Traditional spices

Hello from a sunny day,

If you are following our journey from blog; you should remember that I am from Mediterranean part of Turkiye and not able to find some of spices here. One of them is dry mint. We use that to make dolma (stuffed veggies), sarma (rolled leafs), cacik (minted cucumber with yogurt and garlic), soups (almost with all of them) etc. Before I move, was not aware of this situation. They sell only dry parsley and oregano jn the markets; even there is no fresh mint. 

There is another variety of mint; which has more fragrance but not the same as mint what I like. 

On second year, a couple from Duzce visited me and pleased them to bring. (Shared this long time ago if you remember). But still needed to create a sustainability for this. Then saw tiny mint plants and grabbed directly to plant to our heaven. 

Due to change of the garden planning, moved them around and still so less on hand. Last year a friend from Podgorica who has a lot but doesn't use told that I am free to grab; wuhuu. Grabbed them all and after processing gave a jar to her as well and this year she offered the same and of course I didn't hesitate a second!

First split leafs and branches. You can't imagine how many bugs and weeds I took out from them. 

If you have a garden; don't throw branches; all will be planted back.

Don't forget to get support or viewers around 😁

And wash them gently. I use back seat of my car to dry herbs. When we have sun, inside turns to an oven heat which lets them dry in a few days. This time we had many rainy days hence it took a bit longer to dry this time. Don't forget to mix daily while drying them. With this way you release all moisture of the leafs. 

And final products; 100% organic (also she doesn't use any spray), clean, handmade dry mints. You need to smell the fragrance! As usual we shared with her of course. 

Plated branches, it will take app 2-3 months to turn them mini plants, then we will see. 

Take care and stay with nature,

PS: Today is 1st of May which is International Worker's Day. This doesn't mean only for workers 9-5; this day is for the one, who spends effort on anything. So; sincere congrats to the one, who spend efforts to built, to create, to make something. 

Loves,

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