How to Clip Spearmint Leaves
Spearmint and other mint varieties are easy to cultivate in the home garden and add a dash of freshness to cooking or in herbal teas or homemade lemonades. Spearmint has been favored for its smell and flavor, as well as medicinal qualities, for thousands of years and is very hardy in the garden, save for its susceptibility to fungal rust. Harvesting spearmint, for fresh use or for drying, is very simple. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Hold the spearmint stem under the top two to three pairs of leaves and use garden clippers to cut off the main stem about 1/8 inch above the next pair of leaves on the stem. Choose the tallest shoots in the spearmint patch -- this gives other shoots a chance to grow tall for clipping later. Use these tender top leaves fresh in salads, stews or drinks.
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Clip the stalks of the spearmint plants about an inch above the roots as the plant comes into flower if you want to use the clippings to dry. If there are browned, damaged or insect-bitten leaves, trim these off.
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Tie bundles of cut spearmint by the end of the stalks with waxed thread and hang them upside down to dry.
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Tips & Warnings
It is best to clip spearmint for drying in the mid-morning after the dew has dried but before the full sun has sapped the leaves of oil.
References
- Photo Credit Medioimages/Photodisc/Photodisc/Getty Images
