Gathering herbs from the garden

Also: How to make homemade mint tea and how to make your own seasonings

 

Pruning the Mint Plants: 

 

So, from time to time, it's a good idea to cut on your herbs. At first I was a nonbeliever, and I didn't want to cut a single fragrant leaf. My KC mint got three feet tall and spindly, flopping over to the ground. My chocolate mint nearly died, and my rosemary kept getting taller and thinner.

This year I said: I'm going to give this cutting thing a go. I started with the KC mint, took a pair of scissors, closed my eyes, and started cutting. It was like I'd put the plant into overdrive! That mint plant pratically exploded with lush new growth. The rosemary was next, and it's gotten bushier by the week. So now... now it was the chocolate mint's turn.

My chocolate mint had a rough start; it was super tiny and not growing too well. But in the past month I was able to re-pot it into something that gives it more horizontal room. When I turned the plant over in my hands to get the old pot off, the crushed leaves sent up such a blast of spearmint that it was like I'd chopped into an onion! My eyes started watering and I could barely breathe. It was wonderful.

Here's a picture of my chocolate mint, pre-trimming on left, post-trim on right:

It went from an over-sized afro to a scant buzz cut! It looks a bit thin on top now, but I know in a few weeks, it'll be huge again. Just look how much I cut out of it:

  

 I was about to throw the clippings away... but then I decided to bring them on inside and wash them up. I could decide what to do with them later. Then I got struck by the brilliant idea to make some homemade mint tea. 

First, I washed the mint leaves very well in the sink. Then I filled my tea brewer with about 12 stems worth of leaves. 

It wasn't exactly an exact measurement. I just kept adding leaves until I decided I was tired of adding them. I tore most of the biggest leaves as I put them in, and then I poured about 8 oz of hot water into the brewer, and let it steep. 

 Chopping up the Rosemary:

 

While that was cooking, I remembered some rosemary I had harvested on March 16th, a month back. I'd washed it and laid it out to dry. So I decided to chop it up to add some dried rosemary to my spice cabinet. First I stripped the leaves from the branches, starting at about the middle and gently running my fingers backwards down the stem. Then using a large knife, I chopped the little leaves up until they were as small as I wanted them:

Dried Rosemary stems

Here I've stripped the leaves from the stems. I used a small ramekin to catch the fly-away leaves.

Using a knife, I chopped the leaves up until the bits were fairly uniform in size.

Close up of the finished product.

And finally... I didn't forget to enjoy my first homemade cup of mint tea! All in all... it's actually pretty good!