Mint Horror Stories?!?

[jyoutz]

Mint is heavily grown around here commercially. It's really nice in late summer when they harvest it and put it in the stills to extract the oil, then dump the boiled plants in piles at the corner of the fields. Mint smell travels for miles. A great childhood (and adult) memory for sure!

I remember driving by large fields of mint that was cut and baled in eastern Oregon. The smell was both amazing and overpowering.

 

[BravoXray]

We've had a small patch of mint outside our back door for about 30 years. As it creeps into the lawn, I just mow it or weed eat it and it has never gotten out of control.

It's nice to pull a couple sprigs off in summer crush it a bit, and put it in a jar of sun tea to brew for the evening.

I keep an eye on it in summer and pick it before it flowers, dehydrate it, crush it up and keep it in a zip lock bag for tea in winter.

Remember the mint farm on Mayflower Road?
Back in the 70s when I drove by there, sometimes when they were steaming it, the smell was pretty intense.

 

[MossRoad]

Remember the mint farm on Mayflower Road?
Back in the 70s when I drove by there, sometimes when they were steaming it, the smell was pretty intense.

Remember? It's still there!

Martin Blad Farms. Mr Blad passed away about 15 years ago. Don't know who owns it now. It might be part of Ceres Partners now, which has grouped together many of the large farms out in the muck fields.

My wife's family went to school with their kids.

My wife's grandpa, when he was around 12 years old, used to ride his bike out to Peach Rd to work in their tomato canning factory by the tracks north of Peach Trail.

Here's some pics of Blad Farms...

Farm


Mint still 3/4 mile north.


Hemp plants by mint still (still very common along the ditches as it was grown here for WWI & II for rope, canvas, etc)



And here's Mattyh's Farm mint operation off of Crumstown Highway west of the bypass.

Every yellow wagon is a mint wagon. The big brown pile is the remains of the steamed mint.

 

[MossRoad]

Mint field as viewed looking SW from CN railroad crossing on Peach Rd.

 

[MossRoad]

I remember driving by large fields of mint that was cut and baled in eastern Oregon. The smell was both amazing and overpowering.

Here they mow it and blow it into large sealable steel wagon boxes. Then they take it to the mint still, hook a steam pipe to the box, run steam through it and extract the oils. Somehow they determine when no more profitable oil is coming out of the wagon, they disconnect it and take it to a dumping site. Repeat.

It's not uncommon to get stuck behind a train of 3 wagons being towed down the road to and from the fields and stills.

I can think of three stills in my immediate area. There are a lot more in the surrounding counties.

 

[MossRoad]

I met the man and woman that owns this place several years ago... their brakes failed and they backed into my mother in-law's car in a parking lot, so I gave them a ride home. Anyhow, he cash rents his land to local farmers. Has a mint field in his front the year this was taken (they rotate mint to different fields every so often and plant corn or beans). He has an ultralight that he flies from his driveway!



And another mint still at Martin Blad Farms. Haven't seen this one used in a few years, but they keep it mowed. It wasn't uncommon to see all the bays with mint wagons hooked up, more waiting to be processed or returned to the fields, and steam pouring out of the facility. Sweet, sweet smell.

Note an old piston compressor sitting on a slab. That's been there since I was born.



Anyhow, since they rotate mint, corn and soybeans, it must mean that mint is controllable. I'm sure they just burn it down with chemicals, like everything else.

 

[Oaktree]

What's the problem with it spreading? It smells nice and isnt poison ivy.

Yeah, we have a section of lawn that's been largely taken over by mint. As you say, it smells nice, the blossoms are pretty and bees love it. I'm not obsessive about my lawn, if it's green and not poisonous it's OK with me.

 

[Torvy]

I did read somewhere that mint and blueberries shouldn't be close together.

I've tried mint a few times. The horehound is still going, but the other 2, not so much. I'm trying it in a pot this year.

 

[WinterDeere]

I've always had some mint planted, the last 30 years, between two houses. Never has been a problem for me. It does want to creep a bit, but nothing so bad that you can't just pull out the unwanted new strands to keep it in its place. I only have to pull it back once or twice per year... hardly a big problem.

I've told this story before, but it's too good not to tell it again: I had mint planted next to basil at my old house, and one Kentucky Derby weekend, I sent my sister out to pull some mint to make our Juleps. My head was all stuffy with allergies, so I somehow didn't notice that she came back in carrying basil leaves, and proceeded to blindly make a few cocktails with the stuff. Let me tell you, a basil Julep is not a drink you ever want to try.

 

[MossRoad]

 

[HawkinsHollow]

I also heard it's vigor can be climate dependent as well. Cooler and wetter climates tend to lend themselves to a more vigorous mint. Hotter/drier climates not so much. That kind of makes sense. In the summer here if it wasn't watered I feel like the mint would struggle to take much of a toe hold.

 

[MossRoad]

I also heard its vigor can be climate dependent as well. Cooler and wetter climates tend to lend themselves to a more vigorous mint. Hotter/drier climates not so much. That kind of makes sense. In the summer here if it wasn't watered I feel like the mint would struggle to take much of a toe hold.

It really likes wet soils. Ours thrives near the water spigot on the shady side of the house.

 

[WinterDeere]

It really likes wet soils. Ours thrives near the water spigot on the shady side of the house.

Mine is planted in a tiny garden carved out of a flagstone patio, just outside our kitchen door. There is indeed a hose bib there, but also drip-line irrigation in each garden, and even the kids water fountain which drains into the soil. No shortage of water, but it also gets full noon-time sun, and that surrounding flagstone can get quite hot in July.

 

[rumwrks]

I remember driving by large fields of mint that was cut and baled in eastern Oregon. The smell was both amazing and overpowering.

We can get cheap mint compost in parts of OR still, it's also really common in some areas in E WA state. The compost isn't quite as powerfull.

On the sides of one pond we have a lot of Pennyroyal (which is a bit of a problem for livestock) which smells like .. it's hard to describe.. "pharmaceutical strength mint", sort of an overpowering almost sickeningly strong mint smell. If you hit one with the mower it's not so bad but tag a whole row of it and it's enough to make you want to leave that part of the yard for a while.