Stop and Smell the... (An Accidental Foraging Story)

If you're like me, it's easy for you to get caught up in a project. If something captures my imagination I end up overly focused on it, sometimes to the point where I accidentally skip a meal. It's wonderful when we find something we love so much, isn't it? This can take any form. A book you've fallen in love with. A new show on your favorite streaming service. A new hobby like painting or running. In my case (most recently), it was a writing prompt that got out of hand and became a storytelling project with a new format that is taking several weeks to complete.

We all know the old saying about how important it is to stop and smell the roses once in a while. When we're focused on work or expectations from others, it's easy to realize we've spent a little too much time there and to remind ourselves to stop once in a while. It can be a little more difficult to keep this in perspective when our focus has fallen head-over-heals for something we ourselves have chosen. Don't get me wrong, it's great to dive in deep head first, however, an experience I recently had reminded me of the importance of taking a breath and seeing the world around me.

I have a little blue kayak. Most of the time, this kayak is propped up against the porch at my parents house, waiting to be used. I've been so focused on my most recent project, I suddenly realized that I was letting the warmer months slip away from me. There also happens to be a little pond down the street from the house. One so small that no one seems to think of it as a place worthy of spending time. Joke's on them, after last year's drought this summer the pond was filled with so much fresh new water that it actually made for a lovely swimming hole. I am fine with keeping that secret from my neighbors. I've had a private place to swim all summer. So why not take it one step further? Why not let my little kayak carry me around my little pond for a while. The idea might not seem like much, but it ended up being lovely. In fact, the little pond didn't seem quite as little once I was on the water. 

It was so quiet. So isolated. I decided to paddle all the way around the perimeter, get closer to the shore and see the things I didn't bother to see when I was swimming. I quietly glided over water plants and rocks, so slow and still that the wildlife didn't bother to run away. I stayed still so long that the water bugs returned to their slow circling cluster communities in the water next to me. There really is something wonderful about being on a body of water that is undisturbed by motorized vehicles. In this case, I was the only human who ever really visited at all. As I made my way around the pond I started to notice a plant underneath the water that looked oddly familiar. Though I love to learn about foraging, I don't know very much about plants that grow under water, and this plant wasn't sea weed or anything slimy. Why did it look so familiar to me? I couldn't place it. So I reached into the water and plucked one green leaf off the stalk and gave it a sniff. 

Mint?!?!

What the what? I tore the little leaf into little pieces and... yes! it smelled very strongly of mint. Mint and things in the mint family have square stems, so I reached into the water again to check. Yup, a square stem. Once I paddled around the sunny side of the pond and confirmed that these plants were indeed everywhere, I gently tugged one out of the loose underwater ground with roots in tact. This pond has a forest on one side and a vast hay field on the other. Why would there be mint here? How could there be mint randomly growing under water?

I paddled around a while longer as it got dark around me. I heard a very creepy sound which just turned out to be a deer waking up and stretching out before wandering away from the pond and through the night. It began to rain gently, which made the most lovely gentle sounds on the water all around me. Bats started to flit around in the dim sky above me. I stayed on the water until it was completely dark. Some nights it's amazing what you can see out in the country without streetlights and such blocking the way (see my article on light pollution, lol). 

I'd kept the root ball of my new mint smelling buddy wet by dunking it in the water every few minutes, and after I'd carried my kayak back up the quiet dirt road I googled what I'd found. There is, in fact, something called Water Mint (Mentha Aquatica) which likes to grow along the edges of bodies of water.

Water mint is known for having a stronger smell and taste than most garden mint varieties. It can be used in the same ways that regular mint would be used, though a little goes a long way. I love a good mint tea, personally. Now that I know what to look for, I've found it along the shores of area lakes as well. It's amazing to find out that something so cool (and obvious) has been here the entire time, I just didn't know to look for it, so I never saw it. 

I decided to keep my little buddy water mint on the windowsill in the most suitable container I could find on short notice, a coke bottle. I've since kayaked on a local river only to find a leach on the car when I got home. I didn't want to kill the leach. That's not who I am. So water mint has a buddy living in his coke bottle with him now. An accidental terrarium is developing. 

The accidental terrarium. 

This discovery reignited my passion for foraging. If I hadn't taken a moment to stop and smell the water mint, I never would have discovered another forage-able plant that lives essentially right in my back yard, and I never would have had the energy to finish the project I cared so much about. The lesson is to take that moment for yourself in whatever form it might take for you. Find your meditative moment. Don't skip it. It's so very important, and i can guarantee that there will be unexpected benefits. 

Since it has been re-homed, 

my water mint has doubled in height.

If you've recently found such a moment or been working on a project you love, let everyone know in the comments. We're all proud of you and would love to see what you've been working on and what you've been inspired by!