My hands smell deliciously minty! And here is why:
A couple of weeks ago I noticed the massive amount of mint growing wild in my parents’ yard. As you can see here:
So much minty goodness!
All that you can see there (obviously minus the trees in the back) is mint. And that’s not even all of it! That is but one section!
It smells wonderful and is a nice ground cover, but I got to thinking that there must be something we can do with it. Mint shampoo or soap or some kind of delicious treat, something. So I went to the internet and looked around and…was kind of disappointed. Soap and shampoo were out (too many other ingredients I don’t have on hand and would have to buy), I’m not that fond of tea, and that seemed to be it. Unless you wanted to add it to salad or use it as a garnish.
Then I found this: Homemade Apple Mint Skin Toner Seemed perfect!
(I had to first look up what exactly one did with skin toner, but a quick Google search cleared that up.)
All you need for the recipe is apple mint, apple cider vinegar, and water. It’s super easy. You take some vinegar (2 Tbs) and put it in a jar, then chop up some mint (3 tsp) and add that to the jar. Then you let it sit for about a week.
Mint and vinegar, sittin’ in a jar.
Mine doesn’t exactly look like the picture with the recipe, but I have faith it’ll turn out spectacular.
After about a week you strain the mint from the liquid, add some water (1 1/4 cups) to the minty vinegar and bam, you’re done.
I’ve made two little jars. If it turns out not to burn my face off I’ll be giving one to my sister. Either way I’ll let you know how it turns out.
If you have any other ideas for what to do with fresh apple mint, let me know! As you can see, we have a lot of it to work with.
Wow..super jealous of all that mint! Makes me wish I still had mint plants. Have you thought about making mint sauce or mint jelly? Like for lamb dishes? The mint sauce would probably be super easy (probably just mint and vinegar).
There is seriously so much of it! It really does smell delicious, but I feel like it’s just going to waste.
Well I don’t eat meat so I don’t know if jelly or sauce would be useful. I wonder if mint sauce would be good with any non-meat dishes. Hmmm..
Yeah well you could always use mint sauce for other things as well :) I like to put it on veggies and stuff. It goes wonderfully on potatoes. :)
Good luck! I have the mint growing in my flower bed, and have to pull it out a few times a year because it takes over and kills out my other plants. Love the smell though!
Yeah, it’s a takeover plant for sure. My mother planted this years ago with the intention of it taking over that section of the yard – excellent ground cover, you just have to make sure to keep it in it’s spot!
We have some mint in a corner bed of our garden at home, but due to my mom and I not having time to garden it’s slowly encroaching on the adjacent stone-covered path. And the lawn. I’m betting that eventually, everything in the yard will be covered in mint. Even the trees! :O
Well, not realistically, but it’s an amusing mental image.
Watch out, it’ll come for you next! :p