Lemon Balm!

My Lemon Balm is up and beautiful already!
It is truly one of my favorite herbs! It can be used as a refreshing tea, or it can be used to make a healing oil!
We make double infused lemon balm oil. It heals scraped or scratched up skin.
One year a friend of ours got a rope burn on his hand and while I was away the girls gave him double infused Lemon Balm for his wound. He liked it so much he kept the bottle!
I would have offered a comfrey ointment had I been there but the Lemon Balm was sufficient for his injury.
To make Infused Lemon balm oil, you can use fresh or dried lemon balm. I use fresh of course. Infusing is a matter of warming ( not boiling) an herb in oil for a couple of hours. Double infused simply means doing it twice!
I use almond oil or olive oil. In my opinion, olive oil that is less " virgin" the better. The less virgin the oil is, the higher temperature the oil can bear.
Personally I use a mini potpourri crock pot looking appliance. This keeps the oil steadily warm without getting too hot.
I use about 2 cups of oil and stuff in as many bruised ( crush them with your hand) leaves as the oil can sustain. After 2 hours of gentle nearly hot warming , I remove the leaves and press the excess oil out of them, into the oil. I then get a batch of new leaves and do it again.
If you make a large batch of your oil as I do, I suggest you either add the contents of two vitamin e capsules, or a dropper full of Rosemary extract. Either one will act as a preservative.
Enjoy Spring and may Your garden grow!