These are lime flowers. They smell fantastic.
Use
Lime is used for:
- curing cold, flu and respiratory system,
- lowering high temperature by enhancing sweating,
- sore throat,
- calming cough,
- purifying blood,
- enhanceing urine and stool,
- soothing nerves,
- insomnia, etc.
Tea
To make the tea, put one teaspoon of crushed dry lime flowers ( with or without small leaves) in one cup ( 2dl ) of boiled water and cover.
Strain it after 10-15 min. You can add honey.
Large amounts of lime tea can induce heart problems, so be careful.
Picking and drying
Lime blossoms from June to July (depends of the type of lime).
Best time to pick it is in the beginning of blossoming, before the flowers change their colour.
Curative parts of lime are it's flowers with little leaves attached to them ( little leaves aren't used if they have rust ). Big leaves also have some curative properties but aren't used so often.
After picking, place the flowers on the clean cloth or paper, in thin layer.
You can dry it outside ( in the shade ), or inside ( away from sun or some heat source ).
Put the dry lime in a paper bag or a glass container and store it in a dry place. It is better to crush dry lime just before use.
