Multi-tasking mint finds a new home in a recipe for a warm salad.

Every summer I enjoy fresh mint from my own little garden. I grow three quite common types: pepper, lemon and Water Mint. All three work really well for cooking and I use them regularly in teas or as a flavor in different kinds of drinks. A few crumpled leaves together with elderflower cordial are a perfect match (with or without gin). Crushed with ice and Lime Mint makes for fantastic mojitos or a refreshing ingredient in a Pimm’s Cup.

It’s easy to grow mint but if you’re not careful, mint plants can rapidly take over your garden plot. Their roots are aggressive and hard to exterminate, so best to plant them in pots or at an unused part of the garden where they can grow freely without interfering with other growing treasures.

There are many different types of mint, some more common and others more rare. A more rare example are mint plants that have the scent of different kinds of fruits such as pineapple and strawberries. There is even a mint that has a clear flavor of chocolate. Not sure what I would do with this kind of mints but it’s funny as pineapple, strawberries and chocolate are all great companions to mint. For example in this strawberry salad, you can switch basil for regular mint.

Earlier this year in Marrakesh, I got inspired by the simple way they use mint in different kinds of salads. The salads were often just tomato, peppers and red onion cut into tiny pieces and blended together with finely chopped mint leaves, a squeeze of lemon and olive oil. Simple and delicious.

Anna Brones‘s mother makes a fresh mint pesto and it sounds perfect drizzled over a potato salad or even a grilled lamb chop. When the summer is here you may prefer something cool to eat instead of hot meals from the stove. A fresh red pepper and tomato salsa is an excellent choice. And a watermelon and feta salad makes a perfect starter or as a side for grilled meat and vegetables.

One of my latest treats is this simple and warm Zucchini & Feta Salad that is great to serve together with vegetable patties.

Warm Zucchini & Feta Salad

(for 2-4 people)

One – two zucchini
Olive oil
Some salt
Some chili (fresh or flakes)
One or two clove of garlic
Lime
¼ lb (100 g) feta
About 10 leaves of fresh mint

Wash the zucchini and cut thin slices along the long side (you may want to cut the zucchini in half crosswise first). Sprinkle some salt and olive oil over. Heat up a pan with some chili and fry the zucchini slices at a semi high heat (you may also put them on the grill or roast them if you like). Just take a few at a time as they shouldn’t touch each other while cooking. When the slices start to brown, turn them over. Just before they are done squeeze some garlic over. When the garlic has melted and the zucchini has a nice color, transfer them over to a serving dish. Repeat until all zucchini slices are done. Squeeze some lime and drip it all over the salad. Cut or crumble the feta and sprinkle it over the salad together with finely chopped mint. Season with salt and pepper if needed. Serve immediately.

Illustration by Johanna Kindvall

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ColumnAn urban farming legalization trend sweeps the country.

Looking for a work-at-home green job? You might consider tilling the backyard and planting a few crops.

No more fossil fuel burning commute, no need for professional attire purchased from sweatshop supporting retailers, no more disposable containers from the workaday desktop lunch, and no driving to the gym to counteract your sedentary lifestyle.

Not to mention, you’ll be helping the soil, planting oxygen-producing plants, not fertilizing (and mowing) a lawn, producing local food that doesn’t have to travel far, and building your own little food shed.

The urban farming trend has blossomed over the past few years, but most of the people growing food are only doing it for themselves and maybe some friends and neighbors. While commendable, imagine if urban farming were a viable career and a dependable source of food for city dwellers? We need more people producing food in this country. The average age of farmers is mid-50s and only one percent of people in the U.S. list farming as their occupation. Urban farming can benefit communities by serving as a cushion against recession, a safety net during times of disruption in services, and can also increase urban self-reliance, foster a sense of community and shared purpose, not to mention bring urban dwellers closer to the cycles of nature.

Could urban farming be a burgeoning green business allowing more eager, young farmers to build a career?

If this all sounds a little pie-in-the-sky, it might soon be a reality in many parts of the country.

Energetic young urban farmers all over the U.S. have been working hard to raise awareness and lobby for laws that will let them grow (and sell) food in their own neighborhoods, and they’ve been making progress.

The San Francisco planning commission unanimously supported a proposal to simplify permitting to allow home gardeners to sell their produce. The measure now goes before the Board of Supervisors. This is great news for Little City Gardens, the only urban farming business I know of. The garden provides salad greens and culinary herbs from its 3/4 acre spread to a few restaurants and caterers. Little City Gardens was the trailblazer, but I imagine many more gardeners would start such businesses if only there was legal framework.

Here’s a look at what’s happening on the urban gardening front:

– In Berkeley, the City Council is working with the planning commission to get home-based gardens added into the city code as a legal home-based business.

– In Vancouver, WA, urban farmers teamed up to form a co-op and open their own farmers market to sell home-grown produce.

– Last summer, Seattle changed the city zoning codes to allow for more urban farms, increased the number of chickens residents could legally keep, and made it legal for growers to sell backyard produce.

– Also last summer, Los Angeles made it legal to farm within the city limits and to sell home-grown produce through the Food and Flowers Freedom Act.

– The town of Sedgewick ME, just last week passed The Local Food and Self Governance Ordinance, which not only exempts direct farm sales from state and federal licensing and inspection, but goes even further to also allow the sale of foods made in the home kitchen.

– Last summer, Kansas City passed an ordinance allowing home gardeners to sell their harvest.

– Similarly, Michigan’s Cottage Food Law allows the sale of certain approved foods produced in residential kitchens from homes, farm markets, or roadside stands, county fairs, festivals, and other events, provided the food is labeled as coming from an un-inspected home kitchen.

– Detroit, being perhaps the nation’s epicenter of urban farming, hopefully won’t have long to wait to achieve official recognition of its many urban farms currently operating without the proper zoning to legitimize them.

All over the country, citizens are working with their local governments to take back the production of their own food. The names of some of the new laws are telling: “freedom act,” “self governance ordinance,” this is the language of change, maybe even revolution.

People are ready to wrest control of what they eat out of the hands of big food. Though these movements may seem tiny, looked at together they represent a mighty wave of people taking up hoes to make real change in their neighborhoods.

Do you have an urban farmer inside of you? Maybe you want to get ahead of the competition. Try these 5 ideas for transforming your own backyard.

This is the latest installment in Vanessa Barrington’s weekly column, The Green Plate, on the environmental, social, and political issues related to what and how we eat.

Image: Christine Paulus

The post The Green Plate: Is Urban Farming the Next Green Cottage Industry? appeared first on EcoSalon.