It’s really a joy to grow things yourself, harvest and enjoy eating them. Or to simply revel in the beauty of flowers you planted and grew on your own.
My garden is real source of pleasure, entertainment, and of course work. But the work is worth it when I get to enjoy the fruits of my labour.
Mint is something I started growing a couple of years ago. I used to think: “Nah, I don’t like mint.” But what I don’t like is fake mint, like the overwhelming smell of air freshener, or the false taste of mint gum.
Mint the spice piqued my interest after drinking a mojito in Mexico. I had tried mojitos other times, on our trip to Cuba years ago, and I’m sure I sampled them on other warm vacations. But this time I really enjoyed my mojito; it was refreshing without being sweet. It tasted natural and seemed like something I wanted to try at home.
So I bought a mint plant (mojito mint, in fact) and put it in the garden the first year. Mistake – mint grows like a weed and spreads everywhere. So now I keep it in a pot, at the end of the driveway out front, oddly enough, because the deer seem to like to visit that spot and eat any flower I’ve planted there. They apparently won’t eat mint.
We do, however. I make mojitos, and enjoy them as a refreshing summer drink. I bet you’d like my recipe….But mint is so much more.
Friends have taught me to use mint in our homemade hamburgers and meatballs. It’s delicious chopped up in a salad. There are some delicious homemade salad dressings made with mint.
Here’s an easy and refreshing side dish: Dice watermelon into a bowl, add chopped feta cheese, cut up mint, and a squeeze of lime juice. Mix and let sit in the fridge for a short time before eating. The blend of sweet and salty flavours punctuated by mint is something else as a summer salad!
Give mint a chance. This isn’t air freshener mint. This is delicious.
theardizan 