Questions about Peppermint

[Up-the-Creek]

I should say I "had" a herb garden a few years back and my peppermint of course took over,now I have a rather large peppermint garden. My question is, when do you harvest it for drying? Do you wait till fall, or do it anytime? Do you let it flower or harvest it before flowering? I am fairly new to the herb thing and I am clueless, so any help is appreciated. Thanks! :rainbow-sun

 

[rebbetzin]

I have never had much luck with drying mint. Mine grows all year here. When I want mint I just use it fresh from the garden. I bet if you google "drying mint" you will find some information.

 

[Hattie the Hen]

I find the best mint for drying is Corsican Mint -- it is the smallest of the mint family and is not winter hardy in my garden but worth bringing into the house. I like it planted between paving stones or rocks. I first saw it while on holiday in Corsica, up in the hills, very hot & arid landscape that smelt of wild herbs, thyme, rosemary, fennel & of course this tiny mint. It took me ages to find what was producing the smell. I picked a lot of it & bought it back home to England -- it kept it's smell for years!

I suggest that you freeze your mint not dry it; we used to do that when I had my restaurant. You then overcome the musty taste of the dried stuff.

Hope this helps! Have a good weekend! :happy_flower

:rose Hattie :rose

 

[Sylvie]

I pick peppermint at most any stage except late when it is old, yellowing and way past flowering.

I use one of these methods:
I tie it in bunches and hang dry it in a warm ventilated room.
I dry it spread out in a dehydrator. It will keep a better color with this.
I dry it on a tray in my car in the sun.

I do not wash it first, but just shake dust off. It will mold during drying if damp at all. Also pick when dew has evaporated off.

When completely dry; crumbles easily, I put in jars to store.

 

[Greenthumb18]

I would just dry the mint upside, i've had good success this way. But try to see if you like this method i'm sure their are other ways to dry or preserve mint. I'm actually looking to get a peppermint plant, i have the spearmint plant and read that the two are very different.

 

[digitS']

I like to harvest the mint family just as the flower buds "threaten" to bloom. My thinking is that they should be at their most flavorful but still not too coarse and likely to shatter.

For the first time last year, I washed and froze an herb. It was lemon verbena but based on that one experience - I plan to freeze lemon verbena as a matter of course.

If you can use the herb immediately from the freezer, I think freezing should work well for any .

Steve

 

[Rosalind]

I use fresh until, oh, about August - September, at which point I hack off most of it and hang it upside down to dry. I put a cone of waxed paper sort of loosely over the top so it doesn't get too dusty. Then when it's really really dry, I crumble the leaves off gently into a jar and close the jar up tight. Works fine for mint tea the rest of the year.

 

[headred]

I have learned from past experience to pot mints, that way it doesn't take over my garden and I have it right by the backdoor where I can pick it quick and it smells good too!

 

[patandchickens]

I have not tried (due to lack of suitable windowsill), but been told from what is probably a reliable source, that the best way to have mint all winter is to put up several decent-sized pots of it in early summer and sink them back in the ground (can remain in your mint patch) to grow some more til fall. When they die back in the fall but before the ground freezes solid, dig up the pots again and put them somewhere that won't freeze TOO direly cold, like an unheated attached garage (but remember mint is pretty hardy stuff).

You can bring a pot into the house, put it on a sunny windowsill and water it, and it will come back into growth. Effectively you are forcing it. Under continued harvesting eventually it will poop out but by then you can have brought a second pot in to start forcing on the windowsill. Etc etc.

If I had a sunny and cat-free windowsill I'd do it. But I don't. Also we have SO DARN MUCH mint around here that it is kind of nice to have a 6 month break from it


Pat

 

[Hattie the Hen]

Yes patandchickens is right.

If you take long cutting of mint and pull off all of the leaves; lay these horizontally in a seed-tray on a bed of sandy compost. Cover completely with more compost & water. Then put aside, remembering to water & according to how warm it is & where you live a couple of months later you should have new plants springing up along the horizontal stems & a good winter supply of fresh mint. You can them divide these shoots & pot up separately.

Hope this helps!

:rose Hattie :rose