British born Tina Jesson, is becoming a sought-after speaker in Indiana on the subject of the Tradition of English Tea Time. Tina moved from the Derbyshire country of Mid England in 2008 and now lives in Brownsburg Indiana. Tina has created a Tea Time speaking program which is now running through a number of Libraries, Societies and Book Clubs in the area, educating tea lovers, historians and Anglophiles’ on the culture, history and tradition of the Victorian English Tea Time.

Her talk "The Importance of Taking Tea - from Victorian England to the Present Day", covers how taking afternoon tea was first started, the difference between high tea and afternoon tea and the opening of the first tea rooms in the early 1900’s. She and also covers the history behind of tea time favourites such as Crumpets, Victoria Sandwich Cake and the famous English Cream Tea and brings it all up to date with the health benefits of green tea, black tea and herbal tea alternatives.

Tina is on a mission to celebrate, rediscover and share the history and food of the Victorian English Tea Time and sells a selection of English baked goods and preserves at local farmers markets using traditional Old English recipes combined with wholesome local ingredients.

Tina comes from a long line of accomplished home cooks in England and was lucky enough to learn to cook at a young age from her Great Grandmother, who was born in 1899 (when Queen Victoria was still on the thrown of England) and worked as a kitchen maid in Bradley Hall, owned at the time by Major Clues.

Her Grandmother was great at preserves, jams and chutneys and her mother was the baker of the family, making great pastry. Tina grow up in a house of 4 females spanning across 4 generations and many of the old recipes have been passed down. Tina loves making these recipes and sharing the goodies with like minded people who have a passion for from scratch wholesome local food and the history of how the recipes came in to being or how they got their names. Such as Bakewell Tart, from the town of Bakewell, only miles from where Tina was born and raised.

Tina will be speaking at Danville Library this Saturday March 17th at 2.30pm; at CENTRAL INDIANA HERB SOCIETY SPRING SYMPOSIUM SATURDAY, APRIL 21, 2012 9am—3pm and at the Brownsburg Public Library on 17th July 5pm – 7pm

This winter you can find her at Traders Point Creamery Green Market every Saturday morning from 9am – 12.30pm