Recipe
The recipe for Mint Syrup is versitile in a couple of ways. First you can drizzle Mint Syrup into about anything your imagination comes up with; iced or hot tea, hot cocoa, mojitos and cocktails, ice cream and frozen desserts, fruit cup, pastry glaze, tea bread, muffins, scones and cakes. The second option is to substitute or combine different herbs or edible flowers for the mint; lavender, violets, lemon balm, lemon thyme, fennel, basil, lemon grass, sorrel, rosemary etc.
Ingredients
1c water
1c granulated sugar
1 1/2c packed fresh picked mint
Directions
Rinse and coarsly chop the mint – stems included.
Combine mint with water and sugar in a saucepan and boil, stirring until sugar dissolves.
Reduce heat and simmer the syrup, undisturbed, 2 minutes.
Remove the pan from heat and allow to steep 30 minutes.
Strain into sterilized jars.
Store 1 month in refrigerator.
Mint Simple Syrup (recipe card)
Growing Tips
The range of how herbs are included in our daily lives is wide. They are used fresh or dry, in all sorts of infusions, for culinary and medicinal purposes, serve as a pollinator resources, and in simple aestheics of being planted in a cottage garden or window box. Knowing how useful herbs are may leave you considering planting some. There are perennial herbs (plants that return year after year) and annual herbs (last one season until frost arrives). Tender herbs, killed by cold, need to be brought indoors to serve as windowsill herbs. Mint is a perennial herb which likes to travel quite a bit, so it is strongly advized to keep this one in a trough and save the garden for other more well behaved herbs. Do not be afraid to cut back the herbs regularly and use them fresh, freeze or dry them for future use. Cutting back herbs keeps plants healthy and vibrant and lush.