We might not live in the tropics, able to grow our own fields of sugar cane. But, that doesn’t mean we can’t grow our own sweeteners. Better yet, sugar free sweeteners!
It’s been awhile since we’ve grown stevia! We didn’t have much luck in our raised beds in our early experiments. But, out of curiosity, we tried again this season using our high performance sub irrigated growing containers. And, well, the results have been phenomenal!
Like with so many things we grow, focusing on warmer soils was the trick to high levels of production. Just a few plants here will get us many ounces of dried stevia. Given this plant’s native origins being in South America, this definitely checks out!
If you’ve never used stevia, it’s not “quite” sugar. It is very sweet, with some estimating it’s about 200-300 times sweeter than sugar. But, it does have a slight aftertaste that some people find takes a bit to get used to. It can be used like you would sugar in many cases, from sweetening tea to baking. It works in most things, except where you need the caramelization qualities of sugar.
If you’re like us, you’ve given a serious look at your sugar intake and have taken active steps to reduce it significantly. Artificial sweeteners have their place in the world, but some of these have been shown to induce health issues (e.g. sucralose) and that sows a lot of doubt in lab produced sweeteners. There’s nothing artificial about stevia! Plus, with a glycemic index of zero, stevia doesn’t spike your blood sugar levels like some artificial sweeteners do.
You can process stevia in a couple of major ways. We generally prefer to dry the leaves first as this gives you a bit of time before subsequent refinement. From here, you can make simple stevia powder by grinding down the dried leaves into a fine powder. But, we generally prefer to make liquid stevia extract by soaking the leaves in a neutral vodka for a couple of days, after which it’s filtered and stored. The preservative nature of alcohol can get you 3-5 years of preservation time! In either case, a little goes a long way with this stuff!
It might not have occurred to you that you can grow your very own sugar substitute in your garden! Even if you’re way up north! Whether you’re trying to knock down those carbs, reduce your sugar intake or just trying to control your weight a bit, stevia’s a plant that you might want to get familiar with!
Oh, and PS. We’ve decided to end our Flower Friday series for the season. While we do have some flowers, things are in pretty rough shape with our rain and cooler temperatures. Plus, we’ve just got way too much going on with the food production side! We hope you enjoyed them while they lasted!
