Lemon balm is one of the safest and most used medicinal herbs because it has a multitude of benefits and it's easy to grow. It's well-known for being calming without a sedating effect and it's a gentle remedy for chronic depression and other melancholy feelings, such as the SADS (seasonal affective disorder) and post-partum depression. It's also a fantastic herb for helping kids calm down at bedtime. Lemon balm has impressive anti-viral properties and is great for knocking back a cold sore, sometimes even stopping it before it starts. It's a good digestion aid if you take it after a meal. It helps ease tension headaches and can be applied topically to cool bug bites. It can also has diaphoretic properties, which help open the pores to relieve a fever. There are no known contraindications, so it's typically safe for everyone. If you only keep one medicinal herb on hand, lemon balm is a great one to choose!

Aerial parts - leaves and stems (ideally before it flowers)

The simplest way to use lemon balm is to brew fresh leaves as a tea (see recipe below). You can also chop up the fresh leaves to use in recipes like a salad dressing or a pesto. Dried leaves also make a tasty tea, but lemon balm loses its potency pretty quickly, so the medicinal benefits won't be as evident in the dried herb. Lemon balm tincture is great to use both topically and internally as a cold sore remedy. Lemon Balm hydrosol is a also a gentle topical remedy for cold sores and bug bites as well as a calming face spray. And lemon balm simple syrup makes a refreshing drink when added to soda water.

Lemon balm is in the mint (Lamiaceae) family, which means she's easy to grow and generous in output. She's a perennial, (meaning she survives the winter and comes back each year) who prefers full sun but will also thrive in part shade in warmer climates. She starts readily from seed (I start mine indoors 6 weeks before planting) and plants are inexpensive to buy at a nursery (I recommend buying organic plants if you can find one). One plant is usually plenty for one household and you can usually get a few harvests out of one plant if you harvest before she's in full flower. And one plant will usually give you many more plants over the course of time. She loves to re-seed and pops up in unexpected places, so best practices dictate digging and dividing her up and sharing with friends. If given unlimited space, she will gladly spread across a garden bed, but she has gentle roots so she's easy to rein in.

Lemon balm is a cut-and-come-again herb, which means you can usually get multiple harvests off the same plant within a season. She's usually ready for the first harvest in the spring (timing depends on your garden zone, but she's hardy and will typically start to leaf before freezing temps are completely over) and will generously share her abundance throughout the growing season as long as you keep her from flowering. Simply trim a stem at the node (where leaves form) and be sure not to take more than 1/3 of the plant at a time. You can strip the leaves from the stems or chop it up with the tender stems intact but you'll want to remove tough or woody stems. The beauty of lemon balm is the more you harvest, the more she grows.

Lemon balm originated in Europe but naturalized in the states when it arrived with early colonists. It has been used medicinally for over 2000 years for almost every ailment under the sun. Originally referred to as simply “Balm,” it was known for attracting bees with the “honeyed sweetness” of its scent. In fact, the botanical name is Melissa officinalis; Melissa referring to “bee” or “honey bee” (depending who you ask) in Greek and officinalis, meaning it is known for its medicinal or culinary use and was sold in shops for such a purpose. Lemon balm was historically planted near beehives and Pliny the Elder observed that the scent is how bees found their way home. In addition to being used for treating melancholy of all kinds, it was also promoted as a way to “renew youth, strengthen the brain and prevent baldness.” It was used topically in wound care and because of its “balsamic oils” it was believed to help dry and seal the wound and “exclude all noxious air” In mythology, it was a sacred herb in the temple of Diana and in folklore, it was believed to have the powers of healing, love and success.

COMING SOON

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