I may earn a commission if you click on links in this post and make a purchase.
Mint is an incredibly prolific, even invasive, herb in the garden. Left unattended it will take over but when properly managed and thinned it can be a wonderful bounty. It’s delicious fresh, of course, but with a plant as productive as mint it’s good to have a plan in mind to have it around all year long. Thankfully, preserving mint for food & medicine is easy to do in a multitude of ways. In some cases, the lines are blurred between food and medicine but with mint that just makes it easier to use in its many preserved forms.
Harvesting Mint
Pick fresh leaves whenever you want them all spring and summer. For optimum flavor, harvest mint just before it flowers. To harvest a multitude at once for fresh or preserving, simply cut the stems, 1 inch above the ground. Most growing climates will have 2 or even 3 large mint harvests in a year, again it grows well and fast.
Dehydrating Mint
Having dried mint on hand is the easiest and most common way to preserve it for both food and medicine. To dry mint tie the stems together in bunches and hang in a warm, dry place until crispy. A closet or unused guest room is ideal. Drying in the dehydrator or oven is an option but generally unnecessary for most herbs. I’ve even hung mine in the greenhouse to dry quickly. Supposedly, herbs dried in the sun will lose flavor and color. I can attest that they do lose color when dried in the sun but I haven’t detected any noticeable loss in flavor doing it this way. Once dry, strip the stems of the leaves and store in air-tight jars.
Preserve Mint Leaves for Food
A mint pesto is a wonderful thing. Make large batches and freeze in small jars to use all winter. Some incredible variations include: mint-pistachio pesto & mint & pea pesto. Don’t be shy in combining flavors you love and blending up some pesto.
The dried leaves obviously make for great tea, but can also be heated with milk and chocolate to make a delicious hot chocolate, dried leaves can be thrown into baked goods and more all winter too.
Make a mint sugar and/or extract for all those creative baking needs. Makes a super great gift for the foodie on your list, too.
Mint jelly is a common and favorite preserve, but fresh mint leaves can be added to many jams and jellies for a wonderful flavor.
Freeze Mint Leaves
Freeze mint by chopping it and placing 2 teaspoons into ice cube tray compartments, fill with water and freeze. Once frozen, remove from the trays and store in containers. Toss the mint ice cubes into smoothies, broths, and anywhere a shot of mint flavor would be nice when the fresh isn’t available.
Preserving Mint for Medicine
Mint has long been used to soothe upset stomachs but it is also mildly antiviral and antifungal. It’s good for coughs and colds and can have a calming effect on the nerves.
Infusing mint in honey is one of those areas where the line between medicine and food can be blurred. It’s tasty as a general sweetener but can also help soothe indigestion when stirred into hot water or combined with mint tea.
Make a tincture by filling a jar half full of fresh mint leaves, then fill the jar full to 1″ of the top with vodka or glycerine. Let steep a month, strain and bottle. Take a few drops to help aid digestion as needed. This is sometimes a better way for folks who are opposed to drinking the tea for digestion help.
As the herbs begin to grow be sure to make the most of that prolific mint and stock the pantry and medicine cabinet to have it on hand even during that blizzard next January. What’s your favorite way to preserve mint?
I guess I never knew mint helped with digestion. I especially love your mint honey idea….I love that is tasty and good for you too!
Mint is one of the oldest and best remedies for an upset stomach and for sure my go-to remedy. The mint infused honey is pretty darn awesome, make tons of it because it’s great for gifts too!
{sigh} I’m still waiting for my mint to take over. I planted it in a spot that would be great for that and it’s just not co-operating. I love these ideas. I’m pinning it to come back to. Thanks for sharing!
I wonder if it’s the heat in your neck of the woods? Just you wait, someday you might live to regret these words, ha!
My mint is taller than my front porch! This is my first year with veggies, herbs, apples and I can’t pick it all fast enough. Thanks for the information it is very helpful
@Angi @ SchneiderPeeps, it loves sun, do you have it in a sunny spot?
Nice. I’ll try some of these tricks when autumn arrives and it’s harvesting time.
I loved reading this article, but I do have a question! I am not familiar with ‘pesto’…. what do you use it for and how do you make it? Thank you!!!!
Pesto is most commonly a sauce made of basil and pine nuts with some olive oil and parmesan cheese, but can be made with most any combination of herbs and nuts. Most folks eat it over pasta or rice, eat it as a dip, there are few recipes linked in the body of the text that give some great combinations.
Yumnmmmm thank you!
I have several flavors of mint,I live in Teas and my mint grew outside all winter. It’s is so very pretty.I grow it in a self watering pot. Thanks for all the drying ideas.
love the article. My mint has already bloomed, can I still harvest it or trim it so it can start again?
Absolutely. Once it flowers it has a tendency to lose a little strength but it’s still flavorful and completely edible. Harvest and trim, It’ll likely grow plentiful again before winter hits.
Can mint and other herbs be dried in a hay or feed barn, or will it likely be eaten by something flying or looking for food? If not, how about a laundry room? Thanks!
I would say indoors is best and for sure the laundry room will work great!
Great ideas Kathie! I finally decided where to plant my potted mint (after careful consideration) and it seems to be very happy. Thanks to you, I will be creating mint honey, mint pesto (I love Indian food and mint is often used in recipes to help cool the spices), and mint jelly. Or, how about mint cordials, mint lemonade…oh my, you have the creative thoughts going. Thank you!
How exciting! I can’t wait to hear how it all turns out.
@Michelle,
I make mint jelly every year, and this year, for some reason it didn’t gel up. So I didn’t let it go to waste, I poured it in a gallon of tea, and it was fantastic!
That, of course, sparked a thought, and now I am canning mint simply syrup. 😋😁
I am making apple mint jelly. May I use the stems as well as the leaves? Thank you.
Sometimes the stems can be a little bitter so I tend to avoid them. The bitterness is my only concern.
@Carol, I love apple mint jelly!
after you dry leaves for tea ,how do you store to last a long time. what would be best storage, thanks
I just use glass jars and store in a dark cabinet.
Can you eat the flowers of the mint? I also have a huge sage bush. Can you eat the flowers of the sage?
You can eat the flowers of both sage & mint – the flavor is usually milder than the leaves.
When I try to use the Pinterest button I get a message saying that this site does not allow Pins. Wondering what’s going on!
It’s fixed! ?
It was a strange little glitch that happened kind of overnight and took us a while to figure out. Thank you for trying more than once.
I love growing mint and but very seldom use any of it. Thank you, you have inspired me.
Oh, I’m glad to hear it! Enjoy that mint!
We have mint growing all around the back of the house and have not had any mossies in 7 years. I will be trying your recipes. Robyn
Oh it is good at keeping the mice away. Enjoy your harvest!
Can I vacuum pack my fresh mint and freeze for later?
I would freeze it in ice cubes first then vacuum pack those. Just freezing it alone, I’m not sure how well that would work. Though you could try a small batch and see if it works for you.
If you freeze it alone it turns brown. I’ll try the water method.
Does wild mint require different tactics? My wild mint seems to be a bit bitter when I use it, even fresh — any ideas?
Try harvesting when it’s younger and see if that makes a difference in the bitterness. There really shouldn’t be a difference in how you preserve it but some wild mint just has a slight bitterness as it ages.
When planting in pots, should the pots be left outside or taken in during freezing winters? Thanks!
Mint is pretty hard but if the pots aren’t buried, I’d bring them inside but that might depend on your local climate and how far below freezing it gets.
@Jan, I’m in zone 9b in Florida, I harvested some into a glass jar with water and left it over night in my container pot outside when it went down to 25 and it survived.
I loved this post so much I signed up! You offer so much content. I thought I was using my mint a lot but never thought of freezing or drying it. This will be game changer since I can’t get fresh herbs out here in the country. Better start growing them indoors next.
Hi I make a salad with watermelon,mango,and crushed mint leaves. If you like you can add a jalapeño thinly sliced too.
Yum!
I plant mint next to the grass and love that it spreads so when I mow it smells heavenly.
Hi, I have a question about freezing mint. You say after it’s frozen to put it in containers. Do I thaw it first? Is it frozen into cubes, or just enough water to cover it? I went to the amazon link for the containers and I’m just wondering how I fit the frozen mint into those little containers. Sorry if a stupid question…I just can’t visualize. I have a TON of mint and want to use it in the winter (it just won’t grow for me indoors and my plants “die off” after the first freeze – they always come back though).
I would put 1 teaspoon of mint into each ice cube and cover with water. You could thaw it first, if you don’t want the extra water in whatever you’re cooking. If it’s a soup or something, I’d just toss the whole cube into the broth and let it melt.
If your using vodka with The mint to get the extract, wouldn’t that make the extract have alcohol in it once done? I need to know because I have three young kids, I’m looking for safe recipes I can use with them.
It is for sure going to have alcohol in it – most extracts do – even vanilla extract from the grocery store is 35% alcohol. If you’re going to use it in cookies or cakes, the alcohol is going to cook out and I wouldn’t worry about it for kids. I would not however, serve it children in anyway other than something that was baked or cooked in some way.
I have had mint for several years, but have never used it. I harvested and dried some and am having my first cup of tea from it. Very good!
Can I get a fresh mint leaf or a couple of leaves and boil it for tea to drink it on the spot? Or do I have to dry it first??
You can absolutely use it fresh – use 3 Tablespoons of fresh (as opposed to 1 Tablespoon of dried) for 8 ounces of water for tea.
@Kathie Lapcevic, a sprig of fresh mint in iced tea makes a wonderful refreshing beverage on a hot day.
Is this peppermint or spearmint?
Either will work in similar ways.
Thank you for the info, how long does mint infused honey last? And do you have to strain the leaves out of the honey?? I have some I made 2 years ago is it still OK?
@Sharon, honey is forever. It wouldn’t get off. It can loose propierties, but it will be edible. And 2 years is maybe the time that it spend in a supermarket before you buy it.