Maine: Mint Ice Tea 
Cool and refreshing on a hot day. Please eat the mint leaf. It is great in a salad.
Drink hot on a cool June night. It calms the stress of the day and helps you rest at night.
Dry the mint leaves for hot tea in the winter, or transplant to a pot to grow indoors for fresh mint anytime.
Lemon balm is a close relative and just as refreshing.
Shirleyanne in the garden.
After a long Winter Thaw and Spring Floods, Maine grass turns the greenest green you’ll ever see. That is when the young Dandelion greens grow. Pick them and eat them now. Growth through the summer continues, but the greens get tough and taste bitter.
Spring Bulbs bloom into flowers, while Asparagus and Rhubarb peak through the soil. Pick before each go to seed near the end of May. Rhubarb stalks will string and Asparagus will turn into a fine feathery foliage.
Where ferns grow, Fiddle Heads appear in early May. The young, edible frond of certain ferns, resemble the head of a violin. By late May, Fiddle Heads grow into a mature plant.
Lemon Balm, a bush herb of the mint family, with leaves tasting and smelling like lemon, is ready to brew as tea starting in May. A fragrant ointment used to heal or soothe the skin can also be made.
Where grass grows tall and remains uncut, Scallion and Sorrel may be found. Pick to use as a treat in soup or salad.
My backyard, produced all this fresh Maine food. What food is in your yard?
Lucky me, the land in my backyard was once a farm. There has always been good, rich soil for a garden. Lucky me, I have a son, Michael who only eats Organic Food. He grew up with a garden in the backyard, and when I was pregnant, I was a vegetarian and he has carried on that lifestyle.
About 6 years ago, Mike built a Compost Area along the back fence. He used it, when he lived here. Then each year, after that, my husband would pile the leaves that he raked up, in that same Compost Area. This past winter, I saved all my organic garbage, and when the frost was out of the ground, I buried it in that same Compost Heap. Now, I have rich organic soil to use for my vegetable garden.
Hold on! Not ready that fast. The larger organic material did not break down, yet. So I used a screen to sift the rich ready organic soil from the chunks of organic material. I dug another compost pit for the chunks, and summer garbage.
Americans throw away 30% of good food. Why not use that garbage to make compost, to grow better, fresher, food products. Organic Gardening is good for Mental Health too.
Multi-dimensional Thinker, Shrew, Control Freak, Overbearing Mother, Stalker, are just a few titles assigned to me over the years. Recently a Psychiatrist Evaluation and a Neuropsychological Report identifies me with untreated, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, combined type, Reading and Learning Problems, Dysraxia, with Stress, Anxiety, and Depression. I have called myself an Artist in defense of my shortcomings, where my different behaviors, often seem, but not always, excused. All these titles can be recycled, mixed into a compost pile which I call, Flinging Rotten Organic Tomatoes. Let us see what grows.
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=the-healthy-type&ec=su_blog
I am Shirleyanne.This is my Wedding Day, September 3, 1985. My friend, artist Lynn Harwood, made me a crown of Wild Flowers.Egocentri
c? Heart?
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