{"id":2144,"date":"2019-10-09T04:09:01","date_gmt":"2019-10-09T04:09:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/?p=2144"},"modified":"2019-10-09T04:09:08","modified_gmt":"2019-10-09T04:09:08","slug":"mints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/2019\/10\/09\/mints\/","title":{"rendered":"Mints"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Mentha <\/em>species <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lamiaceae<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mint is undoubtedly the most well\nknown of all herbal flavorings, even if some people don’t know the flavor is\nfrom a green plant rather than a chemical one. The best known and most commonly\nused, species are Spearmint (M. spicata<\/em>) and Peppermint (M. piper<\/em>ita),\nboth of which are now naturalized in North America. There are numerous other\nspecies also, both native and introduced. The nutritious leaves contain\nvitamins A, C, D, E and K.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gathering: All of the Mint species are\nedible, though their palatability varies enormously, according to climate, soil, moisture and genetic\nfactors. Some wild types are delicious; others have so little Mint flavor they\nare not worth gathering. All are easily identified by their scent and none are\npoisonous, so you can sample any you find. The leaves are best gathered before\nthe flowers appear. They should be harvested in early morning, as the essential\noil content is highest at this time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nleaves should be dried quickly, in a warm dry place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flavoring: I prefer peppermint for\ntea and Spearmint for culinary purposes. The tender young leaves are good for\nflavoring salads, mint sauce and jelly. They have occasionally been used as a\npotherb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tea: Mint tea is probably the\nmost popular herbal tea of all. Use the fresh or dried leaves or flowering tops\nand steep in boiling water for a few minutes, to the strength you desire.  Never boil the leaves, as this may ruin the\nflavor. Mint tea can be drunk as a warming bedtime drink, or with ice as a\ncooling summer one. It also makes particularly good sun tea. I sometimes add\nthe leaves to my canteen while hiking to improve the flavor of the water. I\nalso use it as flavoring if I have to boil water to purify it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Medicine: The oil in Mint leaves is\nantiseptic, so they are useful for\ntreating wounds and as a carminative. The tea is used to allay nausea and\npromote sleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oil: Mints are cultivated on a large scale\nfor their oil, which is distilled to satisfy the demands of the food processing\nindustry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perfume: The plants were popular as strewing\nherbs and in potpourri. It was a custom in some\nplaces to rub dining tables with mint before eating, to clean and deodorize\nthem. This isn\u2019t a bad idea, as the oil is antiseptic as well as sweet\nsmelling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smoke: The leaves have been smoked, alone or\nwith other herbs. Mint oil is added to tobacco to make menthol cigarettes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tooth cleaner:\nRub Mint leaves on your teeth to freshen them, or chew a few leaves as a quick\nbreath freshener.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cosmetics: The leaves have been\nused in skin lotions and as a face pack to cleanse the skin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cultivation: These vigorous plants are easily\npropagated by root cuttings, division or soft cuttings. If you are buying (or\ntransplanting) any Mint always smell and taste it first to make sure you are\ngetting a good variety. This varies so much with individuals and you don\u2019t want\nto have your garden overrun by some inferior type. Mint can also be grown from\nseed, but seedling quality is quite variable. They grow in any moist soil and\nlike part shade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Be\ncautious where you plant Mint, if the creeping roots aren’t confined it can\nbecome a pest. To prevent this you can plant them in a container sunk into the\nground to confine them. You might also grow it in a semi-wild state, well away\nfrom the intensively cultivated garden. Mints are generally beneficial in the\ngarden, because they attract pollinating and predatory insects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Useful\nspecies include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mentha<\/em>\nspecies hybridize quite readily, so you will often find crosses between them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

M. spicata<\/em> \u2011 Spearmint   \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

M. piperita<\/em> \u2011 Peppermint<\/p>\n\n\n\n

M. aquatica<\/em> \u2011 Water Mint<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are some of the best tasting Mints and are actually naturalized in many places. The easiest way to tell the difference between Peppermint and Spearmint is the smell and taste. As you might imagine, the peppermint is more pungent. Also the former have stalked leaves, while the latter leaves are sessile (stalkless). <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mentha species \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lamiaceae Mint is undoubtedly the most well known of all herbal flavorings, even if some people don’t know the flavor is from a green plant rather than … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2145,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-herbs","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Peppermint.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2144"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2146,"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2144\/revisions\/2146"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}