Refreshing and tonic smell, pleasant coolness and characteristic taste - this is all about peppermint. This is a perennial medicinal and technical plant with a height of 30-90 cm. Homeland - China and Japan.
What is useful peppermint
Peppermint essential oil has many positive characteristics. Its use can be found in many foods and everyday products.
Peppermint during flowering
Positive properties of mint:
- It has a cooling effect. When it enters the mucous membranes, it excites nerve endings, activating cold receptors. In this case, the vessels of the upper layers narrow, and the internal reflexively expand. Thus, pain cider is reduced.
- It normalizes the digestive glands, reduces the fermentation processes in the digestive tract, normalizes metabolism, and reduces the tone of the intestinal smooth muscles.
- Improves the work of the biliary and urinary tract.
- It is used for asthma.
- It has a sedative and weak hypotensive effect.
- Preparations from the leaves of this plant regulate blood circulation, reduce intracranial pressure.
- It is a fast-acting external agent for severe headaches. In strong doses, it may disturb sleep.
- Menthol has a disinfecting effect. Essential oils are present in mint, which act on a number of bacteria and staphylococcus.
- Mint infusions help to refresh and tone the skin of the face, make it more elastic, reduce irritation and inflammation.
The healing properties of peppermint
Obviously, it is difficult to overestimate the beneficial qualities of mint. Therefore, if there are no contraindications for use, it can be included in your diet.
When to pick peppermint for drying
When planning harvesting for the winter, you need to know when to cut the mint, how to collect and store it.
But for this you need to first find out when to harvest the mint, because the mistakes made during its collection will not allow to preserve the maximum useful properties of this medicinal herb.
A dilemma often arises: when to collect peppermint for harvesting it for the winter. Mint is harvested in the middle of summer, July-August, when it reaches a height of 20-30 cm. Then the plant is maximally filled with essential oils and bears the greatest value.
Mint Harvesting for Winter
There are many options for harvesting green spices for the winter. In order to preserve the workpiece for a long time and delight itself with the specific aroma of this plant until the next season, but at the same time to avoid rotting of the raw material, it is dried. This is the easiest and most common way.
You can freeze fresh twigs and leaves. So they will not lose their spicy taste. However, the appearance of the plant will become unpresentable, and the color after freezing will change to brown-green. To freeze, leaves or twigs should be rinsed in water and blot excess moisture. Next, place in a plastic container and in the freezer.
Some foodies harvest mint in the form of ice cubes. It must be carefully cut, laid out in ice tins and pour boiled water. These cubes can be used to make sauces. If you add a slice of ginger and lemon, you get a fragrant tea supplement.
Important! If you want fresh greens in winter, then from autumn it is worth planting mint in a pot on the windowsill. In the cold season it can be difficult to buy fresh bunches, or they are more expensive than usual. This method will make it possible at home to grow green spice.
When to collect mint for drying: before flowering or after
If you need raw materials for the extraction of essential oil, then when you need to collect mint leaves, the appearance of flowers on it will tell. It, like melissa, should be cut off during the period of full bloom, when the plant contains the maximum extract.
If mint is needed for ordinary homemade preparations for the winter, then the period before flowering begins, namely, until the buds appear on it. The stems in this period are not yet very woody, the leaf is large and fresh throughout the height of the plant. Therefore, to choose the time when you need to harvest, you should be guided by the stage of flowering of the plant.
How to get maximum aroma, taste and benefits
So that the workpiece could show all its qualities, you need to adhere to some rules.
Mint: when to collect
Here are some tips for choosing mint for drying:
- You should not pick up mint near the road or in the city, as the plant has already absorbed harmful substances from the earth and the environment, and at the same time, useful properties are reduced to "no."
- Too young mint sprouts have a small amount of useful substances, and when dried, they lose their benefits even more.
- In order for the bush to please several harvests per season, you need to know how to trim the mint correctly. A cut of the stem must be done near the ground and not cut off. In addition, the plant should be cut to a third of the length.
- The collection is carried out in the morning, since at this time of day the plant contains the largest amount of essential oil. Harvest two to three times throughout the growing season.
Adhering to these recommendations, you can get more benefit from the plant and collect from it more than one crop per season.
Important! Mint harvested after rain or dew will darken after drying. Therefore, it is recommended that the collection be carried out when moisture has already evaporated on the surface of the plant.
Cut the stems with scissors or a knife. If the collection takes place in a clean area, it is better not to rinse the branches before drying, so that they do not accumulate excess moisture. If there is a need for peeling, then the stems should be lowered into the water, and then shake well.
Important! To preserve freshness and prevent the crop from fading if, for example, it is transported, the branches should be wrapped in a damp cloth. So the plant will preserve the turgor of the leaves and they will not curl from the evaporation of moisture.
How to dry peppermint to preserve nutrients
Dry the stems under a canopy in a dry, ventilated place on paper or cloth, periodically turning them over to avoid decay. After drying, they are folded into a tightly closed container. You can tie the branches into tight bundles and hang them for drying outdoors in the shade, or cut the stems into small pieces and spread them on the surface.
Important! During drying, you need to ensure that sunlight does not fall on the leaves.
Drying takes place within 2-3 weeks. If the leaf easily separates from the stem, and the stem itself breaks easily, then the drying is completed.
If it is not possible to dry in the open, then special drying is used for vegetables and fruits. This device generates warm streams of air of optimum temperature and passes them through pallets on which fresh products are laid out for drying. Using this gadget, you can dry any herbs for homemade workpieces.
Drying mint on pallets with warm air
Important! Using any method of drying with heating, the air temperature must be set no higher than 35 ° C. At high temperature, all the beneficial properties and aroma of the spices disappear.
How to store dried mint throughout the winter
For ease of storage, dry leaves can be separated from the stems. They are brewed as tea or infusion, and the individual leaves are ground and used as a seasoning for dishes.
Harvested dry mint for the winter is well stored in tightly closed glass jars or in cloth bags. You can use plastic bags or cling film, but leaving a small hole for air.
Shelf life is 1.5 years.
How to use dried peppermint
Peppermint found its application in the preparation of many culinary dishes, the cosmetics industry and medicine.
Leaves are added as a spicy seasoning in minced meat, offal pastes, home-made sausages, when stewing lump meat, as well as to add flavor to meat salads, appetizers, sandwiches and soups. In pastry dishes are introduced into cookies, gingerbread cookies, rolls. This spice perfectly complements compotes, jelly, fruit drinks, tinctures, kvass, soft drinks.
Important! When overheated or exceeded, the plant can give the product an unpleasant bitter taste.
In cosmetology, this medicinal herb is actively used for preparing lotions, masks, tonics, creams, ointments, compresses at home. Dried peppermint is used to make aromatic oils, scented pillows and sachets.
The use of mint in cosmetology
To prepare a mint face mask, you need to take 2 tablespoons of chopped leaves, pour them with hot water to make a mushy mass. Next, it should be heated to 60-70 ° C, and then slightly cooled. The mask should be warm - 37-40 ° C. It is applied to a cleansed face, which is then covered with clean, slightly wet gauze, folded in several layers.
Important! The gauze for the mask should be warm and moist. It is enough to soak it in warm water, squeeze it carefully and apply to the face. This will create the effect of a "bath" - the pores will open, and the essential oils will better enter the skin.
The duration of the mask is 15-20 minutes.
Having figured out how and when to properly pick mint for drying - before or after flowering - and also learning how to harvest it for the winter, you can use its healing properties all year round.
