Recipe: Lemon verbena shortbread, lavender lemonade from the Herb Team
Shortbread and lemonade are an excellent treat any time. Use herbs to give them a special touch. Kathy Morrison
At Harvest Day last month, the first of the mini talks, "Beyond Basil: Kitchen Herbs," featured Sacramento County master gardeners Vivian Sellers and Maria Schiffler. These women know their herbs, and they love to share how they grow, save and use different types.
Butl they couldn't share the recipes they referred to, under rules for UC master gardeners. (It's another story with UC master food preservers -- those folks are trained in recipes.)
However, we here at Sacramento Digs Gardening received the OK to be the go-between. So today I can share with you two favorites of the Herb Team: Vivian's lemon verbena shortbread and Maria's lavender lemonade. The delicate cookies and the fragrant lemonade are perfectly paired at afternoon tea or any daytime party.
The star of the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center's herb garden is the lemon verbena lovingly shaped and tended by Vivian over the years -- it now resembles a small tree. The leaves have a heavenly aroma -- one that stays strong even after the leaves are dried. If you want to plant it, check the nurseries that have large herb sections. It grows quickly once established. It might look a bit sad in winter but bounces back well.
The FOHC herb garden also includes several lavender plants, which were harvested in July for the sachets given away at Harvest Day. Some varieties are better than others for culinary uses, if you're shopping for plants. Some lavenders have a more soapy taste and are better in sachets or wreaths. (If you want to learn more about lavender, a good place to start is the website of Morningsun Herb Farm, the Vacaville nursery where the master gardeners found several of the plants for the herb garden.)
For each of these recipes I made partial batches. I had just enough dried lemon verbena leaves for a half batch of shortbread. For the lemonade, since we're long past harvest time, I was delighted to find culinary lavender in the herb section of my local Safeway. That jar was just enough to make one-third of a batch.
But the recipes below are the full amounts as passed along by the Herb Team. My additions are in parentheses.
Lemon verbena shortbread
Makes about 4 dozen cookies
Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened (plus 1/2 teaspoon salt, if using unsalted butter)
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 to 3 teaspoons finely ground dried lemon verbena leaves
Instructions:
Blend butter and sugar well (and the salt if using unsalted butter), then stir in the flour and lemon verbena. Form into logs (mine in the half batch was about 8 inches long) and wrap in plastic. (I added a layer of wax paper over the plastic.)
Chill overnight. (If you want round cookies, start shaping the logs after they've started to firm up. That'll be easier than trying to reshape the very cold dough.)
Heat oven to 325 degrees. Slice the dough about 1/4-inch thick. (Place on a parchment-covered baking pan.) Bake 12-15 minutes, until slightly brown on the edges. Cool on rack. (Cookies are very soft when they come out of the oven, so don't try to remove them for at least 15 minutes.)
These will keep several days in an airtight container. (Vivian sometimes makes these into sandwich cookies with lemon verbena jelly, but that's a recipe for another day!)
Lavender lemonade
Makes about 6 cups
Ingredients:
2 cups boiling water
1 cup dried lavender flowers
1 cup sugar
1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (from 6 to 7 lemons, depending on their juiciness)
2 cups cold water
Instructions:
Make an infusion by pouring the boiling water over the lavender in a mixing bowl (or large glass measuring cup). Let steep 10 minutes. Strain; discard (or compost) the lavender.
Pour the hot lavender water over the sugar in a large bowl or pitcher. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Then add the cold water and the lemon juice. (The lemonade will turn a gorgeous pink color.) Refrigerate before serving; use lemon slices and/or lavender sprigs for garnish.
Tip: Zest those lemons first and save the zest in the freezer for another recipe.
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Flowers in My Back Yard Series
Aug. 4: Dianthus a deceptively hardy flower
July 28: Naked Ladies put on summer show
July 21: Thank Luther Burbank for these long-lasting beauties (Shasta daisies)
July 14: How to keep hydrangeas happy
July 7: Grow these bright cosmos for bees and butterflies
June 30: Agapanthus adds blue fireworks to the garden
June 23: Easy-care gazanias fill those hot corners
June 16: Daylilies are perfect for water-wise gardens (and a lot more)
June 9: Grow coneflowers for pollinators -- and yourself
June 2: Sunflowers capture Sacramento's summer attitude
May 29: Are your roses going 'blind'?
May 26: Zinnias are the summer flowers every garden needs
May 19: Plant dahlias now for late-summer flower power
May 12: Know your coreopsis from your bidens
May 5: Mums the word on Mother's Day weekend
April 28: Majestic Matilija poppy is worth a look
April 21: Celebrate roses, America's favorite flower
April 14: Small flowers with outsized impact
April 7: Calendulas do double duty
April 3: Make Easter lilies last for years to come
March 31: In praise of a pollinator magnet (small-leaf salvias)
March 24: Azaleas brighten shady spots
March 17: The perfect flower for beginners? Try zonal geraniums
March 10: Keep camellias happy for years to come
March 3: Fruit tree blossoms are a fleeting joy
Feb. 27: Are your roses looking rusty?
Feb. 24: Treasure spring daffodils now and for years to come
Feb. 17: How and why to grow wildflowers
Feb. 10: Let's talk Valentine's Day roses
Feb. 3: Why grow flowers?
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Garden checklist for week of Aug. 2
Get out early in the morning and monitor your garden’s moisture needs. Deep water and add temporary shade structures for plants that are feeling a little burned. In particular, protect developing peppers and eggplant.
* Put off fertilization until this heat passes; plants need to concentrate on hydration instead of growth.
* Harvest tomatoes, beans, squash, pepper and eggplants to prompt plants to keep producing. Give your plants a deep watering twice a week, more if planted in containers.
* Watch out for caterpillars and hornworms in the vegetable garden. They can strip a plant bare in one day. Pick them off plants by hand in early morning or late afternoon.
* Mulch can be your garden’s best friend – it conserves moisture while blocking out weeds. But don’t let mulch mound around stalks, stems or trunks. That can promote rot.
* Pinch off dead flowers from perennials and annuals to lengthen their summer bloom.
* Pick up after your fruit trees. Clean up debris and dropped fruit; this cuts down on insects and prevents the spread of brown rot.
* Prepare for a fall full of flowers by paying a little extra attention to your garden. Cut off spent blooms from roses, annuals and perennials. Roses will rebloom about six to eight weeks after deadheading.
* Indoors, start seedlings for fall vegetable planting, including bunching onion, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, radicchio and lettuce.
* Sow seeds of perennials in pots for fall planting including yarrow, coneflower and salvia.
* In the garden, direct seed beets, carrots, leaf lettuce and turnips. Make sure to keep seeds and seedlings consistently moist.
* Plant potatoes.
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Food in My Back Yard (FIMBY) Series
Lessons learned during a year of edible gardening
WINTER
Is edible gardening possible indoors?
Hints for choosing tomato seeds
Why winter is the perfect time to plant fruit trees
When to plant? Consider staggering your transplants
How to squeeze more food into less space
Plant a fruit tree now -- for later
Win the weed war by tackling them in winter
Tips for planting bare-root trees, shrubs and vegetables
Time to give vegetable seedlings some more space
Ways to win the fight against weeds
FALL
Dec. 16: Add asparagus to your edible garden
Dec. 9: Soggy soil and what to do about it
Dec. 2: Plant artichokes now; enjoy for years to come
Nov. 25: It's late November, and your peach tree needs spraying
Nov. 18: What to do with all those fallen leaves?
Nov. 11: Prepare now for colder weather in the edible garden
Nov. 4: Plant a pea patch for you and your garden
Oct. 27: As citrus season begins, advice for backyard growers
Oct. 20: Change is in the autumn air
Oct. 13: We don't talk (enough) about beets
Oct. 6: Fava beans do double duty
Sept. 30: Seeds or transplants for cool-season veggies?
Sept. 23: How to prolong the fall tomato harvest
SUMMER
Sept. 16: Time to shut it down?
Sept. 9: How to get the most out of your pumpkin patch
Sept. 2: Summer-to-fall transition time for evaluation, planning
Aug. 26: To pick or not to pick those tomatoes?
Aug. 19: Put worms to work for you
Aug. 12: Grow food while saving water
Aug. 5: Enhance your food with edible flowers
July 29: Why won't my tomatoes turn red?
July 22: A squash plant has mosaic virus, and it's not pretty
July 15: Does this plant need water?
July 8: Tear out that sad plant or baby it? Midsummer decisions
July 1: How to grow summer salad greens
June 24: Weird stuff that's perfectly normal
SPRING
June 17: Help pollinators help your garden
June 10: Battling early-season tomato pests
June 3: Make your own compost
May 27: Where are the bees when you need them?
May 20: How to help tomatoes thrive on hot days
May 13: Your plants can tell you more than any calendar can
May 6: Maintain soil moisture with mulch for garden success
April 29: What's (already) wrong with my tomato plants?
April 22: Should you stock up on fertilizer? (Yes!)
April 15: Grow culinary herbs in containers
April 8: When to plant summer vegetables
April 1: Don't be fooled by these garden myths
March 25: Fertilizer tips: How to 'feed' your vegetables for healthy growth
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