Nearly every household has a box of mint somewhere in a cupboard or tucked away on a shelf. The common mints - peppermint, spearmint, ginger mint, and chocolate mint, are popular as a hot beverage. Known for soothing tummy aches, relieving nausea, stimulating digestion, mint is well integrated into our everyday lives.

Why not wild harvest it?

Mint refers to hundreds of plants in the Lamiaceae or Labiatae family. In addition to the lovely sharp smelling, memorable mints we are used to, the family also includes pennyroyal, catnip, horehound, motherwort, and more.

Mint is characterized by square stems, opposite leaves, and uneven flowers with five sepals. Most, but not all, of the mints have volatile oils, easily released when they are crushed or even brushed against.

The first two photos are of chocolate mint, Mentha piperita. My favorite of all the mints, the smell combines the robust chocolate scent with the sharp expanding mint smell. I've encouraged the chocolate mint to grow in paths and sides of my garden so that the odor is accidentally released as I work. What a pleasure to have the scent wafting around me as I tend the garden.

You may have peppermint or spearmint growing in your yard, or even an unidentified cross. These plants are escaped, as well as intentionally placed in gardens and fields all over Ann Arbor. This photo is of a probable spearmint escaped from a garden into a public pathway, fair game for foragers.

This simple, common, ubiquitous mints are easy to harvest. Pick them any time of year when the leaves are in good shape. The flowers can be added to salads or used as edible garnish with cold soups, over rice dishes, in a desert presentation, or really any meal, including your scrambled eggs for breakfast.

Use sprigs or chopped leaves fresh, as a beverage hot or cold, added to tabbouleh or other grain dish, or as an interesting addition to pesto. Mint "tea" is actually a tisane. Strictly speaking, only the leaves from the plant Camellia sinensis can be a tea. Any other hot or cold beverage made from plant materials is a tisane. If it is made stronger, we call it an infusion. Infusions can be steeped 20 minutes to overnight, and tend to contain more of the nutritional benefits from the plant. Mints are best used as a briefly steeped tisane, as the volatile oils readily infuse the water and too long a time steeping results in a strong and not pleasant beverage.

At this point nearly everyone in the U.S. refers to herbal tisanes as herbal teas, so I have little hope of changing the common usage. But I have to at least note it.

Fresh mint can be stored in the refrigerator for a week or two, but if you'd like it to last longer it would be better to dry it. Drying the plant is simple. You can do it in the shade on a screen, in a very slow (100 degree or less) oven, by hanging, putting a screen or cookie sheet of spread out leaves in your attic, or by using a food dehydrator. My preferred method is to start outside if the air is dry and not windy. An hour or two in the just warm oven, and then I leave it overnight with the oven off. The time it takes is extremely variable depending on the herb, the humidity, and even the movement of the air.

What you want to end up with is a perfectly dry leaf that easily crumbles in your fingers. Store that in a tightly covered jar, out of direct light. Normally dried herbs last until the next season.

Motherwort, Leonurus cardiaca, is another mint that grows abundantly in Ann Arbor. Right now it is noticeable by the painful bracts attached to the stalk. Press against them or step on them and it is most unpleasant. This is a foul tasting mint with great medicinal benefit. It is traditionally used to regulate menstrual cycles, to soothe the transition into menopause and especially to reduce hot flashes, and also to normalize irregular heart beats.

My mother found it helpful as a first choice for her tachycardia. If it didn't work right away she used nitroglycerin, but she appreciated an option with lesser side effects to try first. And it often worked, but not always. Because it tastes awful, the preferred medium is as a tincture, or alcoholic extract, not an infusion.

Catnip, Nepeta cataria, is also a common mint. If you're unsure if you've found catnip or some other mint, borrow a cat. Most cats will roll against it, ingest it, and get very happy doing so. It may make people relaxed and happy as well, but some cats become very intoxicated. This plant is an excellent mosquito repellent.

Simple to make, catnip as an oil or tincture will repel mosquitoes very well, my only complaint is that it has to be frequently reapplied. I've walked into the woods wearing catnip (crushed stalks tucked into my hair, shirt, shoes, etc.). Perhaps less silly looking and more effective is to prepare ahead.

The oil can be made quickly by heating the catnip with olive oil in a 200 degree oven for 2-3 hours. i usually then leave it to sit overnight and strain it the next morning. I chop the leaves, cover a baking dish, and then cover with oil. Strain the next day with muslin cheesecloth, a dish towel, or other fabric. Store the oil in the refrigerator when you are not using it. Warning - this method will result in some strong odors in your home, although they do dissipate quickly.

Oils can also be made by filling a sterile jar with the chopped plant, then adding oil to the top and waiting 4-6 weeks. Strain, and store as above.

Herbal oils are for external use only.

I prefer to make catnip into a tincture. I fill a jar with the chopped leaves, fill that with 100 proof vodka, and leave it for 6 weeks. I dilute it half with water, and put it into a pump spray bottle. Surprisingly, the best deal and selection I found for those bottles was at Meijer. Spritzing with this aromatic liquid is cooling in the hot summer, and works well.

I do enjoy the irony of applying catnip to my dog to keep her from being bitten. So far no cats have noticed.

While pennyroyal, Mentha pulegium, also has wide use externally as a mosquito repellent, it is not as safe as catnip, especially for kids and pregnant women so I avoid it. And that includes in commercial "natural" preparations. It also lacks the lovely minty smell we're after.

I only wish this blog had the capacity to add smell to the experience. Because the refreshing, expansive, pungent mint smell is like no other. Go find some mint and you'll remember. It is abundant, easily replanted in your yard, and available for at least eight months of the year. It likes to take over, but that is easily solved by using it often. Most of us have at least four-five varieties of the common mint growing within a block. Look for the square stem, opposite leaves, and verify it by the lovely smell. Then enjoy.

Photos by Linda Diane Feldt

Linda Diane Feldt is a local holistic health practitioner, author, teacher, and herbalist. A student of the healing arts since 1973, she has had a private practice "providing an integrating approach to holistic health care since 1980." She will be at the HomeGrown festival this coming Saturday, ready to talk about wildcrafting, plants and food. Stop by and say hi and pick up copies of her AnnArbor.com blog