Lemon Balm Jelly

Three views of lemon balm.  Each of these plants root balls is at least three years old. 

Thanks to my husbands grandmother, we have a lovely, aromatic supply of Lemon Balm.  It is one of my most favorite fragrances in the garden.  Because of it's prolific growing nature, we often times have to mow sections of it that have established roots through the grass.  As much of a pain as that is, I still put up with it due to the lemony flavor it leaves in the air, once it has been disturbed. 

Lemon Balm has some great uses, including potpourri, acne treatment, or even in combination with Valerian is as effective as some tranquilizers with out the side effects.  For more information check out Discovery Health on Lemon Balm.

So with all of these benefits what could be better than jelly?  Okay well, Discovery health did have a recipe for sorbet, (gonna have to try soon), but really, lets get to the jelly.

On a whim, I googled Lemon Balm Jelly.  This recipe is an easy to follow, straight forward recipe.  The only additive I would make is that we treated this recipe very much like the rose petal jelly recipe.  Rather than boiling the "Lemon Balm Tea" for only a minute, we boiled it for 7 minutes.  That ensured a good strong pectin reaction.

The only other change was green food coloring rather than yellow.  (My daughters choice). 

As a plain jelly the flavor, may be an acquired taste for some.  It is much more like a flavored honey than a jelly.  As a peanut butter sidekick, the flavor is much milder. 

As a kid that grew up almost exclusively on grape jelly and peanut butter sandwiches, I am very much, more excited about this new world of jelly flavors.  The ability I have, I am thankful and grateful to have, to grow so many varieties of plants in my garden, has really given me the opportunity to try new delicious recipes, I might not have tried otherwise.

The original recipe calls for yellow food coloring, however my daughter thought green would be prettier.