Much To Do About Lemon Balm. Lemon Balm is a relative new herb for me. I am exploring various recipes, most of which came from the Inter-net. If you have recipes and more experience, please e-mail us. I will not only try your recipes; I will post them right here in the recipe section of the Farm Website. I have made the lemon balm pesto below, to great acclaim by the people eating in the farm kitchen.This includes WOOFERS from various places in the world, i.e. Denmark, Twaiian, New Zealand and Nova Scotia. The lemon balm pesto recipe below with the jumbo pasta shells was good, but I taking the time to fill several dozen pasta shells is usually more than I can manage. You will need a minimum of 2 cups if you double the recipe for the Lemon Balm Pesto Shells. In other words, you will need 4 cups/ fresh lemon balm. Lemon Balm grows well and we have a good supply. You can special order the quantity you need. For Veggie Coop members, we will bring it to you at pick-up. Call ahead (895-2884) or pick it up at the Farm Store on Saturday/ Sunday, 1 - 5 p.m.

Lemon Balm Pesto. You will need. 2 cups fresh lemon balm. l/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil. 3 or 4 cloves garlic. Blend all ingredients together in a food processor until chunky, but not too well blended. Use to baste broiled or grilled fish or chicken or serve as traditional pesto over pasta. I only made this recipe one time, then I started substituting and adding things, i.e. cashews for traditional pesto, cream cheese to make a dip. When I used it to baste a chicken, I added a little more olive oil and mixed it with bread crumbs to stuff the roasted chicken. Lemon Pesto Shells. This takes a double recipe of the recipe above and is great for something different for that summer potluck. If you plan to use it in this way, E-mail Mike for additional quantities/ via special order. You will need: 12 oz. jumbo pasta shells. 8 oz. ricotta cheese. 1 small onion, minced. 1 clove garlic, minced. 2 Tbsp. butter, margarine or olive oil. 3 cups lemon pesto. Extra-virgin olive oil and 1 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese. Fresh round pepper. Blend ricotta cheese, garlic, onion, pesto and pepper in a food processor just until blended. Cook shells according to directions. Drain and return to pot, coat lightly with olive oil to keep from sticking. When cool, fill each shell with lemon pesto. Place in two baking pans sprayed with non-stick spray, sprinkle with cheese, cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes until cheese is bubbly. Makes about 8 servings.

Lemon Balm Vinaigrette. We are always looking for that perfect salad dressing for fresh salads. This goes especially well on chicken or fish salad, which are two of our favourites; serve as a sauce for fish and chicken or use as a salad dressing for green salads. Makes about 2/3 cups. You will need: 1 Tbsp. shallots, minced. 2 Tbsp. lemon balm, minced. l/2 tsp. lemon zest. 6 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice. 4 Tbsp. white wine vinegar. 1 tsp. Dijon mustard. 1 tsp. brown sugar and 8 Tbsp. vegetable oil. Mix first 7 ingredients together, and then slowly blend in the oil. Mix well before before serving. Splashing a bit of this vinaigrette around a salad bowl, makes me feel like summer is finally here (which it isn’t, actually). ………