Making a mint
Thursday September 06th 2007, 12:55 pm
Filed under: Life

mint plants and Italian seasoningA box? I didn’t order any… To “Author Alison Hyde.” Return address simply Mountain Valley Growers. Huh?

Opening it up, I found every variety of mint plant you ever thought of, plus marjoram and oregano, a little Italian seasoning on the side. It was from my daughter and son-in-law in Vermont as a congratulations on the success of my “Wrapped in Comfort” book–put these to grow under the skylights in the bathroom or out in the garden, and make a mint!

Okay, our husbands think we’re weird, but that daughter and I like to rinse mint leaves and dip them in sugar for a snack (do NOT tell my diabetic brother that–oh, wait, hi, Bryan, she whistled innocently…) I will definitely put these in pots, though, rather than letting them run around willy-nilly–mint plants take over every molecule of space they can reach, they’re like bamboo that way. I will concede that that is good if you keep enough sugar on hand, but when the mint might knock on the door to nicely but emphatically demand that you buy the house next door and tear it down so that it has enough room to spread out comfortably in, well, the neighbors might take exception to that. I watered them after opening the box, and even the one that looked dead was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed a few hours later.

Pop question, who was the political figure in DC who archly declared that they were “not a potted plant”? Did they really mint that the way it sounded?

And by the way, did I mention that one of these is a Chocolate Mint plant? Bring on the Green and Black’s. Very cool. Thank you, Jennie and Jonathan!

Green and Black’s dark choc mint


10 Comments so far
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I have two chocolate mint plants in pots. One I have had for 3 years and it lives outside in its pot all winter long and comes back every year. The new pot was made from cuttings of the other. It always makes me smile. When I water the pot, the smell of mint that wafts up is intoxicating.

Comment by Jenn 09.06.07 @ 2:06 pm

The best mint tea I ever consumed was in Israel. In the marketplace I got a cup of tea that was simply hot water poured over crushed mint leaves straight off the plant. It was also dosed liberally with sugar. YUM!

Comment by Gigi 09.06.07 @ 5:10 pm

Ooh, chocolate and mint. My favorite! I’ll have to try mint leaves dipped in sugar myself!

Comment by Kathleen 09.06.07 @ 6:59 pm

What fun…I love mint..sad to say, I let my peppermint geranium die out…accidentally. I’d had it for years to boot.

Comment by Maggie Ann 09.06.07 @ 8:35 pm

Promise me you wouldn’t think of eating geraniums, though… Mosquito repellent, yes, food, no.

Comment by AlisonH 09.07.07 @ 11:11 am

I love mint plants and I love trying the different varieties. I can almost smell them from your picture 🙂

Comment by Alison 09.07.07 @ 12:33 pm

I wonder if everyone was able to guess what was in the box.

Comment by Sonya 09.07.07 @ 4:12 pm

ice tea with lots of mint and a little OJ in it – the best.

But we did have to pull out all of our mint because they were telling us to buy the place next door — next time I will figure a better way for it.

I love the “make a mint” they are punny like me 😉

Comment by rho 09.07.07 @ 5:40 pm

oh and “not potted plants” Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif?

Comment by rho 09.07.07 @ 5:45 pm

Ooooh….should I tell the kids about dipping mint in sugar? They’re always munching on it straight from the garden.

Comment by Michelle 09.11.07 @ 2:37 pm



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