Ozarks Gardening/Syndicated Newspapers via Ozarks Mountaineer Magazine, copyright Jim Long 2022
Lemon Balm has a fresh, pleasant lemony fragrance that combines well in lots of dessert recipes. Our garden intern who was here through the month of May decided to learn pie baking. One of the challenges I gave him was to create an herbal pie. He chose to make a chess pie in which he included lemon balm, lemongrass and lemon thyme. It was outstanding and definitely, “a keeper.”
Lemon balm combines well with other herbs in tea blends. I make a festive tea often when we have groups touring the garden. To make it, I heat about 6 cups of water and when almost boiling, add a good handful of lemon balm, some cut up lemongrass leaves two thinly sliced lemons and one thinly sliced orange, and a couple of quart-sized Luzianne tea bags, along with a tablespoon of chamomile flowers (fresh or dried). I turn off the heat and put a lid on the pan, letting the herbs and tea steep until cooled, then strain them out. I add another thinly sliced lemon and orange, squeezing both a bit. Then I add a quart of cranberry-raspberry juice and another 6 cups of water, chill it all for a few hours then serve over ice. Even people who think they don’t like “herbal” tea, like this one.
Lemon balm, like most herbs, has a vastly better flavor if you keep cutting it back. All basils and lemon balm lose flavor if they aren’t pruned every couple of weeks. Basil gets bitter while lemon balm gets, “soapy” tasting if not pruned. I cut my lemon balm back often during the year and harvest the newest growth for the best flavor. I sometimes dry lemon balm for winter use but I prefer it fresh whenever possible. Lemon balm is a reliably hardy perennial that will grow most anywhere with sunshine. It will even take half shade and still produce well. If you let it go to seed it will scatter the seed into other beds, not a lot, not to the amount that garlic chives do, and it’s not hard to keep it in the place you planted it.
Even though it is in the larger family of plants that include the mints, it doesn’t spread rapidly from underground runners, either. You can divide the plant easily by cutting it in two and replanting the half you’ve dug up. I have posted several of my lemon balm cake recipes over the years and you can find some of the variations on my website www.Longcreekherbs.com under, “Jim’s Recipes.” All of the variations for the cake include lemon thyme, lemon balm and lemongrass, all of which are easy to grow in the garden.
The University of Maryland Medical Center’s website (www.umm.edu) says this about lemon balm: “Several studies have found that lemon balm combined with other calming herbs (such as valerian, hops, chamomile) helps reduce anxiety and promote sleep.” They go on to say this herb was regularly used back to the Middle Ages and before, to reduce stress and anxiety, promote sleep and improve appetite. It was also used to ease the pain and discomfort of upset stomach, flatulence and bloating. Lemon balm is native to Europe but is grown around the world. Commercially it’s grown for medicine, cosmetics and furniture polish manufacturing and recent double-blind studies where the control group used a placebo and the test group took a combination of lemon balm and Valerian (another herb), the lemon balm-Valerian combination proved to increase mood and “significantly increased calmness and alertness.” Other studies suggest that topical ointments containing lemon balm seem to help heal lip sores from herpes simplex virus, as well as helping heal small scratches and minor wounds.
Lemon balm is a delightful and useful plant and if you’re not growing it, you’re missing out on its many benefits. Plus, it just tastes good in cakes, cookies and now, thanks to our intern, in pie, as well!
Here's my favorite Lemon Balm Cake recipe. I first served it at my (formerly) Herb Day in May back in the 1990s.
3/4 cup milk
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon fresh lemon peel zest
2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 Tablespoons butter, softened
1/4 cup coarsely-chopped fresh lemon balm leaves
*1 Tablspoon finely snipped lemon grass (fresh or dried)
1 teaspoon lemon thyme leaves, stems removed
Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Scald milk. Put hot milk and the 3 lemony herbs in food processor or blender. Process well and set aside to steep
Combine flour, baking powder and salt, mixing then add eggs, sugar, butter and lemon zest. Add the steeped herbs/milk and blend well until dough is mixed.
Pour into a greased bread pan (9 x 5 inch) and bake about 50 minutes.
Test with a toothpick or knife, if tester comes out with batter still on, give it a few more minutes of baking.
Topping:
Juice of 1 lemon, combined with enough powdered sugar to make a thick syrup.
Poke a few holes in the still-warm cake and pour the syrup over. Repeat pouring the syrup until all of it used up. Let the cake rest for an hour or so, or overnight before serving. This cake also freezes well and can be kept for a month or more frozen.
*Note about lemon grass. I often use the leaves and/or the "bulb". When using the leaves make sure to snip them very fine with scissors rather than chopping. Even though you will be blending them in the hot milk, the leaves won't blend up enough unless snipped very fine.
You can fine lots more of my recipe in my books at https://www.longcreekherbs.com/product-category/books/
