Stevia

Stevia is a plant native to South America and Central America. The leaves are harvested and the extremely sweet extract is packaged and sold here in the US at many health food stores. My favorite grocery store - Trader Joe's - sells the powder in a small bottle and packets of stevia as well. The packets also contain a filler so you use a larger amount of power compared with pure stevia in a bottle. One thing I have found is that you want to make sure you completely incorporate stevia into your food. If you sprinkle it on something it will have a strong after taste. Stevia works great for sweetening smoothies, oatmeal, fruit that is not very sweet, salad dressings and baked goods. The paragraph below has info on baking with stevia:

"The most important thing to remember is not to use too much, which can result in excessive sweetness and an aftertaste. Always start with the exact amount called for in a recipe, or even a little less, then taste before you add any more. Stevia is delicious in almost any recipe using fruit or dairy products, but does present a bit of a challenge when used for baking, since it lacks sugar's abilities to add texture, help soften batter, caramelize, enhance the browning process, and feed the fermentation of yeast. On the other hand, one of the excellent facets of stevia is that high temperatures do not affect its sweetening properties." http://www.stevia.net/

I also want to try growing my own stevia plant and harvest the leaves for next year. The process looks fairly easy and it would be fun to actually grow this plant myself.