Mint and Orange Zest

Yesterday was full of wonderful smells: mint and orange peel.

I harvested two baskets of mint from pots and a reused turtle sandbox on my deck. The cuttings were clipped into segments that fit into my food processor. The processed mint is now on two trays on the kitchen counters. I’ll stir them several times a day until the mint is thoroughly dry ---- ready to use with black tea. There will be another harvest before the end of the season - enough mint to use now and last through the winter.

While I had the food processor out, I decided to make orange zest with the six oranges in the refrigerator and freeze the orange sections. During really hot weather, frozen orange sections are wonderful in smoothies so this was a good plan for the fruit and the zest. Only the white part of the orange peel ended up in the compost. I used a sharp knife to cut the outermost peel from the oranges- making long curls into the bowl of the food processor.

This is the first time there has been a bit of mint with the orange zest. I’ll enjoy that!