What can you do with fresh peppermint?

[blurose]

I have a lot of peppermint and was wanting to know from you all what, other than put it in my tea, I could do with it. Honest, I only planted one pathetic-looking specimen in its own little pot and "WOW" I hope the clay pot doesn't bust! My peppermint is now nearly 2 feet tall. Maybe I shoulda planted spearmint too? JK

 

[Nubsmum]

Blurose, I too would like to get some tips on this. I planted peppermint and spearmint just a couple of weeks ago. They were two inch pots. Now they are huge(not two feet) but I am sure I will need to re pot them soon. I would love to know the best way to save it/store it/freeze it.

:happy_flower

 

[Dace]

I have heard that if you give some a rough chop and put it into ice cube trays, then cover with water, that you can make minty ice cubes for your tea, lemonade etc. Just pop out all of the frozen cubes into a large freezer bag.

 

[blurose]

That is a great idea Dace, but I'm still looking for other uses for the stuff. Has anybody ever chopped it up and added it to cookie dough or something? How about ice cream? Can you make homemade peppermint oil? HELP.

 

[1acrefarm]

I use it to save on tea bags and give my tea an extra kick. I like my tea strong. When I don't use mint it takes 11 small luzianne tea bags to make my gallon of tea. When I use mint it is a little stronger and I only have to use 8 teabags. I also love the flavor it gives the tea. My rabbit loves mint too.

 

[blurose]

Oh, come on guys. There's got to be some other use for it than just tea. I'm an avid tea drinker myself, but just because of my personal preference, you won't find a teabag in my house. I use the loose stuff only and brew in a china teapot, even for my iced tea. I too like my tea strong. I wonder if someone could find an old candy recipe that would use peppermint leaves. I guess I could always make my own peppermint extract, using a touch of vodka and crushed peppermint leaves.

 

[patandchickens]

Well, you can make mint jelly (although it might be weird with peppermint instead of spearmint, and it does not use *much* mint if your goal is to harvest it back to a manageable size.

You can cut several-to-a-handful-of leaves into fine shreds to add to a green salad, fruit salad, pasta salad (if you like wierd, that is -- personally I do, and like a combination of mint and fennel or anise or sweet cicely leaves shredded into a pasta salad with olive oil and garlic), or brownie dough. Would probably be good, in very small quantities, in fine shreds in any compatible cookie dough too, e.g. lemon sugar cookies.

I don't really know of anything else that would be plausible for peppermint. Spearmint I use in greek type dressings and marinades (for souvlaki, etc) but peppermint, bleah

Really I do not think there is much you can DO with it, at least not in proportion to how quickly the stuff grows

Good luck,

Pat

 

[blurose]

Oh, woe is me that my tomatos and cucs don't grow that fast.

 

[akyramoto]

anyone know if you can feed a bit of mint to your dogs??

minty fresh doggie breath would be awesome!!

 

[coopy]

you can make apple-mint jelly. Put it in your salsa. Yes I said salsa. It give it a refreshing taste. Remember it doesn't take alot of mint.