Aged Monastic Melissa Spirits

The experiment we started earlier this month has continued.

To the left are the ingredients as we started with them.

We let the lemon balm concoction age a bit more than the required ten days. Its been busy around here, but Mom hadn't been sleeping well, so we decided she would be a perfect guinea pig for the powers of lemon balm.

With a coffee filter, we finally strained and re-bottled the brandy, now full of the medicinal and curative properties of our fresh lemon balm. It actually was very clear already, but we went through the steps properly. You can see - no sediment at all.

I was thinking the liquid would become green, but it only became a bit darker than the original brandy color. A fine dark amber.

So last night Mom had about half a shot glass of "spirits", with a chaser of soda. The taste: strong but mainly of alcohol. The lemon balm is subtle.

Her opinion? It helped her sleep a little.

Monastic Melissa Spirits

Last evening there was an impressive storm, and we had some major rains that washed the garden down.

Since the lemon balm was about as clean as it was going to get, we harvested enough to make half the recipe (see last blog for more information).

Basically you need LOTS of lemon balm leaves - We halved the recipe to 100 grams.... Stuffed them in a jar that can be sealed tightly. Mom is my hand model.

Its a lot of leaves (3 1/2 ounces).
We found pouring part of the brandy, a bit at a time, helped compact the leaves.

Still stuffing.
Pour more brandy as needed to flatten the leaves.

Til there's not a drop left. We actually were a bit short covering the leaves. The pint didn't make two cups that we needed, so we should have used less leaves.
So we shook the jar. Not really. I just liked this "accident" picture.

We did tip the jar a bit to get things all soaked. It is very dense in there.

And closed the jar tightly. After taking the picture, we put it in a darker spot. The recipe didn't say so. We just felt it would preserve the color better.

This is the jar about five hours in. The alcohol does a nice job of keeping the leaves bright green.

See you in ten days.

Lemon Balm Harvest

Today we harvested a good amount of lemon balm to dry for tea.

Next chance, and after we hit the liquor store, we are making Monastic Melissa Spirits. Not sure if it will be drinkable or medicinal. Time will tell.
http://www.herbs2000.com/herbs/herbs_lemon_balm.htm - for recipe

For that we need fresh leaves.

After all this rain they'll be nice and clean.

Lemon balm is one of those plants that actually has some well documented science and research behind its herbal remedies. Its a member of the mint family and has many calming and antiviral uses.

University of Maryland Medical Center
http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/lemon-balm-000261.htm

But who could not enjoy that lemon smell anyway. I found it to be a good teaching plant when you want to interest young kids into gardening. And its a great plant to attract the bees to your garden too. It is so refreshing. I go through the garden and grab a bit and just smell its oils and it makes me smile. I'm calmed. It must be those phytochemicals.
http://www.phytochemicals.info/plants/lemon-balm.php

We'll let you know about the Melissa Spirits in a couple weeks. It takes ten days to brew.