perennial gifts

A fellow community gardener gave us some of her perennials—a gift that keeps on giving! As part of our end-of-season tasks, we cut them back and are drying them:

Chocolate Mint


Hyssop


And we're also drying coriander:

digestifs / tinctures

I've been experimenting with making various digestifs or tinctures of herbs that help with digestion. Pictured are tinctures of (left to right) basil, mint, licorice (glycyrrhiza glabra), sichuan pepper, and fennel, soaked for a week or so in cheap vodka (80 proof).

The sichuan pepper is experimental and pretty intense: it numbs your mouth and makes you want to throw up...the rest are carminatives known to help digestion. Basil, mint, and fennel are my favorites. You can mix equally with simple sugar syrup to make them tastier.

mojito

A friend recently let us help weed her garden... we took home 2 plastic grocery bags of mint! When you have lemons make lemonade; when you have mint make a mojito!

Serving Size: 1

Ingredients:
5 fresh mint leaves
1 T. lime juice
1 T. light agave nectar
2 oz. light rum
4 oz. sparkling water
2 ice cubes

Put the mint leaves, lime juice, and agave nectar in a glass. "Muddle" the mint - a.k.a. mash the mint a little with the back a big wooden spoon or something. Stir in the rum and sparkling water. Add two ice cubes. If you're trying to impress someone, garnish it with a slice of lime.

We hung the rest of the mint up to dry. When everything was dry, we pulled the leaves from the stems. We'll be drinking mint tea all winter!