Lemon balm... a project flirting with disaster :)
There is a great Herbal Hive challenge: The Herb You're MOST THANKFUL For!! running now and lemon balm could easily be my entry, but this post is about sharing an almost completely catastrophic melissa harvest and what I learned from it. Plus the first entry of the contest by @annafenix is already about lemon balm and I can totally understand why!
Melissa officinalis, commonly known as lemon balm, is one of the most interesting herbs. It has a magic effect even just by touching it and breathing in its uplifting aroma. It is my cheerleader in a way :)
Cultivating it is not very demanding, it is a rather hardy one. A pleasure to have in the garden, it loves full sun, but also does ok in partial shade. Doesn't need anything in particular.
Photos from our herb garden. Happy to confirm that these guys are indeed very resistant as they survived with minimum water during hot September and October that we were away.
But, and there is a big but here, lemon balm is quite demanding when it comes to harvesting. You might have already heard and never payed attention, or you might don't know this caprice and I am here to warn you :)
I was super happy for the first ever gathering of the beautiful green leaves just before the plants would start to blossom. This is the perfect time to gather your herbs as their medicinal qualities are at the highest point.
A photo just before we plant them to the soil when they were teeny tiny. Maybe you can imagine now why this first crop was so emotional. It was the first crop of our herb garden project :)
Mistake number one
Lemon balm does not love procrastination and must be dried quickly. Or what? It turns brown and loses many of its medicinal qualities. And that sucks...
On the other hand, I am the queen of procrastination! Ok, on my defense I was also very tired.
Since I knew it, I spread the crop on a huge sheet so that the brunches wouldn't touch each other much and they could breath, but didn't actually work. The next day 70% of the harvest was almost brown and was getting worse and worse really quickly. This is the main reason I have no photos of this phase, I panicked and started to make bunches right away and as I was making them even the very green leaves were turning to brown in no time. Disaster! I had never seen anything like this before.
I managed to save some, more than 90% of the crop was ruined to be honest.
The earthworms had a good time though...
Mistake number two: I wanted to make a lemon balm oil to make beeswax cream later.
It never crossed my mind to check the weather forecast. I prepared my jar noticing that it is a rather cloudy day, very unusual for that time of year*.
The oil needs to be under the hot sun for a month and it was cloudy without any sun ray for about three days. Fortunately it was not ruined.
Olive oil must cover all the parts of the plant in the jar otherwise it can turn brown and get mold.
Conclusions
When you cut lemon balm, you must hung it to dry within the next few hours.
When you need sun to make herbal oil, you need to check if it is the right time to do it or maybe wait a few days :)
Sometimes I get tired of making new mistakes all the time even on basic stuff, but this is also why gardening and herbalism can never ever be boring. Every project feels like starting from scratch, a new surprise, a new emotion.
At the end the oil turned out to be fine! The beeswax cream is still on the list with the projects :)
I don't go anywhere without this cream in summer, it is amazing with mosquito bites and also works well as a repellant.
Lemon balm in the form of oil or cream is great for insect bites and skin irritations (itching, infections, wounds, burns).
(This paragraph was added thanks to the precious comment of dear @kesityu.fashion!)
*This project took place in July, but since then many things have happened, so I post it now. It could be useful for someone at the Southern hemisphere maybe! I made it all wrong even though I knew all about it in theory!
So I will remember from now on when saying "Hey, I am ready to do some lemon balm work, it is not a big deal" that it might be at the end :)
Wish you all the best luck with your herb projects!
Hopefully I will come back soon with an entry for the new challenge :)
If you would like to know more about me this is my introduction post.
I was long wondering what else I could make with those herbs than tea, so that was very interesting to read (even though it sounds a bit frustrating as well) I am glad you managed in the end:)
what do you use the balm for? or how?
I use the oil and (mainly) the beeswax cream for insect bites and skin irritations, itching, infections, wounds.
It is quite effective. I don't go anywhere without this cream in summer, it is amazing with mosquito bites and also works as a repellant :) It also attracts bees during day time :))
Thanks for your precious input! I will add to the main text as it is important info that I took for granted :)
Thank you so much @kesityu.fashion!
Ooh that sound pretty awesome!! I guess for this season I am way too late, but next one I will definitely try...
I really like those kind of creams or oils, that you could use for anything (or for lots of different ones) and that it attracts bees is really cute too:)
Oh yes, try it! Let me know if you have any questions when you do it :)
It is a multi-purpose cream for sure! I like to keep it in my bag for anything that might happen, insect bite, wound, itching, even for moisturizing (adding some aloe). It smells really good :)
Awesome!! and thanks:) it is always really cool to get to know another purpose or recipe for plants you see so often around!!
Ill let you know how it turned out:)
This is amazing!
I've always wanted to make my own oils, and this is encouraging. Thanks for all this information:)
It's very easy, isn't it? You just need sun and not to mess up like I did :))
Thank you @millycf1976!
I was always taught NOT to have sun on it as it can remove the medical qualities! I think there are two schools of thought there. You can always warm in gently in a double boiler which is what I do when I want to make lemon balm salve.
This is definitely a good alternative!
I followed the way the old people here do it, and when I tried it, the process seemed to have worked well since the final oil was quite effective :)
As long as the lid is on tight, the medical properties are released and held in the oil. I always live mine n the sun for that reason and they work really well. It is interesting to hear different ways of doing th same thing xxxx
Absolutely. I love the idea of the sun one but never do it. Maybe as the sun here is so crazy I worry it'll kill everything!!!
Procrastination and continuous new mistakes, the story of my life! 😂
Ahahahahahah! You too???
Well, lemon balm is a good teacher :))
May i will try it later 😊
My own lemon balm is self seeding everywhere and growing big as we speak. I hate drying it as it never retains that fresh taste and smell but yes... Quick is better. I use it in a sleepy tea.
It is also good for herpes!!! Jamie gets it on his hands when he is stressed and it HURTS. So I made him a salve and it does work! It soothes and it doesn't last as long. Also works with coldsores!
A lovely post. Enjoyed muchly and am excited about the herbal hive being revived!
Herbal Hive is mighty happy to be breathing again.... phew!! 😆
There is NOTHING quite like the fresh fragrance of a herb still growing - no matter how good our technique, it never quite catches or preserves that.
I really hope so! It's such a cozy place and the knowledge is endless :))
Exactly! No doubt about that! We try to keep some of its freshness but it is never going to be the same!
I'm excited by lemon balm all over again - rarely see it in Asia. Off to see if anyone in the local gardening group has a plant....
You quietly doing CPR behind the scenes is where the revival started... LOL... your dedication and perserverence to GROW something of meaning and value to others is arguably your greatest gardening triumph. Happy to do my bit...
Soo nice! Ours hasn't grown as much as I expected and hoped but it is doing rather ok. Hopefully it will get bigger and bigger and will cover the whole area by springtime :)
I definitely prefer it fresh, but since I wanted to give it to friends and family, I had to dry it. Plus, the idea of this herb garden is maybe sometime to sell the herbs, so drying is inevitable. I have dried so many different plants, but have never seen something as delicate as this one!
Good for herpes, yes, I remember your post about Jamie (and how well prepared you were, haha!). It is a powerful herb for skin issues.
Glad you enjoyed it! While it was not fun at all when it was happening, now that the time has passed I find it funny as I remember my panic :) Fails are also welcome :)
Excited about the revival too!
Haha things are always funny in retrospect! And I always dry fresh lemon balm for teas, especially when I mix it. I forgot that I wrote about it!
Oh I forgot... When I make the herpes cream I also add l lysine powder!!! And some Melissa essential oil too
Lysine powder, that's a good info! Clever addition to the mix :)
I loved reading about your adventures in preparing the oil! Now I’m looking forward to instructions for making that lemon balm cream. How do you stop your harvest from turning brown btw?
I will have to find some time soon in order to make the cream, previous one is just about to run out so there is no choice, haha!
Well, I couldn't. The damage had been done.
What I should have done is to hang it to dry (I like natural drying) within a few hours after cutting it or even better right away. I thought it would be ok the way I had spread it on a big sheet for the night, but it didn't work! Lemon balm has no patience when it comes to preserving it after being cut :))
Thank you for stopping by @fantagira!
The pleasure is mine! I really enjoyed reading yor article. So if you hang it instead of laying it down, it won't turn brown? I dried some laurel leaves that way and they seem ok - kinda dusty green colour now 😉💙
Yes, exactly!
Unless you lay them on a net (not sure if it is the right word, a screen with many openings) so that they can breath from beneath as well!
Glad you did this with laurel! In a dark room with good ventilation and minimum moisture is the key for naturally drying herbs! It just happens that some are more sensitive than others :)
The color of the laurel sounds perfect!
Good tips! I’ll remember them for the future. Net is a good word for it btw 👍
Here are my laurel leaves. Very similar to store bought, although these are best cause I grew them 😂 I remember I dried a batch in my oven set to very low temp
Wonderful!
Always! Haha!
The sun infusion in oil is such a clever and useful technique. Strangely, here in Thailand, where it's almost ALWAYS sunny, I rarely use it. But that's gonna change... cos you've INSPIRED me!! I adore melissa but have rarely seen it here in Asia.
It is the main way old people here make their oils, so I got inspired by them :)
I guess not the best way for all herbs, but the lemon balm oil turned out to be quite effective when I tested it to insect bites, so I would say that it worked well :)
You have all the tropical treasures there, let us have the melissa, haha!
But seriously, I don't see any reason why you can't cultivate it there, right? I hope you can find some!
Thank you so much for your encouraging feedback!
Standing ovation for being brave enough to post when things are less than perfect. 😍
Drying herbs is quite a skill and the HOW varies enormously on where and when.
Really loving your idea of the sun oil (despite the clouds) and enjoying the playful, creative thoughts that brings me.
GREAT post and a marvelous contribution to the learning banks.
Thank you so much @theherbalhive!
I would call it an almost complete disaster, but "less than perfect" sounds so kind and sweet :)
That was a very good lesson! And a good opportunity not only to share the info, but mostly to share how easily I skipped over this info that I already had, believing I could do it my way... well, nope, doesn't always work :)
Plants are here to help us ground in every chance!
I have a 30+ year old stand of lemon balm in the West herb garden. Good to know about it turning brown. Here it would go into the dehydrator as anything hung or laid to dry would just mold.
Wow, how great is this!
Even for the dehydrator I guess it's important to dry right away, as it can loose a lot of its properties by turning brown.
Thank you @goldenoakfarm!
Wow, I'm just learning that lemon balm leaves can be used to make tea or herbal oil for the skin. This herb seems very delicate judging by the experiences you shared. I'm sorry about that though, we all make mistakes.
One question, do you take out the leaves from the oil when it's ready for use?
Oh yes, mistakes are inevitable :)
Yes, exactly! And it is ready for use!
Thank you so much for stopping by @dimmablogs!
Beautiful post @traisto, I love lemon balm. And yes it's aroma brings healing all on it's own. Great pictures too and yes you got to hang it almost straight away, no messing around with this one lol xxxx
Thank you @trucklife-family!
I guess I will never forget that again, haha! Luckily there was enough left for beeswax creams and some teas :)