With the chilly breath of winter now in the air, there’s even more reason to enjoy herbal teas from the garden. Our favourite is aniseed myrtle – we just pinch off about 5 leaves from the bush, scrunch them up and pop them in a tea strainer with boiling water for 5 minutes. Native to northern NSW, aniseed myrtle is a gorgeous rainforest tree, and growing in popularity as a bush food, being used for flavouring sauces and preserves, as well as being dried for tea.

Pineapple sage is another fragrant plant we like to make teas from sometimes. It’s also one of our favourite flowering plants in the garden, and we have bushes of it scattered all along our paths. It looks stunning when covered with little bright pinkish red flowers, and adds bursts of colour to the sea of green in our yard. It’s also fabulous for attracting insects and birds – we have Eastern Spinebill honeyeaters come into our garden just to enjoy the nectar from the flowers.

Lemon grass, lemon balm, and lemon myrtle are other herbs we’ve made teas with. As well as warming us up from the inside, these yummy herbal teas can have a range of health benefits, depending on the kind of herbs you use. By far the most helpful herb book we’ve come across is Isabell Shippards ‘How to use Herbs in your everyday life.’ Snippets from this fabulous book can be found on Isabells website at www.herbsarespecial.com.au.

We’d love to hear about any herbal teas you’d made at home, or have heard are worth trying...