Tea for a summer day

Tea from the Garden

My friend, Virginia, created a lovely garden design for me. Through the years, I've followed it bit by bit and one feature, my raised bed garden in the front, pleases me no end. Except for the pesky lemon balm that keeps popping up, elbowing itself into spaces meant for better-behaved, purchased plants. So I decided to eat it. Internauts say it's good for indigestion, insomnia, heart trouble, anxiety. Last year, I made it into Lemon Balm Sorbet. Fabulous. This year, I felt cranky and unwilling to go to the effort, so I clipped a handful of the most prominent patch, plunged it in water to rinse it and stuffed it in my teapot, stems and all. Plus water to to the top of the leaves. Let it steep, oh, 20 minutes. Took my French grandma's heavy old glass pitcher, spooned out a big glob of honey, poured the tea in. And water. And ice cubes. And, as grandma would have said, "oh-la-laaaa!" It was so delicious that I made another batch -- half chocolate mint, half lemon balm. Also delicious, and so cooling on a day of record heat. Enjoy!