Harvest Season

frozen peaches

This time last year was a flurry of activity in preparation for the winter C.S.A. We'd been working hard since March, but the first touch of cold kicked us in the pants and made us very aware that we had limited time to prepare and store food for all our member families. This winter, the C.S.A. won't be operating, but all that means is that people who've had a taste of what it's like to eat local food through the winter need to take a few steps to make that happen. Saving food for a bunch of families is a challenge, but it's really not that hard to do it for just one.

I recently led a fermentation workshop with the Putnam County Holistic Moms, which was great fun, and we also had a discussion about easy things to do to extend the harvest. Cold mornings may make you think the growing season's all over, aside from a winter squash or two, but that's far from the truth. Here are some quick (and incomplete) lists I shared with the mothers:

Top 10 Tips to eat local year-round

1. Befriend your freezer.
2. Rig up your own root cellar.
3. Cover your crops.
4. Dehydrate.
5. Learn about wild food.
6. Plant edible perennials.
7. Ferment.
8. Can like granny.
9. Sprout.
10. Plant in sunny windows.

There's nothing complicated in that list, and detailed information online about all of it. Type "solar dehydrate onions" (for example) into search and you've got everything you need.

If you're thinking you're done in the garden and that its time to sit by the fire with soup, you're wrong! (Save that for January.) For now, there's work to be done.

September has passed, but I'm including some Sept. chores because there are some that still apply:

September

• Freeze & can peaches
• Freeze raspberries
• Freeze red peppers
• Freeze zucchini
• Freeze greens
• Dehydrate tomatoes
• Dehydrate beans
• Make hot pepper sauce (I'm doing this today!)
• Ferment everything

October

• Can pears and apples
• Freeze cooked squash & pumpkin
• Dehydrate herbs
• Freeze pesto
• Freeze greens
• Peel & dry black walnuts
• Eat pawpaws & kiwis (they'll make you feel like you're in the tropics)
• Pickle wild grape leaves
• Ferment everything

November

• Cover garden
• Make sauerkraut
• Root cellar apples
• Root cellar potatoes
• Freeze greens
• Root cellar turnips, radishes, etc.
• Move mushroom logs to basement
• Ferment everything

December

• Root cellar carrots
• Eat last covered garden vegetables
• Prune perennials
• Can fancy, time-consuming recipes with frozen produce
• Visit winter farm markets
• Ferment everything

If, like me, you find yourself with a gazillion berries or apples or tomatoes all at one time, preserving makes great sense. Nothing goes to waste, and with a little effort now, winter is far, far tastier.

Distribution - April 25, 2010

Well my friends, it is here, our last share of the season, and the one year birthday of wintergreens. It's been a honor working for you! Here's what today's distribution brings:

- frozen paletas, Zora Dora's
- fresh tofu, Local Tofu
- fresh sunchokes, wintergreens garden
- basil seedlings, Hudson Valley Seed Library
- black walnuts from the streets of Beacon, optional
- season "leftovers" including: sugar free applesauce, frozen carrot pulp, pickled cauliflower, fresh chives, fresh garlic, granola, pear honey, green and black kombucha, a kombucha mother, frozen red peppers, frozen pesto, fermented garlic pickles, fermented ruby kraut, dried red beans, dried wheatberries, and more.

Our featured businesses are Zora Dora's and Local Tofu. Our friend Steve of Zora Dora's works right on Main St., Beacon, making paletas from the freshest ingredients possible, and incorporating a lot of local produce in flavors: cucumber, tarragon, mint, beets, pears, rhubarb, strawberries, etc. He and I have chatted about creating pickle popsicles, and also getting pawpaws into his skilled hands this year. Yum.

Local Tofu is our trustworthy source for organic, locally made, bulk tofu. Many of our customers comment that it tastes completely different than what they can get in the grocery, and I attribute a lot of that to freshness. We love Local Tofu because of its counter-culture roots, their commitment to a quality product, our ability to get it without packaging, and because of its beautiful, beany taste.

If you haven't heard me rave before, you should know that sunchokes are pretty amazing: they grow tall easily along sunny borders, and have sunflower like blossoms. Their roots taste like nutty potatoes. These particular roots are from last year's plants, and they overwintered underground, in the soil. Yep, these roots are from last year's plants, and I just dug them up now, tasting sweeter than they did in fall. When something stores so well with even less effort and energy than root cellaring, it's a veggie to be embraced! Cut anything that looks like an eye or a sprouting bit off before eating, and plant in shallow soil if you're interested in having some of these grow (& reproduce!) in your yard. If you haven't eaten sunchokes before, go easy, because they can upset your stomach.

Hudson Valley Seed Library is offering a valuable service to us: local seeds. Before local veggies and local fruit comes local seed, accomplished by seed saving and tracking. These tiny seedlings are from local basil seed. That means not only that they haven't traveled, but also that they're perfectly suited to growing conditions in the Hudson Valley. So we've planted some basil plants. They are TINY, since I never found a spot for them that was both warm and light this spring. But, they are grown from local plants, and mine, last year, turned into big, bushy, productive things. When they're a couple of inches high, plant them in plenty of soil and enjoy fresh basil all summer.

Black walnuts, pictured here in their husks when first gathered, are a perennial local resource, and one we should learn to use. They are very tasty, strong even, and suited more for baking than for fresh eating. I say that they're an optional part of your share because of this: I didn't crack or shell the nuts for you. I apologize, but when dealing with tight finances, some things have to give, and one was that we never ponied up for the fancy black walnut cracker. That said, I think it's worth it to do so, so that you can collect and eat these nuts with ease every year, for free. It's still on the list of equipment to buy. In the meantime, you can make quick work of a handful of nuts with a hammer and a cloth bag, or with a table mounted vice. Here's the thing about black walnuts: after peeling the husks off in fall, it is important that they cure for several months in a dry place. These got a little too dry, it seems, so the nutmeat is a little shriveled and wrinkly. Since you're not popping them into your mouth raw, but chopping them into bread (mmmmm!) or sweets, they'll work just fine. Next year, though, I'd crack the nuts and use them (or freeze them) around February.

Leftovers can be a bummer, or they can be an excuse to eat pie for breakfast. We've got quite a little stock of items left from the season. If you come early you get the choice of the lot, and the grab-bag style of this last distribution will be a boon to you!

Thank goodness I know you'll be in good hands with Common Ground and Fishkill Farms—happy summer of plushness.

Distribution - April 11, 2010

As promised, today's share features dulse from a great worker owned company: Ironbound Island.

Okay, so Maine isn't local, but it's not that far away either. These guys paddle out in the early morning, spend hours in the waves, and then dry their seaweeds either on a porch, or, when it's foggy, in a shed with a wood burning stove. They prefer to sell their seaweeds in bulk and eschew packaging. The gorgeous pictures on their site make me dream of getting to go try out seaweed harvesting and sleeping in a hammock. Check out the pretty photos and videos. Also, read Sandor Katz's story of harvesting with Ironbound Island, tucked into this miso recipe.

Then I come to reality and remember that, having just gotten back from Brazil, I was cold today in seventy degree weather. Probably the icy Atlantic off the coast of Maine at sunrise isn't the place for me. Thank goodness they're there to harvest, clean, dry, and ship!

Without more dilly dally, the official list of of items in today's share:
- dehydrated dulse from Ironbound Island
- dried wheatberries from Wild Hive Farm
- the end of the 2009 potato crop from the root cellar, Huguenot Street Farm.
- frozen carrot pulp, Huguenot Street Farm
- frozen peaches, Glorie Farm
- frozen blueberries, mulberries, or concord grapes. The blues and grapes were from Glorie Farm, and the mulberries grew wild on the not-so-wild streets of Beacon.
- frozen green beans, zucchini, kale, or choi, all from Huguenot Street Farm.

If you adore salt, this beautiful purple dulse makes a good snack straight up. Also tossed with a tiny bit of oil and oven baked for a few minutes (a la kale chips), since it turns into a crispy sea chip. Traditionally it's used in soups and chowders. It's incredibly high in protein and vitamins, so consider baking some and getting creative with where you use it: on sandwiches, crumbled over popcorn or salads or grains.

Some of you have been baking bread with your whole wheat (ground, of course), which is great news. I haven't gotten around to baking bread lately, but feel free to invite me over for a slice of yours!

I realize this is a lot of potatoes in a short time, but there have been days warm enough to call for potato salad... Cut the sprouting bits of these and plant them, then eat the rest! There's nothing like digging up your own fresh potatoes.

And carrot pulp. You didn't think I could throw away ten+ gallons of carrot pulp, did you? This stuff is also great for baking, for sauces and dressings, or for yummy creations like carrot rice. Even after freezing much of it, some still went into the compost, where deer enjoyed a carrot-y snack before it ever had time to break down.

If you're craving fresh greens, the year's first "weeds" are available for fresh eating and you won't have to look far to find them. Watch for the ubiquitous garlic mustard and wild onions, both currently running rampant through my yard, and probably yours too.

Redux: Distribution - February 28, 2010

We've just gotten the internet back after the big storm! I hope that all of you have power and water restored, and didn't lose all your beautiful trees. The storm was interesting in a lot of ways, testing how everyone would fare if the services we take for granted slowed or ceased. We were lucky to have our wood burning stove to keep us warm, and to cook biscuits on. It did make me realize we need to bust a move on our rainwater collection system.

I did get to try out some natural cooling methods I'd been thinking about not so long ago. wintergreens did not lose any produce during the four days without power—burying coolers in snowbanks kept everything intact! We were actually appreciative of our deep and tall snowbanks since we had lost produce in summer power outages.

Back to business as usual: Some of you have contacted us to ask, "What are those white things in the jar?" Here's what your last distribution contained:
- Dried red beans from Cayuga Pure Organics
- Dried white whole wheat berries from Wild Hive Farm a.k.a little white things in the jar
- Canned applesauce, made with apples from Liberty View Farm (no sugar added!)
- Root cellared potatoes from Huguenot Street Farm
- Root cellared red onions from Morgiewicz Farm
- Frozen sweet peppers from Huguenot Street Farm
- Frozen peaches from Glorie Farms
- Fresh sprouted black French lentils
- Some of you randomly scored raspberries, red currants, or concord grapes, for a sweet kick

Wheat berries can be cooked and eaten in place of grains you regularly use, but use twice the water and cook for a full hour. They can also be sprouted, or ground and included in recipes. When things are made with "whole wheat," this is what they're talking about.

Distribution - February 14, 2010

Distribution number seven is like a Wednesday afternoon, our season's hump day. It means that we're more than halfway through winter C.S.A. season. Who knows where the time goes?

We've still got plenty of good stuff in our stores. And, because it's the day of love (as if we shouldn't focus on our hearts every day!), we've got heart healthy food, bright bleeding pink food, and food shaped like an anatomical heart. Here's what the love share brings:

- frozen tomato* sauce, Huguenot Street Farm
- frozen blueberries, Fishkill Farms
- root cellared garlic, Huguenot Street Farm
- dehydrated apple rings, Fishkill Farms
- pickled beets, Huguenot Street Farm
- hoophouse cilantro or parsley, Madura Farm
- hoophouse celeriac, Madura Farm

*Again, these tomatoes were sprayed with copper to survive late blight, and you can skip them if you choose. Sadly, I can't remember the exact numbers, but they were sprayed with something like 1/15th the amount allowable under organic standards. That's good to know when it comes to soil health. When it comes to your health, you'll want to know that they were triple washed before cooking. I'm skeptical of the copper spray, but am trusting my beloved farmers who know far, far more than I ever will about soil, and fungicides. Still, I worry. I intended to skip tomatoes entirely last summer after late blight hit, but couldn't walk away from these when presented with their alluring smell. Be warned, if we have the same disease problems in the growing season of 2010, wintergreens may have a tomato-less 2010-2011 season.

That said, right now we've got sauce! Some jars are perfectly smooth and without skin and seeds, and others are chunky with a bit of bell pepper and eggplant thrown in. Both were made without salt or herbs (that's up to you), and both have a bit of virgin olive oil. If you're passionate about smooth v. chunky, come early. Happy lycopene day!

Ah, the blueberry. These roly-polys come up over and over on all the superfood lists. For me, they're love-ly because blueberry bushes are perennials, of which I am a fan. No work and delicious—what's not to like? Also, because there's nothing as excellent as coming upon a patch of wild blueberry bushes when hiking. Or blackberry. Or rasberry. But I digress... Last but not least, I totally heart foods that make your tongue look like a chow chow's, and I think all our toddler members will agree!

Garlic. Love it. Need it.

Dehydrated apple rings: another excellent short person snack. These hula hoops for your tongue are incredibly sweet and satisfying, making me wonder why I ever bothered to get addicted to chocolate. Use these to get the next generation wanting healthy snacks.

We're going in for a second round of pickled beets. They're a productive plant, they're great for you, the color is appropriate for the holiday, hearty-y and bloody and pink. And, the real reason: we had an indoor picnic during one of the snowstorms that included wine, crusty bread, nice green olive oil, cashew cheese, and pickled beets. The beets were the star of the meal, and when the jar was done, I wanted more. That must mean you want more, mustn't it?

Celeriac is celery grown for the root instead of the stalks. It's great because it stores well, and works in situations where celery flavor is desirable, but strings are not. If you're a celery string hater, you might also want to try cutting celery, which is essentially an herb.

Parsley is one of those hearty herbs that will stick out the snow under a drape of plastic or a cloche, and has thankfully graduated from its days as a garnish. I had some yesterday juiced, with celery, and I'm still on the top of the world from it.

All herbs are great for you in, like, a bazillion ways, and fresh cilantro is no exception. You either love it or you think it tastes like soap. If you fall in the second category, gift it to someone in the first who you want to adore you. I always remember gushing over a restaurant server who had a leaf of cilantro stuck to her cheek—I thought I could love her forever. Herbs, they're that powerful.

Happy hump day.

Distribution - January 24, 2010

Happy frozen river! Happy hard frost! Happy celebration when 40 degrees come and rains fall and melt the snow! Happy scarves and mittens and seeing your breath! Happy mid-winter!

Our mid winter distribution holds:

• Frozen dark leafy greens: curly green kale, curly purple kale, vitamin greens, and chard, to be exact. Huguenot Street Farm.
  
• Frozen zucchini, also from Huguenot Street Farm.
  
• Sundried tomatoes, Four Winds Farm.
  
• Pickled ume radishes, Huguenot Street Farm.
  
• Pickled watermelon rind and pickled tomatillo salsa, with ingredients from all of our farmers, and then some!
  
• Sprouts! Crimson clover, fenugreek, radish, alfalfa, mung bean, and pea from wintergreens' windowsills.
  
• A peck of potatoes from Huguenot Street Farm. (Ok, not really a whole peck, but a bundle.)

Greens can be defrosted in the fridge before cooking, or just cooked frozen. I don't add water, just flip and scrape what has melted (on medium heat), flip and scrape, until it's all warm. The zucchini moons are great to throw in to stir fries just as they are.

The tomatoes are Amish paste tomatoes, and are actually oven dried, which is a process I didn't love. Next summer, invite the sun back to town so that we can solar dehydrate! Anyway, because of this summer's late blight problem, these tomatoes were sprayed with copper, which is acceptable by organic standards. They were also quadruple washed. It is up to you whether you want to take tomatoes this time or not. We had a hard time when trying to decide whether to include tomatoes this season, and ultimately, ended up including some, but not as many as we'd hoped. Here's an argument to not spray at all. You can judge for yourself, and eat these tomatoes, or not.

The radishes are daikon and cherry belles, in plum vinegar. They're sweet and crisp and pink, great as one of those palate cleansing type pickles, nice to have a few on the side of your plate with meals.

The salsa is kind of cross between salsa and relish, with a base of fermented tomatillo, garlic, onion, cilantro, jalapeño, daikon radish, maple syrup, and roasted green chile, with chunks of fermented watermelon rind. These ingredients came from Morgiewicz Farm, Huguenot Street Farm, Three Chicks Sugar Shack, and a side of the road farm stand somewhere between Beacon and New Paltz. It also has some ingredients from far, far away: lime, avocado, cumin, black pepper, sea salt, and a dash of balsamic vinegar.

Put sprouts (and potatoes, too) in everything you eat: on salads, in soups on sandwiches, as a crunchy bed for entrees. These little guys are powerhouses of nutrition, so just eat 'em!

See you in the morning!

Beans, beans, they're good for your heart....

If you haven't devoured your beans from last distribution yet...

All the recipes I could think to post using them were pretty standard: borracho beans, beans on toast, the basics. But I remembered tasting New Paltz chef Lagusta's chili last year at a chili cook off. It had chocolate in it, and chilies, and fermented ramps, and really outdid any chili I've ever made. I asked her if she'd consider sharing the recipe (for your benefit and mine): read it here in all its glory. (Thanks for sharing it, Lagusta.) She recommends throwing in an old cup of coffee, which is a new one to me. Consider serving this fine chili with her homemade onion rings.

(Lagusta can be found at Lagusta's Luscious, Bluestocking BonBons, and her attitudinal and hilarious blog, Resistance is Fertile.)

Distribution - January 10, 2010

Woohoo, the first distribution of 2010! Here's what we've got:

• Purple pickled cauliflower (Madura Farm)
  
• Onions (Morgiewicz Farm)
  
• Frozen peaches (Glorie Farms)
  
• Frozen pesto (basil from wintergreens' garden, garlic from Huguenot Street Farm)
  
• Carrots (Huguenot Street Farm)
  
• Dried red beans (Cayuga Pure Organics)
  
• and, fresh from the greenhouse, Mesclun baby salad mix (Madura Farm)

Let's start with pickled cauliflower. It's not made with purple cauliflower, but white, and gets its color from a bit of purple cabbage thrown in during fermentation. The brine is hot pink, but the cauliflower itself is sort of a subtle pastel pink, to contrast with its sharp taste. It has some vinegar and hot chili added, but tastes closest to crunchy kraut, with an edge. It's a great accompaniment to mild flavors or soft textures. I'm eating mine snuggled next to mashed potatoes.

Put onions in all hot things (and some room temp salads, too), and put peaches in or on anything cold. Sweet peaches in winter—does it get better than that?

The pesto is made with basil, pine nuts & walnuts, garlic, sea salt, and olive oil. It is very concentrated, and should go a long way. I put my jar in the fridge to thaw first, scrape some off the top & mix with additional olive oil for use (or blend with tofu and spinach for a healthy version). I then put a bit of extra oil on top of what's left in the jar so that it doesn't discolor. It will keep in the refrigerator this way for quite some time. The basil is extra special, since it's grown with seed from the Hudson Valley Seed Library.

Carrots are holding up great in the root cellar. They're amazing little beasts—enjoy them!

We're thrilled to include New York State beans in the distribution. My taste buds and stomach will tell you that Cayuga Pure grows beautiful beans. But before I'd even tasted them I admired them, so glossy compared to those other, dingier red beans! But what to do with all those pretty beans?


Last but not least, we have very nice mesclun mix (heavy on spicy arugula). Many of you told me you'd had too much of EVERYTHING over the holidays. I bet you didn't have too much fresh greens!

Go forth and eat, and remember to bring back your jars for the next helping.

New York Raisins & Prunes

"Sun Mad" is by Esther Hernandez, 1982.

New York grows grapes, New York grows plums. Where are the raisins and prunes? If you know of a NY (or close) farm that sells raisins or prunes, would you let me know?

When searching for my little wrinkled friends, I did come across the very interesting raisin tree. Ooh, those pesky Rare Fruit Growers!

Salted Plums

I grew up next to the Mexican border, sucking saladitos that I bought for a nickel from a box next to the register at the corner store. Better than candy, these salted dried plums made your face and neck pucker, were useful for bets and challenges, and made pop fiz like crazy when you dropped them in the can. I haven't had a saladito in years, but my hankering is satisfied by the Japanese version, umeboshi plums. (You can taste ume in wintergreens' plum vinegar radishes.)

My friend Youko serves ume dishes at her New Paltz eatery, Gomen-Kudasai, and sent this info my about beloved salty snack:

The Japanese are masters when it comes to fermentation and pickling. The ume plum is no exception. When the plum is picked it is fermented in a very specific amount of salt that promotes only an important beneficial bacteria: lactic acid bacteria. These bacteria run the show and prevent harmful bacteria from entering the plum. This probiotic quality of umeboshi, in combination with its other healing properties, provides one of coolest examples of holistic eating.

Umeboshi vs. Conventional Antibiotics

Conventional antibiotics are nutorious for 2 things: gastrointestinal upset, and easy bleeding & bruising. Both of these are rooted in the fact that conventional antibiotics are often (but not always) broad-spectrum antibiotics, meaning: they kill the beneficial bacteria in your gut too! Without friendly gut bacteria, your gut cannot digest food efficiently. Moreover, gut bacteria are primarily responsible for vitamin K production, which is responsible for blood coagulation and keeps our bleeding in check.

There are times when only a presrciption antibiotics should be recommended. However, umeboshi is better used as an antibiotic tonic. A tonic is something which helps the overall functioning of a system over a longer period of time, rather than doing something very specific in a short period of time. Umeboshi is also, like ginger, a gastrointestinal tonic.

So unlike conventional antibiotics, umeboshi works as an effective long term pathogen antibacterial, but at the same time protects (rather than destroys) your gastrointestinal health.

Another random use: ume apparently works as a hangover cure. Though I haven't tested the theory, friend-of-wintergreens Eva said our fermented pickles make for an excellent hangover recovery. If you've overindulged, indulge in a pickle, or drop an ume plum or saladito in your morning seltzer!If you missed the link the first time, Just Hungry illustrates how to make your own umeboshi.

Deep Brown

I'm still working on black walnuts. With each windstorm, more fall from the trees, and after each storm ends, I go collecting. I always manage to stain my hands, because either I've forgotten my gloves, or they rip, or I can't be bothered to wear them. (It's a scandalous idea to think I can let my hands get farmer dirty, since I make my living by working in an office filled with people with very clean, very manicured hands. I've been hiding my hands the same way I did when I had inky hands in college: I was a printmaker by day, and a waitress by night.)Collecting walnuts in Beacon has turned into performance art, since people are so unused to seeing food harvested in an urban setting. While I was collecting nuts under a primo tree on Fishkill Ave. (and staining my hands), multiple cars pulled over to ask me what I was doing. I felt I should have a big sign explaining. "Walnut harvest in progress." Maybe I'll hang some "Pick Your Own Nuts (FREE)" signs on trees around town.

While collecting and peeling nuts, I've had plenty of time to meditate on all the potential uses for the husks: fountain pen ink, wood stain, fabric dye, temporary tattoo ink, goth lip gloss. Apparently, black walnut husk is a standard coloring agent in both hair dye and wood stain.With all this in mind, I'm going to focus on the nuts for now.

Dust Jacket

Truck Harvest, Car Preserve

Farming and food preservation aren't just for country folk. This Brooklyn truck farm and Seattle dashboard dehydration prove it.

Choices

Exercise your right to choose: Don't rely on Key Food for your health and happiness this winter!

3 Easy & Essential Herbs

Mint, parsley, and chives are all perennials, meaning they come back every year by themselves. All three look great in your garden (I put them in flower gardens and they control weeds). All three dry and freeze well, and all three make your food much more fabulous. All three grow well in pots.

First, chives. Aren't those flowers gorgeous? Chives were among the first plants in my yard to come up this spring, and they're almost ready to blossom already. To use, cut chives off at the base, and they will continue producing new shoots all spring, summer, and fall. For winter, cut as much as you can, tie them in bunches with string, and hang them in a dry place. Once dry, store in a brown paper bag or baggie in a drawer and use all winter long.

Chives are milder than onion and garlic, and often useful for those who have trouble with spicy foods. Also, kids love them. When I was small, I enjoyed cutting my own out of the garden and cutting them up over food with scissors. Chives are delicious, just ask French cooks!Parsley is key for potato salad, tabouleh (my fave!), stuffing, and good breath! I love parsley so much that put I it in salads and sandwiches. When I first realized how tasty it was, I was horrified that it was so commonly used as a garnish that people don't eat.

Parsley is available at all times in my garden, except when there's snow on the ground. It's that hearty. It's more abundant in summer, but it's there year-round. Plant parsley close to tomato plants to keep pests away. That's it. You don't have to do anything for it once it's established, but this plant keeps giving and giving. (Now we just have to wait for ripe tomato season....)Mints are the queens of herbs. There are zillions of different kinds (chocolate mint, lemon mint, apple mint, ginger mint). There are as many flavors of mint as there are martinis these days! I grow the basics: peppermint, spearmint, and, because I have cats, catmint. Mint calms your stomach by aiding digestion.

I put it in all kinds of food to add zing, but my favorite use for mint is suntea. Stick several sprigs of your favorite mint in a glass jar, cover with water, and let sit in the sun for an hour or so. Chill and drink.

Mint spreads, and some people consider it invasive. I think there's no such thing as too much mint, but you might not want to plant it near delicate plants. You can skip the worry of mint spreading by planting it in a pot. If you put the pot somewhere where it's protected from northern winds in the winter, the mint plants are hearty enough that they will still come back on their own next year.

The drying methods for mint and parsley are the same as chives. Once dry, you can crush and keep the leaves and discard the stems.

You know that by "discard" I mean COMPOST, right?