WHY DOES MINT JELLY EXIST?

Stephen Bishop Seely ponders, on an existential level, the purpose of mint jelly.
Stephen Bishop Seely, an Actor, Writer, and Director

Let's all take a moment. A shared communal moment of deep thought. 

Mint jelly. Let me repeat this for effect. Mint jelly. One more time to sink in. Mint jelly. Now let's use a visual...

Okay, so now we are all clear on what I'm about to discuss. Mint jelly. Everyone has seen it.  Few have tasted it. No one knows what to do with it. Some might have a jar of mint jelly hidden somewhere in the back of their refrigerator. The question I raise is why does mint jelly exist? To this day I haven't received a sufficient enough of an answer.

So, I did some googling. Mint jelly's history basically started way back when (we are talking a long time ago) during a time when sheep farmers would kill members of their herd to provide substinance for their family, neighbors, and community. The time of the year when this happened would usually coincide with the harvesting of mint. And the wives of these farmers would add mint to plates of mutton to cover the mangey, gamey taste. Then somehow through the years mint sprigs evolved into mint jelly and most people continue to use it with dinner plates of lamb chops (or any other edible parts of lamb).

You see, I'm a recovering sheep farmer from Kansas. And I can tell you that my entire childhood was full of eating plates of roasted, fried, broiled, boiled, or stewed lamb and never, I said, never did I eat that lamb with mint jelly. Our lamb did not taste gamey. Our lamb did not taste mangey. Our lamb was delicious. So why would I want to ruin delicious tasting lamb with the questionable green condiment of mint jelly? Hell no! 

I stay up most nights with this question running through my head and ruining my sleep. #mintjellyinsomnia

I would love to get a good night's sleep and in order for that to happen I throw this question out into the world of foodies and jelly connoisseurs. This is an interactive post. Again, why does mint jelly exist? Please comment below and maybe together we can solve one of the great mysteries of the modern world. Now that this is out of my head, I'm going to go make myself a mojito. #mintjellyrealness

Stephen Bishop Seely An actor, writer, director, producer, and dramaturg living in New York City. His roots are from a sheep farm in Tonganoxie, Kansas. www.stephenbishopseely.tumblr.com
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