@crittergarden, The unfortunate thing with Stevia is that it tastes the best when you pinch off a fresh leaf. it does not take much to sweeten, so I don't ever use a whole leaf. If you let the leaf dry, it doesn't taste as good and you don't get the antioxidant, essential oils, - those type of benefits from dried leaves. If, like me, you want to indulge more often in sweet tea or whatever other sweet stuff rocks your boat, you will pick a single plant to death. But beware, use too much and whatever you wanted to sweeten will be bitter. Especially so with the dried leaves. Dried leaves don't sweeten cold drinks as well as the fresh leaves. For me, this means I have to have multiple plants.
My stevia plant grew leggy indoors, but I have others that are doing well. So I'm hoping it was just because I had that one plant stuck in a pot with my aloe vera, which doesn't care about having a lot of light. All my windows were full of seedlings and starter trays at the time, and I thought the aloe could use some company.
There are no side effects or anything from using stevia. It does not alter your blood glucose levels at all, and no effect on the pancreas. Once you get used to the amount required to satisfy your taste buds, you will explode with ideas for using it. I keep finding more and more stuff to use it with. Even stuff that is flavored or pre-sweetened, I find that I can dilute it, add some stevia and the stuff lasts much longer. Especially sweetened tea mixes and lemonade, which I am loathe to give up during the summer. Haven't tried fresh-squeezed lemonade yet because I can never find real lemons in the produce section and I'm easily distracted, "Oh, look at those juicy strawberries!" and before you can say hello, I've forgotten nearly everything, including my name.
Now you should know why edible landscaping is a tonic for me.
