Canadian catnip?

[moosmom]

My friend Kathy has it growing in her back yard EVERYWHERE!! To dry it, she hangs it upside down in the garage.

I can have her send me some if you like. It's not from Canada, just over the border in Michigan, though. Let me know.

[Freedom]

Several things.

I didn't mean to dis Cosmic; that is the brand I buy when I need to buy it. It is great, and I use the containers for the one I dry.

Second, I have regular mint - for ice tea and such - in a pot. I have been 3 years - yeah, YEARS -trying to get the rest of it out of the garden! With seven cats, I would need quite a few pots for the catnip. We also put some chicken wire around the base of some of it. With my cats and the neighborhood cats all partaking, they could potentially eat it right down the to roots and it would die off.

Edwina's Secretary: BEWARE. I had the paper towels catch fire on one batch last year in the microwave! I had been at it a long time, I was tired, I wasn't paying attention. Turn the microwave off, but don't open the door; that just gives the fire air to consume. With the door closed, it dies out fast. I tried, but the cats disapproved of that batch, and I had to throw it out. Charcoal taste, I guess.

I dry many of my herbs this way. Some take a little longer than others, depends how much moisture is in it. Basil, oregano, lemon balm, mint, parsley, and so forth.

[Edwina's Secretary]

Worked perfectly! Here is Eddie smpling the first batch....


and here he is encouraging me to cook some more!!!

(see the Ladylike Edwina waiting on the table in the background...no kitchen for her!)

I also quickly learned to look on the bottom of the leaves....for bugs....

[Freedom]

Eddie, is it yummy in the tummy?!

I am so glad you got this for them!

[Killearn Kitties]

Our cats love the Cosmic Catnip. That seems to be the brand sold here that they like most. Of course, Uncle Gary's catnip toys are just the best!

[iamgobsmacked]

Cut some long stalks and bunch together and tie or secure with a piece of string or elastic. Place in a large paper bag with stems out. Just put away for a couple of weeks until the plants are dry and crispy and remove the green from the stems and store in a bottle. You will find the catnip keeps much better in a glass jar than in plastic.

The best catnip I have every found that grows into beautiful shrubs quickly comes from Richters.

http://www.richters.com/

[Randi]

Oh yes, Canadian catnip - what is in it that are not in the others.

These are the presents Fister got when we visited Munich a few years ago. As you will notice, the doll was and still is his favourite.







Thanks Barbara, I’m glad I didn’t clear the mint for no reason.

And thanks to you who offered to send some, even seeds from it would be great - but what will the customs think it is! LOL! I could plant some on John's grave, I'm sure he's approve. Only, I can't take Fister over there on a leash, and I don't think he'd follow me.

[Blue_Frog]

Heres a pretty good article on Wiki about catnip

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catnip

-- it says theres about 250 different kinds of species of catnip (if i read it correctly), so I guess it makes sense that some will be stronger or different than others. I remember smelling some european catmint in a plant store and thinking that it didn't smell anything like the stuff I had at home.

I lucked out this year, and found a huge cache of catnip growing on the lakeshore near my house, so i cut and bundled it all up, hung it upside down in the garage to dry out -- i have 4 very large ziplock bags very tightly packed with catnip in the freezer right now, just waiting to be made into cat toys

The best part? Once you learn to identify the growing plant, you see it everywhere. Its the kind of plant that can grow almost anywhere, but you can usually find a lot of them in fields, ditches, etc. Since catnip is in the same family with the other Mints, it follows along the same lines -- all mints have a square stem with leaves evenly spaced on opposite sides up the stem (too one too many courses in wild edible plants *lol*).

Did you know too, that catnip is good for cramps if used as a tea? Its a mild muscle relaxant amongst other things. I've tried drinking catnip tea before, but its pretty strong. Not terrible if mixed with other mints though.

[catmandu]

I Get The Loose Catnip From Cat Family And The Ladies From Animal Welfare Add It To The Wild Cat Nip That They Gather On Abandoned Farms . And From Places In The Farmlands Where It Grows Naturally.
We Are In A City Yet We Are Only A Stones Throw From What Used To Be Some Very Productive Farms.
Sadly Farming Is Too Chancy And Is Too Hard Work And A Lot Of These Farms Are Simply Sitting There Going To Waste, Or Slowly Being Covered In Suburbs.