💚 Chilling with Lemon Verbena 🌿

[riverflows]

In Gone With The Wind, Scarlett O’Hara’s Mother Margaret Mitchell states that Lemon Verbena is her favorite scent. I absolutely don't care about this fact at all - I'm not a Gone with the Wind fan, but I do love lemon verbena and it's one of the first plants I planted in our garden. Although lemon verbena can suffer in the frost, it's tucked next to a wall and in between other plants, so it does really well, although the hops does threaten to strangle it.

Both are plants I use to de-stress in a chillaxing tea. I love the way two powerful plants that are known for their relaxing properties interwine each other like lovers in the late summer - and it makes for a very heady smell in that corner of the garden indeed.

I went hunting in the garden for Lemon Verbena today as I've been really jittery and stressed over this last week, and I've even quit coffee for a while to reset my adrenals. I need something to calm me down and an alternative to caffeine.

Lemon Verbena or Aloysia citrodora, also know as bee's balm or beebrush, originated in South America. It's part of the Verbenaceae family that's native to Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil, Chile, Peru and Bolivia.

Agrarian Home writes of it's history:

Philibert Commerson, a French botanist who first publicly recorded this plant collected it in Buenos Aires on his botanical explorations with Louis Antoine de Bougainville (yes, the man for whom Bougainvillea is named), about 1785. The plant had already been quietly imported directly into the Real Jardín Botánico de Madrid, where professors Casimiro Gómez Ortega and Antonio Palau y Verdera named it, though they did not publish it, Aloysia citrodora, to compliment the morganatic wife of the Garden’s patron Infante Luis Antonio de Borbon, Prince of Asturias and brother of King Carlos III.

Other botanists with collections from Spanish America struggled: when French botanist Joseph Dombey landed his imports at Cadiz in southwestern Spain in 1785 they were impounded and left to die in warehouses. Officials refused permission even to have seeds planted. Of the plants Dombey had assembled during eight years at Lima, his Lemon Verbena survived.

https://ipfs.busy.org/ipfs/QmUQLqNUP3T2ebFdE575tkMCKZavL9hEym4UfcxZDfHSDY

Palau y Verdera’s earliest recording was completely disregarded, and when the plant became popular throughout southern Spain as Yerba Luisa it was connected, even in print, with the more prominent personage Maria Luisa, Queen of Spain.

Casimiro Gómez Ortega sent seeds and samples of the plant to Charles Louis L’Héritier de Brutelle in Paris. From Paris John Sibthorpe, professor of Botany at Oxford, obtained the specimen that he introduced to British horticulture. By 1797 Lemon Verbena was common in greenhouses around London, and its popularity as essential in a fragrant bouquets, gathered in ladies handkerchiefs, and for medicinal purposes increased through the following century.

https://ipfs.busy.org/ipfs/QmTyLpJNihDmtYbLFD7PHN5uLqirNohGGk1c6uunMt5ZnR

How delicious does this lemon verbena granita look?

Although lacking the sharp acidity of lemons, lemon verbena has traditionally been used in desserts and drinks. You can use them in cooking fish or chicken, as it will impart a lemony taste. In my mind, there's no substitute for lemons in savoury cooking, but in sweet cooking I can see this leaf imparting a nice herbal delicacy. I read that bakers used to put the leaves in the pan under the pastry, peeling them out afterwards, and it would flavour it nicely. You can also steep the leaves in milk and use that milk in cakes or puddings. I can imagine it would be delicious in a lemony sorbet. The same can be done with sugar, leaving 6 - 10 leaves in until the flavour seeps through, or in olive oil.

Medicinally, lemon verbena is meant to be good for:

• easing tension and stress
• calming anxiety
• relieving indigestion and colic
• reducing fevers
• relaxing tired muscles
• ease asthma
• an expectoratn
• supportive of the liver (good for alcoholics)

There's no wonder I love this herb as it's cures are for many things I often suffer.

Earth magick too says that this plant is bound to the moon and water - being a Cancerian moon child I'm deeply sensitive and emotional so I really relate to verbena as it's symbolically meant to represent this sensitivity. It's meant to transmit messages between lovers, but I guess that's an energetic transferral that's bound to happen when you're relaxed and calm. It's meant to help ease the emotional pain of break ups, but this makes perfect sense too if it's medicinal qualities are benefical to anxiety and stress, which can be causes by this sort of pain and suffering. It's not magic so much but the real medicinal qualities of lemon verbena that create this feeling and mood. An aphrodisiac qualities it’s said to posess are clearly due to it's ability to relax and calm. No one's up for love when they're stressed!

I wish J. did like it – but he’s not a fan. I love breaking off twigs of verbena and dangling them into my bathwater - the scent is divine. As it's really close to my outdoor fire bath I do this quite often! I can’t do it if he’s jumping in though – it’s one of the rare occassions we beg to differ!

Lemon Verbena Destress Loving Tea

• Take 5 - 6 fresh or dried leaves and place inside an infuser or in a teapot for one.
• Steep for 5 minutes in boiling water
• Add lemon or honey to taste.

I'd also consider adding hops if you're really stressed, or perhaps some mint or chamomile.

I do love lemon verbena, but if I really want to get into a chillaxy sexy mood, I'm going to choose damiana every time, but that's for another post!

What recipes do you have for lemon verbena? What's your favourite de-stress tea?

---

---

https://gateway.ipfs.io/ipfs/QmU9f4FK9j91cnUGYk9hnMXuYdAFcnF6ekkpXZ5DfiByfG

Want to find more quality posts about helping the Earth and humanity and generally making the world a better place? Check out the #ecotrain and #tribesteemup trails, and consider adding them to your autovoting. Please ask if you're unsure what this might mean for you.

You can read about the 8 Pillars of TribeSteemUp here

Comments

[kilbride]

I love both L verbana and hops, great tea blend 😍 I love how you added some love for Cancerians, Im going to share this post with a couple of my favorite Cancers!

[riverflows]

Thankyou sweetheart! 💚💚💚

[buckaroo]

Lemon verbena is one of my favourite herbs as well! My favourite is adding it to my kombucha brews. Gives the fermented drink such a fresh flavour. I must try it in baking. Interesting read. I've never used it for stress. Always reach for chamomille

[riverflows]

I love it too!! A verbena custard would be yummy. amazing tip 're verbena... never thought about that!!!

[j85063]

Great info thanks i grow Lemon Verbena here in Tas i have never had a problem with it from frost.

[riverflows]

No not I either!!!

[abu-bokor]

Very beautiful post Thanks for the sharing post

[goldenoakfarm]

Lemon verbena is my most favorite scent. I also use it in sachets in my dresser drawers and in the cedar closet. I put a basket of leaves in the spare room when visitors come also.

Loved this post!

[riverflows]

I love it too... I wish hubby did!! Thats a lovely idea... such a fresh scent!

Ahhh thanks lovely for the resteem 💚💚💚

[ginnyannette]

Alright, I'm sold. I'm going to get myself a lemon verbena. It sounds lovely. :) I always forget about tea when I am stressed. Need to remember.

And what's this about an outdoor fire bath? I think I want that too!

[holisticmom]

I love how you started this post!

" I absolutely don't care about this fact at all - I'm not a Gone with the Wind fan, but I do love lemon verbena and it's one of the first plants I planted in our garden."

I haven't seen a lemon verbena for years. Definitely need to grow one soon I think. For now, I settle with lemon thyme and nettle tea.
Great post and I really need to get this natural remedies trail going soon. xx

[riverflows]

Ahaha... thanks.

I was distracted writing the tags for this post and wrote ecomedicine rather than ecotrain but it's quite a nice tag I thought!!! Let's brainstorm.. I was thinking about you and this project before I went to sleep last night!!!

Posted using Partiko Android

[holisticmom]

Ooh yes let's use that tag! Let's catch up on Discord and have a chat about it when you have time 💖💖😊

[llfarms]

I love this! My daughter has a slight fascination with lemon verbena due to its frequent mention in The Little House On The Prairie series. It’s a beautiful scent and such a beneficial herb. It’s something I hope to be adding to the garden soon! Thanks for this great info ❤️

[riverflows]

Thankyou!!! You are welcome. Little House on the Prairie!!!! I remember that vaguely from when I was a kid. You will have to plant some now 💚💚💚

Posted using Partiko Android

[walkerland]

Thanks for sharing all of the beneficial information, I've been meaning to look that up. I planted lemon verbena for the first time this year! Can't wait to be able to have a cup of tea! One of my hops survived the dogs digging them up so I'll have to try that as well. I had no idea that hops were good for stress!

[riverflows]

I'm so happy you planted a verbena... it's going to be SO good for your collection! 💚 Hops... makes sense though huh? Relaxing with a hoppy beer? If you have ever had a strong IPA it's that kinda feeling. A strong hop tea can make you very sleepy but it's bitter so honey is a must. 💚💚💚💚

And thanks sooo much for the resteem

[walkerland]

Thank you! I really appreciate the extra info. You've taught me something new and I am really excited about the hops now. we could use something for insomnia once in a while so I am very eager to give it a try. I only planted it last year so it's still a baby but its something to look forward to!

[riverflows]

💚💚💚💚

[mountainjewel]

Really enjoyed this profile. I've not gotten to know lemon verbena much. I've only had in lemon flavored tea blend. You've certainly piqued my interest, I'll have to see if if would find a happy home here. Thanks for putting such a great post!
-ini

[riverflows]

Hey Ini!!! 💚💚💚 so glad you enjoyed it. I'm sure it will grow in the Ozarks. Another addition to the apocathery!

[offgrid-online]

This post has been featured in the @offgrid-online Weekly Review #7. Lemon Verbena is so nice - Lemon and Sweet - I like how you arranged it so it would weather the winter :)

[riverflows]

Oh thats awesome!!! Thanks so much!!!

[danclarke]

I was just given a branch of dried Verbena two days ago and enjoyed my first tea made with it. I will try to grow my own from the seeds still attached:)