stevia

[manicscousers]

doing fine, may have some cuttings next year  :)

[manicscousers]

[saddad]

Well I'm impressed Mel...  even if noone else is...  :)

[ceres]

I'm impressed too!  How will you use it - dried leaves or a liquid extract.........?

[manicscousers]

Thanks, saddad, I'll save you a cutting for may  ;D
Ceres, I've dried some of the leaves I took off the cuttings, when they are crumbled, they go to a grey powder so willbe using that in baking..when it's recovered from me taking cuttings, I'm going to try the extract  :)

[flowerlady]

And for those of us who hadn't a clue and had to google ...

Stevioside is a high intensity sweetener, 250-300 times sweeter than sucrose ... which is isolated and purified from the leaves of the Stevia plant (Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni),

:o wow  :o  ... do you have a sweet tooth manics ??  :-*

[ceres]

Interested to hear how it works out manics.  I'm up for cutting some of the sugar out of baking, puddings etc.

[manicscousers]

flo, it's just that Ray is diabetic with a sweet tooth, he uses sweeteners at the mo and if you look up aspatarme it's frightening  :o
so, I'm having a go at growing this stuff  ;D
ceres, I'll take more cuttings as it grows, in Japan they grow it in fields full  ;D

[cjb02]

how do you dry the leaves?

I have stevia in a plant pot, that is a couple of years old now, although I nibble the tips when I pass the plant and they taste nice and sweet and kinda liquorice in flavour too, I have never dried them. do they retain their sweetness and do you use them in hot drinks?

[Sholls]

Looking good manics! :D

I sowed some seed in July; the plants are now 10-12cm high & loving life on my windowsill. They're fantastic little things, aphids seem to ignore them & the four legged members of my household are indifferent. :) Result!

[manicscousers]

how do you dry the leaves?

I have stevia in a plant pot, that is a couple of years old now, although I nibble the tips when I pass the plant and they taste nice and sweet and kinda liquorice in flavour too, I have never dried them. do they retain their sweetness and do you use them in hot drinks?

I've just left them to dry on the windowsill, they crumble very easily so, when I have enough, I will use it for baking and sweetening tea  :)

[cjb02]

thanks Manicscouser

I will try that before the frosts get the last of the leaves.

[djbrenton]

Do go steady with stevia. It has a certain reputation for untrustworthiness.

[Hector]

What sort of germination rate are you getting. I was thinking of using this to sweeten my home made yoghurt....does is blend easy and does it work with cold puddings? 

[manicscousers]

it's not from seed, Hector, it was a plant, managed to get it through the winter and am starting to take cuttings soon, I've dried the leaves, ground them up and use them in the crumble we had, I didn't get much last year, will have to have many more plants to keep up with our needs, they grow it in fields abroad, don't know if it would make it over here, I'm going to try one in the poly border , btw, it's a brownish powder but grinds up easily :)

[pookienoodle]

wow
I am impressed.
I would love to grow stevia as its so expensive to buy and I too am using it instead of other sweetners as my G.P recommended it.
can you get seeds?

[grannyjanny]

Nicky's seeds do it.

[Jeannine]

It is in the Canadain parcel XX Jeannine

[Hector]

Jeannine, the Canadian parcel has everything :) Reason I asked is I have seen plants and seed for sale but there seems to be a lot of comments on poor germination...but if its a crop elsewhere that seemed odd :)

[allaboutliverpool]

I am interested to hear that a fellow GP has recommended Stevia in view of the following:-

"Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni does not have clearance to be marketed in the European Community. A recent marketing application was rejected on the basis of potential toxicity problems of one of its components, Stevioside"
Rather like recommending Cannabis!

[Hector]

Not to make light...but I think all drugs have listed side effects? (said in spirit of discussion, not as a contradiction :)