Perhaps you recall my getting lemon balm in my CSA bag a couple of weeks ago. I had no experience with lemon balm, which was one of the attractions, and it was so pretty!
It had these pretty, crinkly leaves, and when you rub them they leave a nice lemony scent on your fingers. I brought the balm home, stuck the stems in a glass of water and set them near a kitchen window.
Then I started reading about it. Seems that it’s used primarily as a tea. Although it’s fine for cooking, I suspect its flavor is too subtle to be of great culinary value, as I couldn’t even taste it in the eggs I mentioned yesterday.
My reading made it sound lovely as a tea, though, very calming both of anxiety and of digestive tracts. There was a caution, though, about it interfering with thyroid medicine, which I take.
About the time I learned that, a friend pointed out that my lemon balm was rooting, right there in the jelly jar glass. I asked Lynn, an expert gardener, whether I should plant it just for its foliage. She discouraged me, with warnings of its taking over the way its relative, mint, does.
So it still sits on my counter. If anyone wants a start, let me know. Or maybe I’ll find a spot for it in some contained space, like my composter.
Jennifer (Baklava Queen) // May 14, 2008 at 5:04 am
Fortunately (for me), I can get a start here so you don’t have to send me one, Janet. ;-) Perhaps you can just pot some, keep it away from the garden, and consider it aromatherapy? I’d be wary of putting it in your composter… maybe in yours it would die off sufficiently, but I always had a thick patch of it around my compost as those roots are really hard to rein in.
OR, just dry this batch and make an herbal tea to give to someone else. :-)
Janet Majure // May 14, 2008 at 5:41 pm
Geez…even the compost is a dangerous spot! I’m contemplating putting in a spot next to the alley-or drying it, as you suggest. The roots are amazingly long by now!