Don't worry, it's not what you think!
Although everyone who comes for a tour round my garden thinks it is and comments on this plant growing quite unsubtly in the back ground.
You see, apparently, it has certain resemblance to another plant that is quite illegal to grow in this country. But I promise you it's not! One smell will confirm it!
It's a Peruvian Black Mint, also called "Huacatay", Latin name Tagetes Minuta. Apparently in the climate it grows it can become a weeds (nick named Stinking Roger) but I've yet to have it set seed here so I plant it each time as a annual, an annual that grows up to eight feet high in a season. In fact this year I just planted it in a bed with no compost or recently added manure and it's still eight feet tall!
So why do I grow it?
Besides making everyone question what I'm growing, and which side of the law I grow on that is...
It makes an amazing sauce.
Huacatay Sauce (or my take on it)
Take a massive handful of this plant (I tend to pick all the young tips), a clove of garlic, a couple of chillies, a pinch of salt, juice of a lime and enough oil to make a sauce.
Blend them all together and adjust for taste.
I think in the original recipe you're meant to add a sprig of mint and use certain chillies but I just use Cayenne's as that's what I've got growing here and I forgot the mint!
I made some up last night to have on top of some homemade Mutton burgers I'd made and froze earlier in the year. Spicy, minty and savoury it's the perfect sauce to have on lamb or mutton or anything really!
I love it and I think it's certainly worth growing the plant for.
Anyone else here grow it?
Is there a plant you grow just to make one thing that you might only have a few times a year?
lol - The leaves are wrong for the other.
ReplyDelete~From a distance though tey certainly look like it
DeleteI should grow this plant, we have a completely mad neighbour who calls the police and tells them I am growing pot in the back garden. We have been raided a couple of times, and know our local PC very well, if it was not so funny, she truly believes we are druggy.
ReplyDeleteYeah, you should. I think if you did by the eight time they came out they'd get fed up adn you could probably get away with growing anything...
DeleteI wonder what would be the response if I grew it on my suburban allotment? :)
ReplyDeleteGrow it and let me know what they say!
DeleteDidn't know this mint existed! It looks very happy in your garden. :) I have a small patio, no garden, so if it were happy growing in a pot, then I'd give it a whirl.
ReplyDeleteThe roots aren't that deep but it is a big plant so it would need a pretty big pot.
DeleteI hadn't realised it grows quite so huge! I might have to rethink where I was going to plant it...
ReplyDeleteI'm planning on growing some next year as its roots are supposed to give off substances that deter the growth of couch grass, and I'm hoping it will also do the same for bindweed.
ReplyDeleteHad no idea it was edible to. Wonder if it has medicinal properties too?
I like the sound of couch grass repellent!
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