too close.  Being so close to Halloween, there were lots of correlations to witches and werewolves and silver and graves.  All in all, a great afternoon!