I have successfully mutilated the Rosemary bush and decimated the mint population The house and my hands are redolent with the scent of both.
I tried enlisting some child labour to speed up the process, but Mayhem begged off early [feeling useless and then feeling sick] and Chaos got bored of picking mint leaves.
I have a sink full of unpicked mint, soaking in water and lemon juice to stop them browning whilst I take a well-earned break. And about a double-handful of picked mint leaves doing the same in a bowl of lemon juice and water.
Chaos filled 80% of the dehydrator with mint leaves! All by herself! Yay!
I still have an entire washing basket of rosemary to snip and store. Mayhem got a good, double-handful of rosemary sprigs [best for dried rosemary] before the smell got to him and he had to lie down.
After I do today's Instant, I shall be snipping sprigs and stripping branches for the Grand Production of Rosemary Products. Then stripping mint leaves until my arms ache.
By then, if I'm lucky, Beloved will be awake to help me out with the bloody stuff.
I have to make Drying Packets and bundle up the sprigs with twine so they can hang and dry for maximum flavour.
And - yes, mum - I did spare ONE mint plant for your Christmas extra. We picked out one with lots of leaves and made sure it had some side-suckers so it can propagate. It's currently tied to a satay stick because it was growing a bit sideways. And it's sitting in my kitchen windowsill and enjoying the sun. I shall endeavour to water it daily.
Mayhem fixed it up really nicely and even put a ribbon around the pot for you. Aaawww...
I actually spared a lot of mint plants because -Powers- I have a metric fuckton of mint.
I should look up how to do mint products other than dried. But not this time. This time, I have enough work cut out for me.
