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Melissa, among other varieties of mint, stands out in the smell of citrus notes and belongs to the family of sponge flowers. In Europe, where the plant has long been cultivated as a spicy-flavoring culture, lemon balm is called lemon mint. This name stuck in Russia.
The lemon mint plant, as in the photo, reaches a height of 30–100 cm and consists of powerful erect pubescent stems, on which heart-shaped or oval leaves are located with noticeable rounded teeth along the edges.
It is in the leaves and the upper parts of the shoots that most of the aromatic and beneficial substances are contained, and the pale pink or almost white flowers of lemon balm attract a lot of bees every summer.
As a wonderful spice and melliferous lemon mint is highly valued by gardeners and gardeners. Melissa herb is used in many recipes of traditional medicine, and cooks with pleasure add fragrant foliage to marinades, vegetable and fish dishes. Melissa emphasizes the taste and aroma of baked poultry, sweet pastries and cheeses. Fragrant greens are indispensable in refreshing and healing tea blends, cocktails.
On summer days, plants generously supply spicy greens, but what to do with the onset of cold weather? How to prepare mint for the winter for tea? To preserve the beneficial properties of lemon balm for the entire cold season can be done in different ways, but first of all, it is important to properly collect the lemon mint.
How to prepare mint for tea for winter?
Cuts fresh greens in clear, not hot weather, when there is no dew or rain on the plants. The best time to gather is morning and evening hours, when the scorching rays of the sun will not make the leaves and the upper parts of the stems wither and lose such a valuable aroma. The highest concentration of essential oils, vitamins and other substances important for the body in the greenery of lemon balm accumulates by the time of flowering, so at this time they cut the greenery to prepare mint for the winter for tea.
As soon as the upper juicy parts of the shoots are collected, the vegetable raw materials are washed, and the greens of lemon mint, as in the photo, are carefully dried with paper or linen napkins. You can find recommendations where vegetable raw materials are advised not to wash, but to blanch before drying:
- On the one hand, this will help to preserve the initially green color of the leaves, which will positively affect the appearance of dishes and drinks with melissa.
- On the other hand, if you delay, the leaves of lemon mint quickly become soft, lose their elasticity and completely lose their shape when dried or frozen.
It is rational to blanch the lemon mint, if it is decided to make syrup, flavored sugar for the winter, or to freeze it in the form of portioned cubes, because even with short-term heating, the secretion of juice increases.
Drying lemon mint at home
Preparing mint for tea for the winter, small bunches are formed from the shoots, which are hung away from heating appliances and direct rays. With a constant flow of air and a dry atmosphere, after a few days the grass dries out.
During drying, it is better to protect plants from insect and dust attacks by covering bundles with gauze. If the grass is dried with the help of modern electric driers, the most benign modes are used, and, as in the photo, lemon mint on pallets is laid out in an even thin layer and tedied from time to time.
Dried leaves and apical parts of the stems are crushed and laid out in tightly closed glass jars, where lemon balm will be stored all winter.
Can mint be frozen for the winter?
Melissa, like other varieties of mint, can be prepared for the winter, freezing and whole shoots, and individual leaves.
For this, the washed and dried bundles are packed in foil, food film or resealable tight bags and laid in small portions for storage in the freezer. You can freeze mint for the winter in the form of very convenient ice cubes, which for several months will be useful for flavoring tea, sauces, and obtaining concoctions.
In frozen form, lemon balm retains its taste and smell, but the leaves completely lose their shape. Therefore, for the manufacture of such cubes, you can take both greens and succulent stems, having previously ground them in a blender.
Harvesting lemon mint for sweet teeth
On the basis of lemon mint, as in the photo, you can make a very fragrant sugar, which is sure to please not only the sweet tea lover, but also housewives who indulge their loved ones with baking.homemade pastry. For such an unusual seasoning take fresh green lemon balm, and chop it, mixing it with sugar in parallel.200 grams of vegetable raw materials take 200 grams of regular sugar. If desired, lemon zest, thyme herb or other mint varieties are added to the composition.
How else can you prepare mint for tea for the winter? No less joy for large and small sweet teeth will be lemon balm syrup.
100 grams of pure dry or blanched greens require 100 grams of water and 200 grams of sugar, half of which is crushed with crushed lemon mint and left for 8-12 hours for the grass to give juice. When the sugar is almost dissolved, pour the lemon mint with sugar syrup and bring the mixture to a boil. The syrup container removed from the fire is cooled, the finished product is filtered and poured into sterilized jars or bottles with ground-in lids.
Mint syrup can be stored in the refrigerator, and used to add to tea, pastry dough, cereal and fruit salads.
There are a lot of ways to harvest lemon mint for winter for tea and other dishes. For example, fragrant oils and sauces are made on the basis of fragrant herbs. But you can use the simplicity of the plant and try to grow a bush of lemon mint at home in a pot.
How to grow mint at home?
The easiest way, in the fall, in your own garden is to separate part of an adult lemon mint bush, as in the photo, and transfer it along with a clod of earth into a spacious pot, where a drainage layer is pre-arranged. For filling the pot, you can take as loose garden soil, and ready-made soil for seedlings or green crops.
Melissa does not like acidic soils, therefore, if necessary, dolomite flour is added to the soil.
If you can’t get an already ingrained plant, you shouldn’t despair. Melissa gives roots for several days, if the lower leaves are removed from cuttings 15–20 cm long and the stems are dipped in water with a few drops of growth stimulant. After about a week, young plants with their own root system are planted in the ground. From this point on, at home, in a pot mint can grow more than one year, delighting family members with fresh greens. Subsequently, the plant requires moderate watering, spraying with dry air and its elevated temperature.
The most time consuming and long way is to grow house mint from seeds.
The best time for sowing is spring, but since it is desirable to get fresh greens in winter, you will have to embed the seeds in the ground at the end of summer or in autumn, when the length of the daylight day is reduced every day. In this case, for the lemon balm choose the brightest place on the windowsill, and even better to equip the house for mint in a pot extra lighting.
In a container with a soil mixture at a distance of 5–7 cm they make shallow grooves, moisten the soil and sow dry seeds. As needed, the soil is moistened, and seedlings should be expected after about a week. If the sprouts are too dense, they are thinned or dived. For the lemon mint to form a healthy, strong bush, for the lemon balm, the lightest place on the window or balcony is chosen.
Watering is carried out up to 3 times a week. In order to prevent flowering and weakening of the plant, when the shoots of home mint in a pot reach a height of 15–20 cm, the tops of the stems are shortened. Such a measure will lead to the emergence of side branches and an increase in the number of foliage.
If you cut the tops of the stems for drying or freezing, lemon mint grown at home, gives for the winter up to three full harvests.
But more often such a home plant every day supplies the family with fragrant foliage for tea, curative coughy broths and other popular lemon mint products.
