Discovering back yard culinary treasures
Posted: Wed Jun 05, 2013 7:19 am
A few evenings ago, my friend, Mary Jo was over. Although we've been friends for a couple of years now, she had never "toured" my back yard so we walked around and I showed her my grape vines. There is one patch of something growing, that comes up every year. I wasn't exactly sure what it was. Several years ago, I thought it might be some kind of basil and actually made pesto from it, which was quite nice, but my sister, who liked it, said it didn't taste like basil. I posted here about it and was told it can't be basil, because basil isn't a perennial. Then, someone told me they thought it was mint, and while it does have a bit of mint aroma, the leaves didn't look right. Mary Jo took one look at it and said "You've got a lot of lemon mint there". I looked it up and lo, and behold, it is lemon mint and has many uses; rubbing crushed leaves on your skin as a mosquito repellent; can be brewed into a stress reducing tea; seasoning for fish; seasoning in sausage; a substitute for oregano; and even to make pesto!! As we made out way behind my garage, where I have a lot of junk piled up, she exclaimed "Cardoons!" I said "You mean these big leafed weeds that keep coming up, year after year?" We had fried cordoons at a St. Joseph's Day dinner we went to in March, and I liked them. She's going to cook some up for me this weekend and maybe I'll make some lemon mint pesto and serve it over home made pasta.
There is a large wooded area behind my house, filled with turkeys and deer. I'm going to try to find a local mushroom expert and see what might be back there.
There is a large wooded area behind my house, filled with turkeys and deer. I'm going to try to find a local mushroom expert and see what might be back there.