harvesting peppermint tea from the herb & tea garden

09 Wednesday Oct 2013

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harvesting peppermint, herb, herbal tea, mint, mint tea, peppermint

Last week, Brian and I harvested all of the peppermint from the planter box that Brian built at the top of the herb and tea garden last summer. A hardy, pervasive perennial, peppermint is easy to grow and is best kept in a confined area as it can take over a small area very quickly.

Here is the planter box last summer soon after I planted the mint. It did not take long for the peppermint to grow and fill the box!

Cool, refreshing, peppermint tea is the most popular of all herbal teas and is one of the oldest and best-tasting home remedies for indigestion (Mindell, 1992).

Rather than drying the plant whole, we stripped the leaves and then dried them in a dehydrator.

Then we gently crushed the leaves inside a glass jar with a muddler.

According to Brown (2001), drinking peppermint tea “improves digestion and calms the digestive system, reducing wind, griping pains, colic and nausea”. It is not surprising then that peppermint tea is a key ingredient of many remedies for indigestion and irritable bowel syndrome. Mindell (1992) adds that “[st]udies show that peppermint lessens the amount of time food spends in the stomach by stimulating the gastric lining. It aso relaxes the stomach muscles and promotes burping”. Peppermint is a wonderful help for heartburn, stomachache, nausea and vomiting. It often relieves migraine headaches, which are frequently accompanied by nausea.

I drink it because it tastes great!

Brown, D. (2001). Herbal: The Essential Guide to Herbs for Living. London, England: Pavilion Books Ltd.

Mindell, E. (1992). Earl Mindell’s Herb Bible. New Yorl, NY: Simon & Schuster.

peppermint brownies

18 Wednesday Sep 2013

Posted by Delena Rose in cook, sweets

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brownies, mint, peppermint, peppermint brownies

I found this recipe in August, 1997, in the cooking magazine Bon Appetit and have been baking these ever since. You can now find it on the Epicurean website. As I love mint chocolate I just had to try these. Use the best quality chocolate you can find- these are well worth the effort!

Peppermint Brownies

For the brownies

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped

2 large eggs

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

1/2 cup chopped pecans

For toppings

1 cup sifted powdered sugar

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 tablespoon whole milk

1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract

4 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped

preparation

Make brownies:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly butter 8x8x2-inch metal baking pan. Stir butter and chocolate in small saucepan over low heat until smooth. Set aside. Using electric mixer, beat eggs and sugar in large bowl until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add chocolate mixture, flour, peppermint and vanilla extracts and salt; stir until just blended. Mix in nuts.

Transfer batter to prepared pan. Bake until tester inserted into center comes out with moist crumbs attached, about 25 minutes. Cool slightly.

Make toppings:

Beat powdered sugar, 2 tablespoons butter, milk and extract in bowl until creamy. Spread over warm brownies. Chill until set, about 1 hour.

Stir chocolate and 2 tablespoons butter in small saucepan over low heat until smooth. Cool slightly. Pour over mint topping, spreading evenly. Cover and chill until set, about 1 hour. Cut into 20 squares. (Can be made 8 hours ahead. Cover with foil; store at room temperature.)

the herb and tea garden gets a planter box and a new look

04 Tuesday Sep 2012

Posted by Delena Rose in cabin living, garden, restore, reuse

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Tags

deck, garden, herb and tea garden, peppermint, peppermint tea, planter, planter box, stain, stain deck, trellis

Do you remember this restoration project from last spring? Below is the extreme ‘before’ shot of this little promising patch of garden in the front yard taken last May. I spent a week lovingly moving stones, enriching the soil and planting a variety of perennial herbs and teas.

Here is another view of the ‘before’ stage. Please note the old, weathered stain on the deck and pay particular attention to the open area where the top of the garden meets the deck…Here is an ‘after’ shot taken last May. I had the garden all finished and planted but notice the deck and the open space at the top of the garden still needed to be addressed. Also, notice how the color of the old stain seems to blend in and downplay the beautiful deck…

This past summer as I was making my way around the huge deck with my paintbrush and can of stain, B asked me what I was planning on doing with this big, empty, unproductive space? I told him that I’d eventually like to build a planter box there for mint. While I continued staining, he instantly began working on it…
B leveled the soil and then built this beautiful planter box mainly out of scraps and repurposed wood from the shed.

Once the planter box was finished he decided to take it a step further and address the empty space under the deck with some of the left over trellis from the patio project…

I love how clean this area looks now and notice the that by this time I had caught up with staining the deck in this area.

Here is another angle. The dark stain on the deck rails is a really nice contrast to the wood grain of the cabin. Instead of blending in it pops right out and frames the view quite nicely. Next year, I’d like to add a few large bright red clay pots in a variety of sizes to the concrete area for a splash of color.

Once again, here is another ‘after’ shot. As I write this, the planter is now bursting with peppermint that is waiting to be harvested and dried for peppermint tea. What was once a neglected, uninspiring spot in the garden is now productive and beautiful and adds to the ‘curb appeal’ of the cabin. The best part is that the new additions look as though they have always been there!