Stevia Rebaudiana

I mentioned stevia in my last post and want to expand a bit. I had never heard of stevia until last spring when I saw the plants in a Gurney’s catalog. Stevia is also known as ‘sweet leaf’ and is touted as a healthy, natural, no-cal sugar substitute. What’s not to like? So, I ordered one and eagerly awaited its arrival. I was curious to see this wonder plant! The plant arrived, but it was mashed in the packaging and looking quite iffy. The poor thing didn’t take long to succumb. I re-ordered and was told to expect the replacement in October. Well, the replacement plant was DOA as well. “Stevia must not travel well,” I said to myself, and ordered seeds instead. Now the seeds have arrived, and it turns out they’re a bit tricky to start. Well, I’m going to try. In the meantime, maybe I’ll find a plant in the local nursery. The stevia word seems to be getting out – I saw packages of sugar substitute made from stevia in the local Winn-Dixie, so it’s no longer a big secret.

Being new to both growing and using stevia, I bought a couple of books to help me out. The first is Stevia Sweet Recipes: Sugar-free – Naturally by Jeffrey Goettemoeller. Tons of recipes, but most of them use stevia extract and I have no clue how to get from plant to extract. So I bought a second book, Growing and Using Stevia: The Sweet Leaf from Garden to Table by the same J Goettemoeller and Karen Lucke. This book has growing hints as well as directions for processing the leaves to make extracts and powder, plus some additional recipes. Between the two books, I should have enough information to get me started. To find out how the experiment goes, stay tuned!