Content
Melissa, or lemon balm, is a popular plant in folk practice. It is used as a medicinal and prophylactic agent, added to dishes and hot drinks. Not only fresh grass has value, but also dry grass. To stock up on raw materials for the winter, you should familiarize yourself with how to properly collect and dry lemon balm.
Advantages and disadvantages of drying lemon balm
Harvesting and drying lemon balm has both advantages and disadvantages. The strengths of the medicinal plant are:
- preservation of vitamins and nutrients, in comparison with frozen lemon balm;
- There is no need to allocate space in the freezer to store the culture.
Weaknesses of dried lemon balm:
- drying by heating (microwave, oven) reduces the amount of useful elements in the composition;
- Only healthy greens are suitable for collecting, so you have to spend some time searching;
- When dried naturally, lemon balm takes up a lot of space;
When is lemon balm harvested for tea?
The best time to collect lemon balm is when it blooms.The plant actively absorbs the nutrients necessary to maintain buds. Flowering begins in the second year after planting.
The collection takes place throughout the summer
It is better to cut leaves when the plant has just bloomed. The remaining shoots are collected in any week of summer. Scientists have found that young foliage contains the maximum amount of vitamins. Every month the shoots become rough, and the juice stops actively circulating in them.
How to dry lemon balm for tea
In order for the tea to be not only healthy, but also tasty, you need to choose a suitable place in which the herbs will be dried. Lemon balm after collection is stored outdoors or indoors. In each case, it is important to create suitable conditions.
Outdoors
Experts say that drying in the fresh air is the best way to preserve the medicinal properties of the plant. This herb does not lose its aroma. After harvesting, lemon balm should not be left in sunlight; its delicate plant tissue, which loses chlorophyll and essential oils, quickly turns yellow.
Therefore, lemon balm is left under a canopy. Natural drying takes four to eight days. The time depends on the weather and outside temperature.
By the way, the optimal temperature is +25 °C
After collection, lemon balm is dried as follows. Prepare a horizontal plane (if the terrain is steep, use a baking sheet), line it with paper and lay the grass in a continuous layer, trying to avoid contact between shoots.
All this is covered with gauze and do not forget to turn the lemon balm 2-3 times a day for uniform drying. In this case, the lemon balm will dry quickly, and it can be prepared for tea immediately.
On the windowsill
It is easier for apartment owners to dry lemon balm on the windowsill. It is important to remember that grass does not like direct light, and the window needs to be covered with something.
For ventilation, use a window, you can leave it all day - this way the raw materials will be prepared faster
Immediately after collection, the grass is laid on paper or a towel, also in one layer. With this type of drying, the plant dries out in three days. The owner needs to turn the material over from time to time. This method is also considered natural.
In the oven
Preparing lemon balm for tea for the winter can be done in the oven. If the house has an electric oven, drying is carried out at a temperature of +50 °C. The grass is laid out on a baking sheet, previously covered with a silicone mat. There should be no contact between shoots.
If there is a fan, turn it on. Immediately after collection, drying lemon balm takes about three hours. Every half hour, open the oven and turn the grass over.
When the leaves begin to curl, they can be removed
Drying in a gas oven does not have any significant differences - the process remains the same. However, stable temperature control in it is impossible, so you need to monitor the greens more carefully and stir them more often.
In an electric dryer
The optimal place for drying lemon balm is an electric dryer. This is what it is intended for. The device has several operating modes, you just need to select the appropriate one – “green”.
The preparation of lemon balm is as follows: lemon balm is placed on a tray so that the leaves do not come into contact with each other; turn on the electric dryer; set the desired mode. If there is no mode, manual adjustment is made - 30-32 ° C and minimum airflow.
With this treatment, the greens will dry in three hours.
Every 30-40 minutes, turn the leaves over and change the trays. After two hours, observe the condition of the plant. Small shoots will dry out faster and need to be removed earlier. Large ones are left until completely dry.
In the microwave
The easiest way to dry lemon balm after harvesting is to microwave it. In addition to simplicity, there is another advantage - speed. Although microwave space is limited, each batch requires 1.5-2 minutes. This is where the advantages end.
After harvesting, lemon balm should be dried as follows: the grass is placed on a saucer, the dish is placed in the microwave and the power is set to minimum.
The grass is turned up periodically, so the first session lasts 10 seconds.
Which variety is suitable for drying?
Most varieties tolerate drying. The most malleable are Freshness, Dozya, Quadrille, Tsaritsynskaya semko, Zhemchuzhina.
It is advisable to start harvesting immediately after harvesting, this way more vitamins will be retained in the greens.
Shelf life of lemon balm
Dry grass has a dull greenish tint. The shoot breaks easily when pressed, the leaves fall off into crumbs.If greens are used as a seasoning, the foliage is ground by hand until it is crushed. After this, the seasoning is placed in a glass jar and tightly covered with a lid.
In addition to glassware, use:
- potato sacks;
- wooden containers;
- paper bags;
- boxes.
Cellophane and plastic are immediately put aside. The material is not able to preserve either the aroma or the beneficial properties of lemon balm.
After collecting and drying, lemon balm is stored in the indicated container, placed in a cool place with little humidity. When storing in potato bags, do not place other plants with a strong aroma next to the raw materials. If these rules are followed, lemon balm can be kept in the house for up to two years.
After the expiration date, the herb should not be ingested.
Melissa is of greatest value in the first year, when it is rich in essential oils, vitamins B, C and E. The concentration decreases every month, so the sooner the owner opens the jar, the better.
Collecting and drying lemon balm is not as difficult a task as it seems at first glance. Tea leaves do not need to be crushed before storage. But they are necessarily checked, and the bad ones are rejected. Tea leaves can be stored for no more than a year.
Uses of dried lemon balm
Lemon balm is a great ingredient for tea. In cooking, lemon balm is also used as a seasoning for fish, meat and mushroom dishes. After collecting and drying, it is sprinkled a few minutes before the main dish is ready.
Conclusion
They begin to collect and dry lemon balm in the summer - during the flowering period. The grass is dried using ovens or electrical appliances, but more often it is displayed on a windowsill or in the open air. Fresh grass has the greatest benefits. If lemon balm is prepared for medicinal purposes, you should not use the microwave - although the greens look ordinary, they will contain a minimum of vitamins.
