This question is on the verge of OT - but here it goes anyway...

Last spring, I planted a lemon balm in my luxury herb bed. The plant
was tiny, but this year it really has come into its own and looks
glorious in the middle of all the other herb perenials which are
crowding the bed.
I use and abuse all my herbs, putting them into all manners of dishes
and salads, cooked or raw.
However, I don't know what to do with my lemon balm. I know it has
medicinal properties, and is recommended in teas to soothe the stomach,
but I have no idea what to do with it in the kitchen - which is my main
motivation for growing herbs.
Any thought?

Cat(h)

On Mon, 29 May 2006 13:56:34 +0100, Cat(h) wrote
(in article .com):

This question is on the verge of OT - but here it goes anyway...

Last spring, I planted a lemon balm in my luxury herb bed. The plant
was tiny, but this year it really has come into its own and looks
glorious in the middle of all the other herb perenials which are
crowding the bed.
I use and abuse all my herbs, putting them into all manners of dishes
and salads, cooked or raw.
However, I don't know what to do with my lemon balm. I know it has
medicinal properties, and is recommended in teas to soothe the stomach,
but I have no idea what to do with it in the kitchen - which is my main
motivation for growing herbs.
Any thought?


http://www.pfaf.org/database/plants....sa+officinalis

Some people also claim that it helps memory.

--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
email address on web site

Sacha Hubbard wrote:
On Mon, 29 May 2006 13:56:34 +0100, Cat(h) wrote
(in article .com):

This question is on the verge of OT - but here it goes anyway...

Last spring, I planted a lemon balm in my luxury herb bed. The plant
was tiny, but this year it really has come into its own and looks
glorious in the middle of all the other herb perenials which are
crowding the bed.
I use and abuse all my herbs, putting them into all manners of dishes
and salads, cooked or raw.
However, I don't know what to do with my lemon balm. I know it has
medicinal properties, and is recommended in teas to soothe the stomach,
but I have no idea what to do with it in the kitchen - which is my main
motivation for growing herbs.
Any thought?


http://www.pfaf.org/database/plants....sa+officinalis


Thanks Sacha, that's a pretty good website.
I've just learned two things: 1) mustard is a brassica and 2) tea and
camelia... are one and the same!!!
OK, so the rest of you all knew that already.

Some people also claim that it helps memory.

Ahem. You're about to tell me you had already posted this website in
response to one of my queries, aren't you?

Cat(h) ('tis not because I'm paranoid that they aren't really after me)

On Mon, 29 May 2006 14:22:14 +0100, Cat(h) wrote
(in article .com):


Sacha Hubbard wrote:
On Mon, 29 May 2006 13:56:34 +0100, Cat(h) wrote
(in article .com):

This question is on the verge of OT - but here it goes anyway...

Last spring, I planted a lemon balm in my luxury herb bed. The plant
was tiny, but this year it really has come into its own and looks
glorious in the middle of all the other herb perenials which are
crowding the bed.
I use and abuse all my herbs, putting them into all manners of dishes
and salads, cooked or raw.
However, I don't know what to do with my lemon balm. I know it has
medicinal properties, and is recommended in teas to soothe the stomach,
but I have no idea what to do with it in the kitchen - which is my main
motivation for growing herbs.
Any thought?


http://www.pfaf.org/database/plants....sa+officinalis


Thanks Sacha, that's a pretty good website.
I've just learned two things: 1) mustard is a brassica and 2) tea and
camelia... are one and the same!!!
OK, so the rest of you all knew that already.

Many of us did but we didn't always. ;-)

Some people also claim that it helps memory.

Ahem. You're about to tell me you had already posted this website in
response to one of my queries, aren't you?

I don't remember!

--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
email address on web site

In message .com,
"Cat(h)" writes
Last spring, I planted a lemon balm in my luxury herb bed. The plant
was tiny, but this year it really has come into its own and looks
glorious in the middle of all the other herb perenials which are
crowding the bed.

Next year its tiny seedlings will be everywhere and the year after that
there will be seedlings in next doors garden too.

Isn't Lemon Balm supposed to be good for migraine too? - well it seemed
to be when I was getting M~s often.

d

--
dave or stella @ stejonda

In article .com,
"Cat(h)" writes:
| This question is on the verge of OT - but here it goes anyway...

Not at all!

| However, I don't know what to do with my lemon balm. I know it has
| medicinal properties, and is recommended in teas to soothe the stomach,
| but I have no idea what to do with it in the kitchen - which is my main
| motivation for growing herbs.

You can use it to scent puddings, cakes etc., but it isn't the world's
most useful culinary herb, in my experience.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On Mon, 29 May 2006 16:26:06 +0100, dave or stella @ stejonda wrote
(in article ):

snip

Isn't Lemon Balm supposed to be good for migraine too? - well it seemed
to be when I was getting M~s often.


It might be but it's Feverfew that's well known for migraines. You can take
it either in tablet form for make a sandwich with a few leaves in it. I
understand they're pretty bitter, though.

--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
email address on web site

In my experience "tiny" and "lemon balm" do not go together!

It is a lovely plant just to grab hold of in passing to get its lovely scent
but as Monty Don would say, a bit of a thug!

Sue W.

--
Derby, England.

Don't try to email me using "REPLY" as the email address is NoSpam. Our
email address is "thewoodies2 at ntlworld dot com"


"Anne Jackson" wrote in message
...
"Cat(h)" said:
This question is on the verge of OT - but here it goes anyway...

Last spring, I planted a lemon balm in my luxury herb bed. The plant
was tiny, but this year it really has come into its own and looks
glorious in the middle of all the other herb perenials which are
crowding the bed.
I use and abuse all my herbs, putting them into all manners of dishes
and salads, cooked or raw.
However, I don't know what to do with my lemon balm. I know it has
medicinal properties, and is recommended in teas to soothe the stomach,
but I have no idea what to do with it in the kitchen - which is my main
motivation for growing herbs.
Any thought?

I made five gallons of delicious Melissa wine, some years ago, but
then, I had a lot of it in the garden! Very soporific, it was! G

--
AnneJ

....
In my experience "tiny" and "lemon balm" do not go together!

It is a lovely plant just to grab hold of in passing to get its lovely scent
but as Monty Don would say, a bit of a thug!

Sue W.


Yes indeed it is a lovely plant, I have loads of it, that and comfrey
fill in a great many gaps and are good ground cover.

kate

dave or stella @ stejonda wrote:
In message .com,
"Cat(h)" writes
Last spring, I planted a lemon balm in my luxury herb bed. The plant
was tiny, but this year it really has come into its own and looks
glorious in the middle of all the other herb perenials which are
crowding the bed.

Next year its tiny seedlings will be everywhere and the year after that
there will be seedlings in next doors garden too.

Yes. It is definitely not one to allow to set seed or there will be
literally thousands of them next year. It smells nice near a path where
it gets bruised by passers by but is pretty useless in the kitchen. The
variagted form is a bit less vigorous.

I would grub it out if it is in a bed with any delivate herbs you
actually want to survive!

Regards,
Martin Brown

Janet Baraclough wrote:
The message .com
from "Cat(h)" contains these words:

This question is on the verge of OT - but here it goes anyway...

Last spring, I planted a lemon balm in my luxury herb bed. (snip)
I have no idea what to do with it in the kitchen - which is my main
motivation for growing herbs.

I've never discovered a good culinary use for lemon balm; but then I
grow a number of herbs I don't have a practical use for, just because
they look good, smell good, attract wildlife or are good space fillers.I
grow two (useless but nice) forms of lemon balm, the green one and a
yellow variegated one.



Thank you Janet and all others for all the information. My (plain)
lemon balm does look lovely in the herb bed. My herb garden is a
large, square raised bed, approx 2.5m by 2.5 m situated in the middle
of a gravelled patio. It is a lovely suntrap, and, edged with recycled
old yellow bricks, the edges of the bed are perfect as seating. Just
the right place to read the papers on a warm sunny summer Sunday (if
those still exist, though I have my doubts).
It was the first area of the garden I concentrated on - being a bit of
a cooking fiend, it was a high priority - when we bought the house 3
years ago. In it, I have an ginormous sage (hacked back already last
year, exploited to death) which is about to burst into glorious purple
flowers. Also in flower are a few healthy clumps of chives. Soon, the
lavender will add its own shade of mauve into the mix, then the thyme
and the oregano. I have to very large clumps of golden marjoram, which
used to be one, leggy, dehydrated thing in a 3 inch pot purchased from
the very much reduced section of a local garden centre cum DIY store.
I have too much mint, which I will hack back and restrict to a pot, as
it is interfering with my smallish bay. There is also a superb
rosemary bush, and the tarragon is making a nice come back. While all
the herbs are spilling over the edges, there is ample space for a few
annuals, and I have a couple of corriander plants in - somehow, I never
manage to get them to germinate from seed, so I have to buy the plants
each year. Unfortunately, slugs and snails had a few thai green
curries on me, before I could take measures - I hope the plants will
now recover. I have also sown some dill, which is only just coming
through now. The spring and summer have been viciously cold, and
everything here is around 3 to 4 weeks late by my reckoning.
All in all, the lemon balm adds to the glorious riot of shades of green
and textures that is my herb bed. It also adds to the bank of
fragrances it provides on a warm afternoon. It is by far the nicest
part of my garden, and I admit to being very proud of it.
I'll just have to keep the little beggar in check after flowering to
ensure it doesn't invade me completely...
Thanks again to all!

Cat(h)

Cat(h) wrote:
I don't know what to do with my lemon balm. I know it has
medicinal properties, and is recommended in teas to soothe the stomach,
but I have no idea what to do with it in the kitchen - which is my main
motivation for growing herbs.
Any thought?

Tea: Take a teapot. Fill with lemon-balm. Fill with boiling water.
Allow to infuse. Serve.