Can someone please give me detailed directions for making fig leaf tea. ? HOW TO DRY LEAVES ETC

Richie, 

I saw you were starting your Rust prevention.  Which reminds me I need to as well, I had some in one group of plantings, makes the trees look terrible.  I wish I could make it less humid...

My point is Copper (from copper sulfate) can throw off your zinc balance, as they are antagonist in the human body.  I personally wouldn't make tea from treated leaves.  But I am sensitive to copper, others may not be.

FWIW.

Good luck with keeping rust away, I'll keep my fingers crossed for ya

To dry the leaves, you can just wash them and lay them out in a single layer on cookie racks covered with a napkin for a week or hang them up assuming your house isn't extremely moist. They'd probably dry faster out in the sun and bring them in at night if you are in a hurry.

To make tea, just add boiling water to your desired amount just like Black tea.

Add some mint for a nice flavor add.

I like making tea with the fresh leaves too... I wash them and rip them up, then steep with boiling water. Tastes a bit like toasted coconut!

Thanks everyone for you coments and views on copper. Plan on making sone fresh tea. May have to re think copper

Take it slow the first couple of times with the trees, especially using fresh leaves, in case you have an allergic reaction...

Why make tea out of fig leaves?  Is it medicinal?

Sarina it does taste like toasted coconuts :) cant wait for the summer to try more

How do you dry yours charlie

Last Fall I collected them as they died from the trees after frost and just laid them in the spare room for some days with a fan blowing until they were crispy.  Then I put them into ziploc bags.  
 

I dry leaves and make iced tea from them all year long.  I have large teabags that I fill about 4/5 full of fig leaves, 1/5 of mint leaves (also home dried).  I usually add one regular tea bag, and make 1/2 gallon iced tea.

I dry my leaves indoors (too much wind outside) initially, then put them in a dehydrator for several hrs.  I have a coffee / spice grinder that does a nice job of making finely ground leaves.  I keep the pulverized leaves in ziploc bags in the freezer.

There are limited scientific reports of fig leaf tea being useful for diabetics.  I did some searching in the medical literature and found just one small crossover research study done in Spain (with relatively small numbers of subjects) that showed lower HgbA1c in those drinking fig leaf tea vs a control.  I have a friend who swears that the fig leaf tea I suggested for him helps keep his diabetes under much better control.  My brother and I both were diagnosed with borderline elevated HgbA1c at the same time, and despite the fact that he lost more weight than I, my A1c came down more than his which I would like to attribute to the fig leaf tea daily.  But it is not a substitute for exercise, weight loss and appropriate meds in treatment of diabetes.

I wash my leaves in a colander then cut them up with scissors and let them dry on a cookie sheet lined with paper towels.  Our house was so dry, it only took about 3 hours for them to be crispy dry this past fall.

Richie, there are a number of good mints to use.  I favor spearmint, but peppermint is great also.  Those are the only ones I grow right now.  I have not grown many others

Wouldn't picking the leaves hurt the tree and the fruit?  Or do you wait till the crop is finished?

I also use fig leaves for cooking.  One of my favorite is boiling potatoes with fig leaves.  I just add a couple of fig leaves into the water and boil them with the potatoes.  And yes, it does have a hint of coconut taste to it.  

JoAnn, I made mine in the fall, after picking the figs.  During the season, I'd pick a leaf or two here and there, but completely stripped the tree just before the first frost.

I harvested a leaf off most of my trees about once a month (except the very young ones or sick/rusty leaves) starting in June, then pulled off all the healthy ones when it was time to go dormant.

Don't use leaves that have any infection, including rust, for your tea.

OK , I need some info here.

Where ever I have seen plants for sale it is usually noted about people being allergic to the sap. Possibly highly allergic.

I have also been told the amount of latex in the plant is second to a rubber tree.

 Now I see everyone rolling in it naked here, what gives?

 Also, before I take my fig leaf tea to the grave, is there a difference in flavor in the fig types, related to teas.

 I have a local unknown that is very aromatic.

Would this make a better candidate for flavor, or allergic reaction sans death.

 I will add I do not have a problem with allergies, even poison ivy, but with so many others that are, what is the heads up on this?

 Benadryl in hand, Mike 

Personally, I've had no issues with the sap, that's how I knew I'd be fine with the tea. If you're concerned, make it using only the sides of the leaves, omitting the central rib, and rinse them well. I found that I prefer using fresh leaves, the tea tastes "greener", a bit coconutty. Drying the leaves makes something that tastes more like green tea to me.

https://charliesgardenblog.wordpress.com/2015/11/04/fig-leaf-tea/

Thanks Serena,
 
Sounds like a good way to start.