Indoor Gardening - Lemon Balm

Lemon Balm in my kitchen

About a month ago, I was in one of our local grocery stores and noticed the herbs. In particular, a very pretty one called Lemon Balm. Ihave never seen or even heard of Lemon balm before. That didn't stop me from buying it - it was just too pretty and smelled oh so wonderful. The fragrance is much more powerful if you "tickle" the leaves a bit. Trust me, I did a lot of tickling when I first brought it home. I love the lemon aroma in just about everything. In fact, I may be just a bit obsessed with it right now. I cook with lemon alot. Lemon juice and zest are pretty much standard recipe additions in my kitchen. So, now I have added a new lemon - Lemon Balm. What to do with it? After some research, I've found it can be used in tea as a great tension reliever. Who knew? I'm thinking I may need a Lemon balm plant at work - LOL. It's also great for potpourri. You can use it in both savory and sweet dishes. From fish and chicken dishes to cookies and muffins. It's also pretty easy to grow. You do have to water it daily or the leaves will go limp. The great thing is that if it goes limps, it revives pretty quickly once you water it. It grows pretty bunchy.
Be sure to check with your physician before using as it does interact with some prescription drugs.
Here is a recipe for Lemon Balm tea from Suite101.com :

Lemon Balm Tea

You can make lemon balm tea from the dried herb by steeping 1 teaspoon of lemon balm per 1 cup of boiling water. Allow the lemon balm tea to steep covered to prevent the medicinal components from being carried away with the steam. After 10 minutes, strain the lemon balm from the herbal tea and enjoy. You can also make lemon balm tea from the fresh herb by steeping 1 1/2 tablespoons of lemon balm per 1 cup of boiling water. There is no benefit to using dried herb over fresh herb, but lemon balm is usually stored in the dried form for preservation.

Enjoy!