How and when to dry and harvest mint at home for the winter
It is known that mint has a considerable number of useful properties, thanks to which it is often used in folk therapy for many diseases. The plant is also used in the creation of many culinary dishes to make them more delicious and aromatic. It is recommended that you familiarize yourself with how to dry mint in order to use greens not only in spring, but also in winter.
Features of drying mint
To properly dry the harvested greens, it is recommended that you familiarize yourself with the features of this process.
There are six important rules to follow when picking mint for tea or cooking:
- Do not collect herbs near industrial plants or roadways. Such a plant contains many trace elements that can harm a person. Also, the taste is much worse than that of mint grown in the garden.
- It is not recommended to pluck young bushes for drying, as they are not yet ripe. Unripe greens have fewer useful properties and do not have a rich aroma.
- When collecting, choose only those greens that have already faded. Large mint leaves are harvested before flowering, as they contain more essential oils.
- Cutting mint bushes with whole stems, they are cut by only a third, and not completely. Due to this, after a while, new stems will appear at the cut sites, which are also cut and dried in the future.
- Plants are harvested only in sunny and dry weather during the day or after sunset. In the morning, dew is present on the surface of the leaves, due to which, during the drying process, the pouring darkens and deteriorates.
- When pruning, all leaves are carefully examined in order to immediately weed out spoiled material.
When to harvest mint for drying
Before you start drying the mint leaves, it is a good idea to determine the optimal time to harvest them. If you collect mint at the wrong time, then the probability of damage to the collected plants increases several times. Also, too young specimens cannot be used in cooking, since they are less fragrant.
It is necessary to collect when all the bushes are filled with useful trace elements and essential oils as much as possible. This moment comes when flowers appear. Often, mint bushes begin to bloom in mid-summer and bloom in the second half of August. That is why gardeners are advised to harvest during these months. However, there are early mint varieties that ripen several months earlier.
In this case, you will have to postpone work until the end of spring and the first half of summer.
Harvested on time is used for medicinal purposes and cooking. Mint leaves are used as a flavoring additive to enhance the taste of food.
Preparing mint
Before you start drying the collected mint leaves and storing them further, you need to do the right preparation of the greens.
After collecting any plant, it is washed. Therefore, all cut mint is washed in cold or heated water. This must be done carefully so as not to accidentally damage the plant, as any mechanical defects reduce the shelf life. When all the branches are washed, they are completely wiped with a towel or special paper towels. Then all the wiped sheets are laid out on a small piece of cloth until they are completely dry.
To speed up drying, the plants are periodically wiped with a rag or heated with a hairdryer.
All dried leaves are laid out in a row on a flat surface and carefully examined. If there are dark spots or damage on the surface of the leaves, then it is better to get rid of them immediately.
Drying the plant
Various methods are used to dry mint stems at home. It is recommended that you familiarize yourself with the features of each of them.
On the street
Most often, drying is done outdoors in the sun. With this method, all plants are distributed in several small bundles. Then they are carefully tied with strings, laid out on a flat surface, or hung on ropes. Experienced gardeners advise drying mint in shaded areas to keep the leaves from spoiling.
In the oven
Some people prefer to carry out the procedure not outdoors, but in the ovens. The main advantage of this method is its speed, since the branches are dried in this way in literally 20-30 minutes. First, the oven is heated to 70 degrees, after which a tray with sheets is placed in it. The readiness of the plants is checked every 5-7 minutes. If the mint is not checked periodically, it will dry out and have to be thrown away.
How to store dried mint
So that you can add fragrant dried mint leaves to various dishes in winter, you should familiarize yourself with the peculiarities of their storage.
Mint is stored for the longest time in sealed containers, which will not get moisture.
Therefore, food containers or glass jars are used for this. Some people use vacuum plastic bags.
Containers with dried herbs should be checked periodically to make sure they are free of moisture. If the inside of the sheets is wet, you will have to re-dry them and place them in other storage containers.
Conclusion
Housewives often harvest dried mint for use in winter. It is recommended that you familiarize yourself with the peculiarities of collecting mint leaves and their drying in advance.
