Mmmmm….Minty goodness.

One of the herbs I’m growing on my deck this spring is Mint. Mint is commonly used in Middle Eastern food, especially on lamb and in tea. Here in the US we’re more used to seeing Mint used in sweet things like candy and ice cream.

Today I want to share my favorite way to use Mint and tell you how to make one. It’s a Mint Julep. It’s so simple to make, consisting of only four ingredients in its classic form. I add a slice of Lemon to mine, but it’s not required.

• Mint leaves (about 3-6 per glass)
• A good Kentucky Bourbon (I prefer Maker’s Mark but use whatever you like)
• Sugar
• Water
• Lemon slice (optional)

Directions

In a tall glass, add two – four teaspoons of sugar and the Mint leaves. Using the handle end of a wooden spoon, lightly bruise the leaves into the sugar. This will extract some of the oils and scent from the Mint leaves.

Next add just enough water to dissolve the sugar, probably about a tablespoon or two. You could use a simple syrup instead, but I find that sugar and water works fine.

Fill the glass with crushed ice. Add your bourbon. I use enough bourbon to fill the glass roughly half way, but adjust for whatever your tastes may be.

Finally add water & lemon slice.

Stir and enjoy.

More Pea Blossoms

I’ve added a photo today of additional pea blossoms. I have about 8 full flowers now and about 20 others that haven’t flowered yet. The peas have more or less stopped growing. I suspect that’s a result of the warm weather that we’ve had recently. I guess Peas aren’t a traditional southern crop, but I chose them because I read they were easy to grow and didn’t have a lot of pest issues. So far that’s been true, I’ve found them to be very easy to grow and hopefully they’ll produce over the coming weeks to give us some great tasting peas.

The second photo is a close-up of my irrigation system watering my eggplants, peppers and some of my tomatoes. They’re all really starting to grow well, and hopefully I’ve chosen the right sized pots for each of these vegetables.

DM

First Pea Blossom

It ain’t much, but here is a photo of our first pea blossom. I think there will be more in the days to follow. The bad new is that it was 84 degrees today here…a bit too warm for peas I suspect. They looked slightly wilted this afternoon, but are ok this evening. Hopefully they make it a few more weeks to produce some peas.

No more signs of Bitey today, so hopefully we’re in the clear. I’ve also included a photo that shows all the plants in one picture.