LAURA’S TEA IS BEING SERVED ON TAP
Laura is an artist, she has sold her art in galleries across Australia, she loves flowers, gardens, cinema and herb tea but most of all Laura loves people.
Laura combined her love of gardens, herbs and people and has established a once a week tea party at Milparinka, Brunswick, where she welcomes everyone and serves tea to people. Laura’s tea is made of herbs and plants from the SEEDS garden. Every moment in preparing the tea party and serving the tea is important to Laura; from setting up the tablecloths, to picking the SEEDs produce, such as mint, lemon verbena and seasonal fruits like oranges and figs, to brewing and pouring the tea. Most of all, Laura loves to welcome everyone to the tea party. Her welcoming energy and love of people always shines through and makes these great events.
But of course it wasn’t always that easy. It took a while for Laura to find the right mix of ingredients and to get the taste of the tea just right. She has managed to do that now after a lot of trial and error and she has done such a great job with this that a local brewery, which has a bar in it, is putting Laura’s tea on tap for their customers to enjoy. Laura visited the North Brewing Co, with some of her mates from here, David, Emily and Helena, and shared some of her fig, strawberry-guavas and lemon verbena tea with Jimmy and Zach from the Brewing Co. The tea, which is light, tangy and fruity was given the seal of approval at the Brewery and after a few meetings with Laura, and more tea tasting, they decided that they would serve Laura’s herbs as iced tea on tap for their customers to enjoy. Laura will provide them with her recipe and herbs and they will brew it up and serve it. Laura is also working on new recipes that they are wanting to try.
It doesn’t stop there, Laura’s story just gets better. Laura and Helena worked with the Bar to have a Launch Party. Its was on Friday 14th April 2023. Because Laura is such a lovely and welcoming person, she and Helena have, over time, met people from the local community and Laura has friends from the Brunswick community she invited, including local steel fabrication and cafe workers and Trevor, who Laura met when she was admiring his artistic garden and who has become a friend.
Laura’s achievements are a slap in the face to people who may think that those who have a very significant disability, which Laura has, can’t have extraordinary and great stories to tell. Laura has some great stories; she can paint and has sold painting across Australia to collectors for thousands of dollars, she is making tea that is being served to strangers in a pub and she has friends she has met in her local community, just by spending time in it, to invite to a special event. These are three terrific things that Laura has in her life that bring satisfaction and joy that I, and many people I know, don’t have in our lives. They exist in Laura’s life because of her creativity, determination, warmth and her ability to connect with so many people, and, because she is surrounded by people who see her abilities and passions and who are excited to see her put these into action, and more importantly, be happy!