Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Kumquat Tea and Trivial Things

-Keep your lemon tea. My tea rolls with kumquats.-

I have too many frickin' kumquats. Seriously, you have no idea. I have been deluged by them to the point that I've had to become more and more creative with recipes. Heck, I've been giving away pounds of them. Literally, pounds.

So when I stumbled upon Todd and Diane's recipe for kumquat tea, I was relieved. One can hardly call it a recipe due to its simplicity, one may find more difficulty in rubbing their belly while patting their head at the same time.

Now recently things have been hectic, well irritating, to say the least. Not so much now as it was a month ago, but there are tiny bits of chaotic annoyance. These little things, fallout from the fire, like dirty corners where ragged dust balls collect because you missed a spot in your sweeping appear. A forgotten bill, the realization that the cleaners lost the cake pan, where are my glov - oh yes! burned to the ground, and the cheese grater still hasn't been replaced yet.

Individually, they're of little concern. Trivial worries you can shoo away and best with a stamp of your foot. Yet, when they occur on a near daily basis, these small concerns congeal into problems, mesh into worries which claw deep inside to the front of your mind making it a delicate and crammed chrysalis of stress.

Yet in the simplest thing we can find solace. This kumquat tea - so ideal, so healing, and so simple I can barely contain the laughter it stirs within me for being so blind to never have grasped at such a solution, a bright kumquat colored ribbon flapping in front of me.

Its lightness on the tongue and bright flavor, as if you were staring into the sun, seem to banish the gravity of things. Sweet, cirtusy, a new twist on the classic cold cure and flavorful tissane of lemon tea.

-Perfect to fight off the gravity.-

12 comments:

  1. Can you make kumquat chutney? If so, I want a jar!

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  2. yeah! i vote for kumquat chutney too!

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  3. Post a recipe for kumquat chutney and then I'll swing by and pick up some of your excess fruit and make some! (Seriously-I'm a local reader and I've been looking for someone with extra kumquats. If you still have too many I'd love some).

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  4. inoakpark - CSUS campus near the art building. It's packed. Bring a step stool and a bag.

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  5. Glad you like the tea Garrett. But the tea isn't nearly as wonderful as your writing. You have an amazing way with words. xoxoo

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  6. what an amazingly simple idea!! I can't wait to try this, I can already imagine how fragrant it is... thanks for sharing it!

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  7. Garrett-Thanks for the tip!

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  8. I always laugh at your kumquat posts, Garrett! I mean you have more recipes for kumquats on Vanilla Garlic than I do for wild ducks on Hunter Angler Gardener Cook -- and you don't actually own a kumquat tree! I feel like staking out that tree on campus and shouting at you with a bullhorn:

    Mr. McCord. Please step away from that kumquat tree. Put the stepladder down and turn around slowly...

    ;-)

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  9. Hello Garrett,
    How interesting, an excess of kumquats! The tea recipe looks good but maybe you could also try to make candied kumquats. I don't know how difficult it is to make candied fruit but it's worth trying.
    To give you an idea of what it looks like: http://www.histoiresucree.com/product_pages/candied_limequat_kumquat.html

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  10. Isabelle: I do a few jars of candied kumquats every year. Already ahead of you. Personally, I love the recipe I did with Elise over at Simply Recipes.

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  11. I'm seriously jealous about the Kumquats - in the deep South (AL) it's not something we can afford...so I'm always look longingly at all things Kumquats. :)

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Hey, you're leaving a comment! That's pretty darn cool, so thanks. If you have any questions or have found an error on the site or with a recipe, please e-mail me and I will reply as soon as possible.
~Garrett