The Home Apothecary – Bee Balm Tea

With the fall days getting cooler and now that we have all survived the Daylights Saving Time change once again……it is a great time to talk about teas but making your own teas on your homestead can be easier than you think.

We grow herbs  such as Bee Balm which our honey bees love but we also benefit from these beneficial plants as well and one way is drinking the dried tea leaves from the Bee Balm plant.  Native Americans used Bee Balm in Ancient Remedies that were handed down from generation to generation.  Most of our herbs we purchase from Shelton Herb Farm and this Bee Balm for example was purchased from there and we also purchase some of our herbs from The Hobby Greenhouse Plant Sale that takes place three times a year in Wilmington, North Carolina as well.

By the way all parts of the Bee Balm herb are edible and you can use the flowers for garnishes in salads and to top cakes etc…

A Bee Balm Infusion or tea is used to treat many ailments.  Some ailments it treats are nausea, sore throat, bronchial inflammation, and its very soothing.   Headache and fever can be reduced by drinking Bee Balm as well as it can be used to treat oral diseases such as gingivitis and infections of the mouth.   It’s quite simple all you have to do is dry out your Bee Balm plant as shown in the picture above and then pull the leaves off and crush them.  You can crush them with your hands, you could  use a mortar and pestle, an herb mill however I think my herb mill works best with fresh herbs…..and when you are done just simply place them in an apothecary jar interestingly the leaves did not smell all that aromatic until I had crushed them and placed them in the jar it smells familiar but yet as I opened up jars and smelled others I realized it had its own distinct aroma.

I take my tea with a tsp. of honey to smooth out the flavor to make it more to my liking.  I actually had some of this last batch of tea last night it actually tastes a little bit like green tea and its got a not unpleasant taste but I am not going to say it’s absolutely delicious because I drink it for health reasons but what I will say is that I can vouch for its healing properties.  I have to laugh because my tea infuser was leaking leaves so my husband “The Viking In My Life” broke out some snazzy filtration system we sometimes use for camping and it all came out wonderfully.  Always have a back up plan or buy a better tea infuser!

You can also use one variety of Bee Balm I think it’s the Bergamot’s variety in potpourri’s as well.  An interesting historical fact about Bee Balm is that it was used as a temporary substitute instead of the  traditional Black Tea after the Boston Tea Party event.

PS – Gratitude No. 5 is for my brothers – as you know siblings are really the only ones who share the same experience growing up although we often recall things differently. My older brothers were fierce defenders of me when it called for and also have always been there for me whether it was to help us move or to just listen on the phone.   Now they are blessed with wonderful families of their own which has even made me more blessed to now have sister in-laws and nieces.  I  have been blessed to have them both of them and their families in my life.

This blogged is linked to Monday Mania and The Living Well Blog Hop.