Stevia Plant
A question was asked about using stevia.
For me, sugar is very very sweet. But so is honey for me! I am not fond of extremely sweet things, possibly because I do not eat that way at all, so I taste the sweetness more so than others.
I think the stevia plant is very sweet too! One leaf taste to me like I am eating about a teaspoon of sugar!
But it has a low glycemic index (basically none) so healthier for everyone, esp me (I am a insulin / diabetic)
I experimented last fall with canning some pickles. I love pickles, garlic kosher dills are my favorite, but I do like slightly sweet pickles too! (one time I enjoy sugar!) But since I do not want the sugar I tried to substitute some stevia leaves for the sugar called when cooking/canning. What I found was what tasted very sweet to me to directly place a leaf in my mouth, it took much more to get the desired effect from the plant when canning. I did a 1/2 pint jar of pickles with about 5-6 leaves and it needed more.
So to answer the question of how much to use? Not sure. (boy don't you love those type of answers!)
I suggest experimenting prior to the canning season (if you are planning on using the plant for canning) and purchase a few cucumbers from the store, canning up a few 1/2 pints now and testing them out. I suggest 1/2 pints because they will be ready sooner than waiting weeks as for pints and quarts. (my recipe has me wait about 6 weeks before opening a jar of pickles...)
I am also going to try to extract some sweetness from the plant-just like doing tinctures that I make for pregnancy and delivery...that can be used when cooking. It will be in a liquid form when I am done. I will be working on this from the stevia plant. I will post later what I did and if it works or not-just need to let the plant grow some more first!
Hope that helps some....let us know what you find out as you experiment too!
Oh! Have to show my first tomato is on and I can hardly wait until it is ready to eat!!! Ummmm!!!!!
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