Why? Because Its There Of Course! (Mint)

Member Name: wampyrii

Product:	Mint
Date:	20/11/01 (143 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: no hassle to grow, peps up food, keeps away fleas, mice, ants..probably more - smells nice too

Disadvantages: runs wild in your garden if allowed

It occurred to me today that although I have been a member of Dooyoo for many moons, there are some categories which I have written very little in and others which I have ignored completely. So although I am hardly an expert here I am looking to redress the balance a little...well write one op. at least.

So I wandered in here to the "House and Garden" category and chose mint to write about. I'm sure you'll all be enthralled. ;o)

Mint is of course a common garden herb which any gardener will either see as a huge bonus to have in their garden or a pain in the butt because left untended it does tend to take over somewhat. That said, if you have mint in your garden you are always guaranteed a sweet, fresh smelling aroma in that particular corner and a lovely addition to a rather large number of culinary dishes so I'd rather have it than be without it. Its a native plant to the Mediterranean, and Western Asia and is actually a little more interesting than you might think. You see not only does it have a multitude of uses, but it also has its very own part in Greek Mythology as well. They used it to cure hiccoughs but their legends claim that Minthe, a nymph, angered Pluto's wife Persophone(they were doing the naughty as gods and nymphs are apt to do) to the point where she zapped her into being a plant for mankind to step on. Pluto was unable to break the curse and instead softened it by giving Minthe a sweet smelling aroma...not much of an exchange if you ask me, but thats where mint was born.

See? Not all that boring so far.

There are however over 30 varieties of mint and these varieties are all quite capable of interbreeding so that it becomes very difficult to tell them apart - even to the experts apparently. This becomes something of a problem because of the many different kinds of mint, there are only a few which you are really going to want to have knocking around in your garden. These would include spe
armint, peppermint, garden mint, chocolate mint and pineapple mint, but I'm sure there are others, I am no expert here believe me. I would research how best to grow the stuff, but to be honest, it seems more of a problem to get it to STOP growing than to make it grow and its really easy to transplant as well so I doubt anyone will have a problem getting it started.

Mint has many uses but in this house it only gets used in pepping up cooked vegetables and giving an extra kick to omelettes. If you steam vegetables then the addition of mint really gives them a little extra life. Other uses include adding to tea, salads and jellies apparently although its never something I have tried...well not knowingly anyway. I'm sure there are lots of other recipes and uses(it keeps away ants and fleas and even controls mice too apparently) out there but there isn't space to list them all, a quick search on Google will no doubt pull up the odd million of them for your perusal anyway.

So there you go, a little bit of info. on mint. Like I said, I am no expert on the subject(thankfully) but I would really recommend shoving some in a corner of the garden somewhere and using it in your cooking to bring vegetables alive. You don't need to be a gardener, it takes care of itself more than well enough and your dinners will be that much tastier because of it.

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