animal vegetable miracle
October 2008 
Mint as far as the eye can see!
Posted on Jun 24th, 2008
by 
Debi
Debi
Our garden is a jungle of greenery these days, with mild weather and tons of rain. Everything is so tall that I can't even see what could be a weed and what might flower gorgeously later in the summer. It's chaotically gorgeous, and so I think I'll just give up, happily, and marvel at it.
We have several species of wildly proliferating mint and oregano growing there, and so especially in that back part of the garden pictured in the post below, the whole place smells like spicy mint. It's invigorating and lovely, but I am intimidated by the volume. I harvested a handful of stems of oregano and mint last week, sitting amicably next to Doodlebug in the yard as we pulled leaves into piles on the picnic table, but it's all dried now and ready for winter, and there is easily twenty times that amount left in the garden. Any locals reading this can come get whatever they can use!
We also have a good crop of anise hyssop, identified after two consultations with an herb farmer from the local farmer's market and a detailed web search, and then verified by our receiving another bunch of it in our CSA box last week (I traded it in for some extra chard). This is an absolutely delicious herb, making the most fragrant and naturally sweet tea I've ever had the pleasure of creating myself. I'm drying a big bowl of it in the kitchen now, and that little corner now smells delightfully like black licorice and sunshine.
This is all coming as I read the fascinating book Animal, Vegatable, Miracle by novelist Barbara Kingsolver. It is the story of her family's journey to eating only locally grown/raised foods, most of them so locally grown that she grew them or raised them herself! It makes me want to grow more of our own food next summer, though truthfully that has been my goal for several summers. For now, we're growing the herbs mentioned above, plus dill, thyme, basil, raspberries, and two struggling little tomato plants. I meant to do more, but our spring weekends got so busy that I lost my opportunity. I've often wished I had a "Gardening for Dummies" book that would tell me, step by step, what to do and when. Maybe next summer I will. For now, we're getting almost all our produce from the CSA or from the farmer's market, and even though it's pricier, I agree with Kingsolver's questions about that: essentially, how much is it worth to you to have tastier, gentler-on-the-environment, and kinder-to-the-farmers produce?
In any case, more rain is on its way this week. Wet mint, anyone?
We have several species of wildly proliferating mint and oregano growing there, and so especially in that back part of the garden pictured in the post below, the whole place smells like spicy mint. It's invigorating and lovely, but I am intimidated by the volume. I harvested a handful of stems of oregano and mint last week, sitting amicably next to Doodlebug in the yard as we pulled leaves into piles on the picnic table, but it's all dried now and ready for winter, and there is easily twenty times that amount left in the garden. Any locals reading this can come get whatever they can use!
We also have a good crop of anise hyssop, identified after two consultations with an herb farmer from the local farmer's market and a detailed web search, and then verified by our receiving another bunch of it in our CSA box last week (I traded it in for some extra chard). This is an absolutely delicious herb, making the most fragrant and naturally sweet tea I've ever had the pleasure of creating myself. I'm drying a big bowl of it in the kitchen now, and that little corner now smells delightfully like black licorice and sunshine.
This is all coming as I read the fascinating book Animal, Vegatable, Miracle by novelist Barbara Kingsolver. It is the story of her family's journey to eating only locally grown/raised foods, most of them so locally grown that she grew them or raised them herself! It makes me want to grow more of our own food next summer, though truthfully that has been my goal for several summers. For now, we're growing the herbs mentioned above, plus dill, thyme, basil, raspberries, and two struggling little tomato plants. I meant to do more, but our spring weekends got so busy that I lost my opportunity. I've often wished I had a "Gardening for Dummies" book that would tell me, step by step, what to do and when. Maybe next summer I will. For now, we're getting almost all our produce from the CSA or from the farmer's market, and even though it's pricier, I agree with Kingsolver's questions about that: essentially, how much is it worth to you to have tastier, gentler-on-the-environment, and kinder-to-the-farmers produce?
In any case, more rain is on its way this week. Wet mint, anyone?
Access: PublicTagged with: produce, CSA, mint, garden, Animal Vegetable Miracle, food miles, Barbara Kingsolver, locally grown
Oh, how lovely! Mint, mint, mint! =D