Leaf Peeper Tea & Artisan Wares

12/05/2025

It's online shopping season at Village Craftsmen! Teas by Leaf Peeper Tea & Artisan Wares are featured from approximately 9:59-10:25 in today's walkthrough. If you're interested in Fig Cake Spice black tea, FigMints of Imagination, SeaGlass, Sippin' on the Pizer, or whole leaf Ocracoke Yaupon--the Village Craftsmen contact details are in the video. Even if you're all set for your tea stash, these daily videos may help you find something else special for someone special, including yourself.

11/29/2025

💛 pollinators 💛
I like planting fennel and dill…and then watching the caterpillars munch it down!

Here’s another reason to “leave the leaves” and not mulch or burn them this fall. In their last act as a caterpillar, Eastern Tiger Swallowtails (Papilio glaucus) often crawl down to the base of their host tree and pupate in the leaf litter or dangling from twigs on a tree or on the ground. At this stage, the brown caterpillar and pupa blend in well with the detritus and a light covering of fallen leaves insulate the pupa from cold winter temperatures.

If you want to see more of these beautiful butterflies in your yard next spring, here’s something to consider with your leaves. If you’re going to pick them up, gently blow or rake your leaves into a planting bed or wild space on your property. Spreading them out in a “fluffy” layer of loose leaves that’s less than 12 inches deep is best (think of the typical leaf depth in a hardwood forest), but this may not be manageable for all homeowners. The leaf litter will allow any Eastern Tiger Swallowtail pupae attached to the underside of the leaves to have a chance at successfully overwintering and then emerging from the leaf litter next spring.

Given their beauty and abundance, it’s easy to see why Eastern Tiger Swallowtails are the state butterfly of Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia.

11/29/2025

Leaf Peeper Tea & Artisan Wares will be here today!

11/27/2025

Each year, when I make the Thanksgiving dressing, I enjoy mixing and matching breads and herbs, and even some fruity surprises. This year for the holiday at Ocracoke, I brought along ingredients from one of my favorite farmers markets—the North Asheville Tailgate Market: olive rosemary sourdough from High Top Bread Company, parsley from Gaining Ground Farm, eggs from Sugar Hollow Farm--all rustic-chopped and brought together with broth, butter, and eggs...and some Ocracoke rosemary. The crispy-edged result was tangy from the sourdough, briney-bright from the olives, green-herby from the parsley, and rich from the eggs. May your day be delicious. Cheers!

* tags in comments *

11/02/2025

Making good use of the “extra” hour this morning: Some of the pumpkins at the brewery were still flickering when I passed by, and as I was walking up the ramp to get over to the beach, I met a silver unicorn with a rainbow mane. On the beach, it was on of those Fall days when the water is warmer than the air, and the surf was fairly calm, making for a nice stroll to watch the water turn from pewter to gold to orange to turquoise to pink to backlit green in the interplay between sea and sky.

11/01/2025

Sat 1 Nov 2025. Find Leaf Peeper Tea & Artisan Wares right here at the Blackbeard's Pirate Jamboree on Ocracoke Island!
Iced teas (yaupon & rooibos), cold brew coffee, tea blends (Sippin’ on the Pizer, black and red Fig Cake Spice, FigMints of Imagination), homemade cookies (oatmeal apple pie, coconut rum, chocolate chip, wheat-free almond butter fig), tomato fig herb jam, fig mustard, fig preserves, rosemary sea salt, Village Bay seasoning, fig-infused vinegar, elderberry elixir, h**p flower infused coconut oil, jewelweed spray, soaking salts, herb smoke bundles, and a few vintage items.

09/29/2025

This weekend marks a year since Hurricane Helene charged through the landscape and changed the lives of so many people in Western North Carolina. Some days are big steps, and some days are smaller ones, but each is still a step. Among the massive need, people have contributed their particular skill sets to help communities in the ongoing the journey of recovery. The Appalachian Herb Collective and MadCo Herbal Collective formed post-storm to offer plant-based community support. During the first production session I attended at Red Moon Herbs, some of us remarked how bottling and labeling our herbal preparations are so often solitary activities, and how it felt extra special to work with plants, with other plant people. Thanks to the community bottling sessions and giveaways, volunteers could see the preparations go from their maceration jars into hundreds of dropper bottles and then away in the pockets of people who needed the support waiting for them in those little bottles. Needs continue at so many levels in the community, with room for so many skills to help build on the progress. Thanks to the organizers of these groups for creating space for plant people to do what they can do.

Photos:
- December 8, 2024 - nettle and reishi - bottling and labeling @ Candler, NC
- December 18, 2024 - St. John's Wort, fire cider, linden, passionflower, motherwort, echinacea - bottling and labeling @ Mars Hill, NC
- January 18, 2025 - fire cider preparation and grief blend bottling and labeling @ Candler, NC
- January 19, 2025 - community outreach at the French Broad Food Co-Op @ Asheville, NC
- May 19, 2025 - lemon balm, hops, elderberry @ Marshall, NC

08/19/2025

Mon 18 Aug 2025. Ocracoke, NC. The village—quiet. Silver Lake—calm. The surf was churning on the beach this afternoon, but here under a blue-clouded sunset, it was a peaceful time to finally finish reading Robin Wall Kimmerer’s *The Serviceberry* while waiting for the lighthouse light to shine.

06/08/2025

Leaf Peeper Tea & Artisan Wares got snapped on Friday in the eighth photo in this collection from Ocracoke Alive. One more day of the Ocrafolk Music & Storytelling Festival on Sunday!

06/05/2025

Leaf Peeper Tea & Artisan Wares has something different for the festival booth this weekend--woman-grown organic Fair Trade cold brew coffee! Grown in Guatemala and sourced through Equal Exchange's Women in Coffee series partnership with the the Manos Campesinas co-op, these beans are lightly roasted to retain their lovely flavor, and their purchase helps young coffee farmers cultivate a viable future in the industry.

Why cold brew? Well, the inspiration came from a cold brew-themed episode of The Science of Coffee podcast. The series is well researched and entertainingly presented--and I have enjoyed the whole series, despite being...not really a coffee drinker.

Thanks to taste testers and equipment loaners Chad and Amy for helping with these experiments!

(links in comments)

06/05/2025

Eat the rainbow, they say. Well, that's easy thanks to these catch-of-the-day tacos from Eduardo's Taco Stand. Today, it was bluefish covered in mango, cabbage, radish, avocado, lime, and salsa verde. Absolutely delicious!

06/05/2025

The Ocracoke Seafood Company is one of many Island gems. Everything is delicious. Don't bother seeking buried treasure somewhere--some of it is right there in the counters and cases at the fish house. Recently, I've enjoyed oysters, shrimp, several kinds of fish, scallops, crab dip, crab quiche, clam chowder, seafood stew, and fig cake--all just a bike ride down the road.