How to Harvest, Store, and Use Lemon Balm

Harvesting and Pruning Lemon Balm

Plan to gather the lemon balm before the plant flowers. If you wait until tiny white flowers are visible on the tips, the leaves of the lemon balm will be unpleasantly bitter. Fortunately, harvesting lemon balm regularly or pinching off the buds before they bloom can prevent this! Bees and butterflies love lemon balm's white flowers. If you're hoping to attract these pollinators to your garden, consider growing lemon balm around the edge of your plot—just skip harvesting leaves from this plant since they'll be bitter.

Harvest lemon balm in the morning after the dew evaporates. Since lemon balm is a tender herb, you'll want to use it or dry it quickly so it doesn't mold. Instead of picking lemon balm when it's wet with dew, harvest it on a sunny morning once the leaves are dry. Remember, lemon balm bruises easily, so handle it gently as you harvest.

Pick a few leaves off of the stem whenever you need fresh lemon balm. Lemon balm is a tender herb so it's super simple to harvest as needed. Just pull off as many healthy green leaves as you want! Try not to squeeze or roughly handle them since you don't want to bruise the leaves.

Cut off stems if you want to harvest a large amount. Removing a handful of stems also improves circulation around the plant, which is helpful during hot or humid summers. Use your garden shears to clip off a stem near the base of the plant. Keep cutting until you have a handful that you can dry or use in a recipe that calls for a lot of lemon balm. If you're harvesting lemon balm specifically to keep your plant healthy, don't cut off more than 1/3 of the stems.

Prune back ⅓ of the plant about once a month to keep it in check. If you don't harvest your lemon balm regularly, it can grow up to 4 feet (1.2 m) within a season! To prune lemon balm, take gardening shears and clip back 1/3 of all the growth. While it doesn't spread as quickly as mint, it will grow really fast if you let it flower and spread. Is your plant already huge? Don't worry—if your lemon balm has already flowered, take shears and cut the plant down until it's about 2 feet (0.61 m) tall. This will help it put on more leafy, bushy growth in the future. It's super difficult to over-prune lemon balm. Some people even cut it back completely before winter and it comes back to flourish in the spring!

Storing Lemon Balm

Refrigerate fresh lemon balm in a glass of water for up to 2 weeks. Sprigs of lemon balm are kind of like flowers so they'll stay fresh when you store them in water. Place the lemon balm stems into cool water and pop a plastic bag loosely over the top. The bag prevents the lemon balm from drying out in the fridge. Your lemon balm should last up to 2 weeks in the fridge if you continue to swap out the water every day. If you just plucked a few leaves, plan on using or drying them immediately.

Freeze lemon balm in an ice cube tray for a flavorful storage option. Fill an ice cube tray 2/3 full of chopped lemon balm leaves and pour extra-virgin olive oil into each cavity to cover the herbs. Then, cover the tray with plastic wrap and stick it in the freezer. This is a great storage method if you plan on baking or cooking with the lemon balm. You can defrost a cube of lemon balm in oil or toss it right into a soup or sauce. Feel free to keep the leaves whole if you don't want chopped lemon balm.

Hang bunches of lemon balm to air dry if you want to preserve the herb. Harvest a bundle of lemon balm and tie the stems together with a rubber band. Then, put it into a small paper bag so the leaves point down and tie the bag to the gathered stems. Poke a few holes in the bag and hang it somewhere with good circulation. Check the leaves after a day or two to see if they're completely dry. While you can hang the lemon balm without putting it in a bag first, the bag keeps the herb from getting dusty and catches any leaves that might fall.

Dry lemon balm in a dehydrator to quickly preserve it. Spread the lemon balm in a single layer on dehydrator trays on put them in your machine. You can dehydrate sprigs of lemon balm or just the leaves. Set your machine between 95 and 115 °F (35 and 46 °C) for 1 to 4 hours. You can adjust the time based on how much lemon balm you're drying—a small amount will dry faster for instance. The lemon balm is done when it feels completely dry or crisp. If it's humid in your area, set the dehydrator to 125 °F (52 °C) so the lemon balm dries out quicker. If you don't have a dehydrator, no problem! Spread lemon balm leaves in a single layer on a baking sheet and lay a thin cloth on top. Stick the sheet in the oven and switch on the oven light, but keep the oven turned off. This provides just enough heat to dry out the leaves overnight.

Store dried lemon balm for up to 1 year at room temperature. Pop the dried leaves into a glass storage container with a sealable lid. Then, store the lemon balm in a dry location away from light and heat. Label your lemon balm and use it within 1 year of drying the leaves. While you can refrigerate or freezer dried lemon balm, condensation might develop in the container and the herb might spoil. It's generally better to keep dried lemon balm at room temperature.

Using Lemon Balm

Brew a soothing herbal tea or iced tisane. For a simple but flavorful tea, steep 1/4 cup (5 g) of loosely packed lemon balm leaves in 2 cups (470 ml) of boiling hot water for 10 minutes. You can also add 1/4 cup of fresh peppermint leaves, dried lavender, orange peel, or a black tea bag. Strain your tea and sip it hot or serve it over ice. There's no wrong way to make lemon balm tea! Play around with using dried lemon balm or brewing it with other types of tea like earl grey or Chinese black tea. Lemon balm leaves look beautiful in a glass of iced lemon balm tea.

Cook a tangy lemon balm jelly or jam. Lemon balm flavor works great with most fruits, so experiment with adding lemon balm the next time you make jelly or jam. Follow your recipe for jam or jelly and cook it until it sets. Just before you're ready to jar and process it, stir in 1/2 cup (10 g) of freshly chopped lemon balm. Then, fill your jars and can and process them according to your instructions. The lemon balm gives a slight citrus flavor that also goes well with ginger, citrus peel, or rose hips.

Make a flavorful sauce or dressing with lemon balm. Chop a few fresh leaves and mix them into a salad dressing or sauce that calls for fresh herbs—lemon balm works especially well with basil, parsley, fennel, and thyme. For example, whisk fresh lemon balm into a simple vinaigrette for a garden salad or stir chopped leaves into a creamy dill sauce that you'll serve over seafood. Try lemon balm in your next batch of pesto! The lemon balm gives a bright flavor to rich basil-based pesto.

Add fresh lemon balm to cookies, scones, and cakes. Lemon balm leaves add a delightful zing to baked goods. They also enhance citrus flavors, so try adding chopped lemon balm to citrus cookies or fruit-based cake. Not sure where to begin? Add 2 tablespoons (2 g) of chopped lemon balm leaves to your next batch of sugar cookies to taste this unique flavor. You'll find that most baking recipes call for fresh, not dried, lemon balm, but always check your recipe closely to see what it specifies.

Infuse lemon balm in oil to use in skincare products. Fill a clean mason jar 1/3 full of dried lemon balm and pour in enough oil to fill the jar. You can use olive oil, jojoba oil, or almond oil for instance—whatever you usually prefer to use on your skin. Then, screw the lid on the jar and put it in a cool, dark place to infuse for 4 to 6 weeks. To use your lemon balm oil, rub a few drops on your skin after getting out of the shower or pour a few drops in the tub for a soothing soak. If you make your own skincare products, combine lemon balm oil with beeswax to make a salve or lip balm!