DAY 1: Lemon Balm for the soul

No. of Controlled Assesssments marked: 5
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So starting the blog probably counts as something new to do. But I also wanted to make something.


My mum has a mountain of lemon balm growing in her garden. It's my fault really, I planted a tiny stringy seedling about 6 years ago (as I have no garden of my own - dagnamit!) and it has pretty much taken over.

I was at her house last week and I cut some to dry. Now  I had no real idea of what to do with fresh never mind dried lemon balm, but I thought it was a nice idea - if only to make my flat smell nice in the process!

For those that don't know lemon balm is a herb from the mint family. (I found this out with a quick google search!) and it has many medicinal uses.  Apparently it is good for stress in tea form and its used in aromatherapy for people with Alzheimer's.

A lemon balm plant- smells lovely!

Armed with this new knowledge I decided to use the newly dried herb rather than do what I usually do, which is to leave it drying for months and months and then eventually put it in the bin.

How it went:

I took the bundle of lemon balm off the clothes dryer on the radiator where it had been for sometime and pulled off all the leaves.  The aim is to mush it all down into the consistency of tea. 

It was at this point I wished I owned a mortar and pestle. 

Trying to do it with your hands is really annoying and not as easy as you'd think!   (TOP TIP: Don't bother hoovering BEFORE doing this, it goes EVERYWHERE.  I found this out the obvious way...)

What the bundle looked like before..

But then I remembered my Mother-in-Law's Christmas gift!  A gift best described as a lazy person's tool - a tool in fact perfect for me - multi bladed scissors!   

Tada!!  Genius invention!
(and if your life is also too short to spend manually chopping herbs you can pick up a pair here.)

After 10 minutes of chopping I had a jar full of sweet-smelling herby bits!

The result!

I now have a new herb that I can add to food recipes or body scrubs or pot-pourri so the internet assures me.  And the best thing is I didn't think about work even once the whole time!


Now for  cup of hot Lemon Balm tea as I get back to rearranging those lesson plan files. . .

In all the excitement I forgot the soporific effects of the stuff - I may need a bit of nap first!