Mint is such a wonderful herb, it’s useful for sweet and savoury recipes and has lots of health benefits too; it’s free of caffeine, choc full of vitamins, antioxidants and minerals, helps digestion and is a quick cure for indegestion and nausea.
It’s also easy to grow, as long as those ambitious roots are contained. Mint from your garden, balcony or window-box is organic and fresh as can be, just pick what you need, when you need it.
3 types of mint growing in a plant-pot outside my kitchen door
I love it when the plant starts growing again in spring, producing plenty of leaves for mint tea. I’m growing black peppermint, ordinary garden mint, Tashkent spearmint and basil mint, all are lovely for tea, except basil mint which is perfect with tomatoes, but tastes a bit weird in tea.
Mint tea is simple to make and the fresh flavour is so much better than the dried powder used in mint tea-bags.
- put the kettle on to boil
- snip a small bunch of stems from the plant
- rinse them under cold water
- put the mint into a cup with the leaves facing down
- pour the water into the cup, I find using water that’s just off the boil works best
- let it all steep for a couple of minutes and it’s done
- the leaves can be left in to continue releasing flavour
- stir in a little honey or agave nectar if you’ve got a sweet tooth.
You can of course make it in a tea-pot, those glass ones where you can see the leaves swirling round look especially nice.
See how to plant and grow mint here.
Happy gardening, Jill
all photos: Jill Anderson
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