Saturday, June 27, 2009

Lemon Balm Tea

If you've never grown lemon balm, then you may not know that it reseeds prolifically, and is also a perennial that spreads. I had gotten fed up a few years ago, and pulled all of mine out, and put one plant in a pot. I didn't put any on my compost pile, because I have had mint grow in there before, and was afraid that would happen with the lemon balm.

I have a separate place next to my compost pile that I put a lot of dead heads and plants that spread, so that if they start to grow, I can take care of it right there, and not have it all over the garden.

Well, I have some lemon balm that somehow got started at the entry to my veggie garden a couple years ago next to the black eyed Susan that also got started there, not by me. It is getting larger each year, so I'm going to have to do something about that. I do cut it back to keep it from blooming. The other day, I decided to make some tea using the method I've been using with mint.



The lemon balm is on the right.





My method of making mint or lemon balm tea:

Put sprigs of mint or lemon balm in a gallon jar, with or without 2 or 3 decaf tea bags. (I just remembered I also made some the other day with pineapple sage sprigs the other day.)


Pour some water the temperature you would use to make hot tea into the jar and let it steep 5 to 10 minutes. (I usually add enough water heated in my electric tea pot to submerge the leaves and stems, but it still turned out fine with some poking out.)


Remove the leaves and tea bags, add cold water to the jar, and refrigerate.

Have a blessed Sunday!

10 comments:

  1. You make it sound so easy to brew lemon balm tea...

    I agree with you, compost heap is great store for seeds!!.. haha.

    Happy gardening,
    ~ bangchik

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  2. Hello there Susan !
    Yes .. I know about naughty lemon balm : ) ... But I didn't know about this tea and to use my pineapple sage for this as well ? that is great ! I didn't know I could do that : )
    I have lemon verbena growing in a pot .. any suggestions for that .. I just love the smell of it .. so I dry it for little packets in my drawers to smell nice ; )

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  3. LoL* Gosh, does this bring back memories! When I was a little girl my Mom and I used to go find sumac and sassafrass grawing wild and make tea from it. I will have to grow some lemon balm and start the tradition again with my daughters. :) Thanks for sharing!

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  4. Oh, I know all about the problems with the lemon balm. I keep pulling it out and it keeps coming back, sometimes in surprising places.

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  5. Lemon Balm is making the rounds in my garden too! I haven't tried making tea, I'll have to do that. I wish I still had Lemon Verbena -- that smells even better than Lemon Balm.

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  6. I'm going to try that. I've never made tea using leaves but it sounds good. I have lots of mint so it will be fun and easy. Thanks.
    Marnie

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  7. Thanks for the info about lemon balm, I started it from a seed about two years ago. I must be CRAZY. I do love the way it smells and that you can use it for tea. But I did not know it was invasive. WHAT HAVE I DONE!?!?

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  8. Thanks for the info about lemon balm, I started it from a seed about two years ago. I must be CRAZY. I do love the way it smells and that you can use it for tea. But I did not know it was invasive. WHAT HAVE I DONE!?!?

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