{"id":43307,"date":"2013-10-08T00:08:51","date_gmt":"2013-10-08T07:08:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/?p=43307"},"modified":"2013-10-08T00:08:51","modified_gmt":"2013-10-08T07:08:51","slug":"herbs-merit-badge-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/43307","title":{"rendered":"Herbs Merit Badge, Intermediate Level"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tThe adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our<\/span> Sisterhood Merit Badge program<\/a>, now with 5,518 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far\u20147,301 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ<\/span><\/p>\n

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Wondering who I am? I\u2019m Merit Badge Awardee Jane (MBA Jane for short). In my<\/span> former life<\/a> \u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

For this week\u2019s Garden Gate\/Herbs Merit Badge, Intermediate Level<\/a>, I continued onward with my obsession<\/span> desire to make the perfect homemade tea. Since it was going to be a while before my cardamom was ready to harvest, I decided to try another (and faster) indulgence:<\/p>\n

Mint!<\/p>\n

\"MBA_Jane-9719\"<\/p>\n

I love a good cuppa peppermint or spearmint tea, especially on a chilly winter\u2019s night, or iced on a busy summer\u2019s day. And it\u2019s not as heavy as my beloved chai, a fact my jeans will testify to.<\/p>\n

Unbeknownst to me, there are more than just good ol\u2019, tried-and-true spearmint and peppermint. Have you ever heard of \u2026 drum roll, please \u2026<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

chocolate mint?<\/i> (Holy combination, Batman.)<\/p>\n

ginger mint? <\/i>(I feel another chai craving coming on.)<\/p>\n

pineapple mint? <\/i>(Island living, anyone?)<\/p>\n

orange mint? <\/i>(They should make gum out of this flavor.)<\/p>\n

lemon mint? <\/i>(Pucker up!)<\/p>\n

apple mint? <\/i>(A divine iced tea combo if I ever heard one.)<\/p>\n

catnip?<\/i> (It\u2019s a mint. Who knew?)<\/p>\n

I cleaned out my window boxes\u2014hello, spiders \u2026 feel free to relocate, fellas\u2014and got out my potting gloves. Mint, it turns out, can be a bit invasive, which is right up my gardening alley. This means it will be hard for me to ruin and\/or totally kill, which gave me a confidence boost since I\u2019m still a beginner when it comes to the Landscaping Arts. I managed to kill a cactus my Gramma Barbie brought me from her annual week at a Texas dudette ranch, lickety-split and without hardly trying. Well, at least the pot came in handy for my cardamom seedlings (sorry, Gramma.).<\/p>\n

Well, my mint not only survived, but thrived. I now have more mint than I can shake a stick at (though why I would want to remains to be seen \u2026 maybe I\u2019ve been delving into the catnip accidentally). Besides my own lovely, home-brewed tea, I\u2019ve been using it for other things:<\/p>\n