Lemon Verbena Sorbet – Wow.

Posted on Jul 27, 2009

Lemon Verbena has a heavenly scent so strong and amazing it is hard to believe it’s real. Like basil, it seems to have a human-catnip effect on me. The plant I bought this year is growing wonderfully, so what to do with all those lemon scented leaves? The answer was to be found as close as the nearest French food blog, Chocolate & Zucchini, where I found a recipe for Lemon Verbena Sorbet. I read it and swooned. Oh yes, I have to make this.

But I had no ice-cream maker. Hmmm. I couldn’t really see myself doing it without it, even though the French blog says that’s no problem and to just ‘put the mixture in the freezer first thing in the morning, then stir every hour, and it will be ready for dinner.’ Luckily our friends who were coming to dinner were willing to bring along this wonderful little Krups ice-cream maker shown below. The bottom bowl, where the ingredients go, is kept frozen until you are ready to use it, then the mixture is ready in only about 30 minutes. It’s now officially on my wish list!

Then I got a little confused with what exactly the French mean by the ‘soft kind’ of sugar, not granulated. And I knew for sure I could not locate a rare Italian vodka mentioned in the recipe by dinner time. Hmmm. Since I’ve only taken up cooking in my middle ages, maybe the French blogs are a high bar for me. So a little more searching and I found a simple recipe from The Splendid Table:

Lemon Verbena Sorbet

Nothing but vibrant and refreshing ­ it’s lemon heaven.

Makes 1 quart, 8 servings

• 1 cup (gently packed) fresh lemon verbena leaves
• 1 cup superfine sugar
• 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 3 cups cold water

Grind the lemon verbena leaves and sugar together in a food processor until the mixture turns into a bright green paste, about 30 seconds; stop to scrape down the sides as necessary. Add the lemon juice and process for 15 seconds longer, then add the water. Strain the resulting liquid through a fine sieve to remove any bits of leaf. Freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s directions.

The sugar + leaves combo in the food processor was pretty amazing green. I didn’t have any superfine sugar, so I made sure the sugar was well dissolved in the water when the time came. The little strainer below worked both to get the seeds out of the lemon juice as well as to get the leaves out of the herb mixture.

The results were divine. WHAT a flavor!! And what a lively color. I took the French advice to serve with ginger cookies and that was perfect, of course. Those French folks know their flavors! This is going to be one of those treats that comes to symbolize true summer — like the first perfect watermelon. We were all so anxious to try the results I took it out of the ice-cream freezer when it was still a little soft. The leftovers in the freezer firmed up just right…but they never made it past midnight….  Thanks for stopping by Larrapin Garden on a foodie night!

Ahhh, A Few Cooler Days Coming…

Posted on Jun 29, 2009

What a relief! Last night I was out watering the garden (because I still haven’t put together the irrigation system I’ve had in the box since March) and the cool air just started flowing in – what a delight! It reminded me of living in the Black Mountains of NC, when in the summer evenings if you were out in the yard and the cool air would start slipping down the mountain above us. You could feel it flowing by like water. Wonderful memory.  This morning it’s 61 and that feels nearly chilly compared where we’ve been!  And cooler is better if you are wearing your fancy bloomers all day:

The chickens made it through the heat, walking around panting since they don’t sweat, hiding out in the shady loafing shed…which begins to look like a bus stop shelter when they are all lined up, motionless, in there…and flopping on the ground in the shade. The moment the temp drops, they emerge in full chicken busy-ness.  I let them out of their pasture in the evenings to roam the yard and surrounds. If I let them out earlier they would have time to wander far enough east to get in the garden which could be disastrous to the mulched beds. Chickens and a deep mulch gardening system doesn’t work, except for the chicken, who thinks you set this lovely bug and worm trap just for their pleasure as they are kicking mulch to kingdom-come.

I’d been a little worried how the Buckeyes would handle the heat since they are bred to withstand Ohio winters, not Arkansas summers. But one Buckeye breeder is down in Alabama and is successful, so they’ll probably do fine here. He did post one time that he would drip the hose for them and they’d come and stand in the water. If our water bucket gets low, the Buckeyes will just jump in and stand there. I had to put a fan blowing into their coop at night because it’s so stuffy in there. The tree that used to shade it from the afternoon sun came down in the ice storm. That spot will be high on the replanting list this fall. Supposedly the Australorps are heat tolerant, being from Australia, but they seemed as hot and oppressed and the Buckeyes did. Handsome, our Australorp rooster who arrived in an all-pullet box of chicks last autumn, looked a little miffed getting his portrait taken. You can see though, how he got his name:

Thanks for stopping by Larrapin Garden! The whole place smells like garlic and basil after the big harvest yesterday. I’ll post about that next…AND I’ll finally post the last garden I visited on the Peace Gardens Tour.

Sunday Blooms…Hoping for Rain

Posted on Jun 28, 2009

Ok, so it may not have actually hit 100 yesterday except in heat index (which surpassed 100). That’s what I get for looking at a bank’s temperature reading when the whole sign is out in the blazing sun!  That sign (on a bank in Farmington) should lead to some amazing numbers being posted when we really do get hot in July and August.The Butterfly Weed above is doing well in the heat. I’ve yet to see any Monarch activity. (This is a native host plant of the Monarch butterfly. There are 100 kinds of milkweed and you can see pics of them here at monarchwatch.org ) I haven’t seen nearly as many butterflies of all kinds this year. I think the rainy, cold Spring may have set them back.  The ac/heater guy who tuned up our system the other day said for the first time in his career he had made heater calls in May!

More weather lore: In June we’ve only had about 2 inches of rain per the NOAA website. They must have fallen somewhere around us, because I don’t think we’ve had that much righ here. So in June we’ve had half the normal rainfall for the month. In May we had around 8 inches, versus a normal of nearly 5 inches.  Which all sounds (and feels) kind of crazy. At the same time, the historical charts say this area of the Ozarks can range anywhere between 21 and 70 inches of rain per year, with the normal being in the mid-40s. Fascinating!  And I wondered why all the old farmer types are so interested in weather lore…it’s habit forming to start really observing these patterns. Now, when the patterns are as whacky as they have been this year, it can become a true gardening challenge.

Below, the Daylilies are still holding up, if fading a bit. No, those apparent raindrops fell from a hose, not the sky… Maybe we’ll get lucky and actually get that slim chance of rain today!

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Larrapin is over at www.larrapin.us

Posted on Jun 28, 2009

Please visit the new blog over at www.larrapin.us !

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Thanks and see you at the new blog!

Larrapin Garden Blog is at www.larrapin.us

Posted on Jun 28, 2009

If you are subscribed via a reader, please visit www.larrapin.us and update your subscription via the links in the upper right column. This will be the last post on this feed. I love it that you subscribed to keep up with Larrapin Garden, so please check out the new site and update your subscription there! I have to admit, I love working with the new WordPress powered blog! See you there!

100 Degrees in the Shade..

Posted on Jun 27, 2009

metal hummingbird and daylilies

The hummingbird was given to us by our wonderful friends Cem and Marianne years ago.  Only yard-art hummingbirds are out in the sun today. It’s 100 and hardly a cloud in the sky. Heat index near 105 today they said down at the Farmers’ Market this morning. I did notice it was crowded before 9am – sure sign its going to be a scorcher. Otherwise it seems to get crowded between 10 and 11 a.m.

The photo above was taken about two weeks ago – the last time we saw a drop of rain.  It rained like mad all through May, then stopped abruptly and we haven’t seen a drop. Since that time, it’s been full sun, dry and above 90 every day. So, I was out in the yard at 6 a.m. — gardening hours are about 6-9 a.m. these days — getting out the BLACK BOXES..

I didn’t mean for the boxes to be black, a nice subtle green or tan would be nicer, but when I went to the store last year to get a half dozen of those on-sale plastic storage bins (the medium sized ones) my color choices were Screamin’ Razorback Red, Disco Purple, or black. Since I planned to use them as watering devices for newly planted trees during hot, dry spells, I went with the least obtrusive of the three. All I can say is they are more attractive (and hold more water and are safter for critters) than the leftover 5 gallon paint buckets I used to use.

In either case, you drill three to five pinholes in the side. Fill the container with water from the hose and the water seeps slowly out the pinholes over a few hours, allowing it to deeply soak the soil around the young tree, rather than just running off down the hill or across the yard. It’s also MUCH quicker to fill these tubs, place the lid and walk away, rather than to leave a dripping hose on the tree and try to remember to go move it every few hours.

Watering Young Peach

I’ve found it’s smart to put the holes about quarter inch up from the side. This allows a bit of water to remain once it has emptied — keeping the whole thing from blowing away in a sudden wind. (Ask me how I know this!) Since the lid is put back on once you fill it with water (to prevent birds or critters from meeting their doom) there’s no problem with mosquitos and you can just dump the little bit of water out on the tree when it’s time to put away the the black box for the season. I only fill the boxes about 2/3 full, otherwise they stretch out and I can’t get the lids on.

Black Box Watering a Prairie Fire Crab Apple

Generally, a deep soaking like this will last a week in all but the hottest dog days..which are usually in July and August instead of JUNE! This weather doesn’t bode well for those months! I suspect the black boxes may be out a long while this year.

As for the rest of the trees I didn’t get around to planting because it rained for a solid month…they are in partial shade in their pots where I’ll baby them till Fall tree planting times gets here in September. Then I’ll get out Whoa-Nellie the red tiller (stole this name I think from my neighbor’s yellow tiller I borrowed before I got my own Whoa-Nellie) and use it to dig enormous tree planting holes in this rocky, rocky ground.  That is Whoa-Nellie’s main job since all the garden is raised beds…and she’s darn good at chopping into rocky clay. But all that will have to wait out the heat…

Stay cool! Remember to keep fresh water out for the birds and frogs and toads and critters:

Use planter saucers for tiny garden ponds!

Here’s one of the many planter saucers that keep water around the garden. The birds love them tucked in between the plants – and since we don’t have cats it’s more important to protect the birds from hawks while they bathe. The saucers are easy to dump out just by tipping them over with your foot and refilling with the hose. They’ll dry out before mosquitos have time to populate – but keep them full of fresh water, not dry! The songbirds in our yard and garden increased exponentially once we started keeping water out all the time for them. So now we have to keep it up. It’s so wonderful to watch them bathing and cooling off. Try it!

Julia Ward Howe Peace Garden Visit

Posted on Jun 22, 2009

Continuing on Omni’s Peace Garden Tour from a couple weeks ago, here are the pics from Marie R.’s lovely city shade garden. The garden is named for Julia Ward Howe, an American social activist, abolitionist, poet and author of “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” She was also the first to proclaim “Mother’s Day.”

Marie has a large, sloping back yard and every inch of it is lovely. She has a real eye for artistic placement of objects — check out the merry-go-round horse beneath the amazing Japanese Butterbur (Asteraceae ‘Giganteus’) above! Plus she had a handy handout with the names of the plants which really helped me.

The photo gallery above will give you an idea of the work and artistry that went into this wonderful garden. You can click on any photo to see it larger. Marie creates wonderful, intimate vistas — like the tiny outdoor table surrounded by ornamental grass, or the wonderful frog pond complete with frog fountain. The outdoor patio area was wonderful and as you can see a lot of folks lingered there. That’s how you know your ‘garden destination’ really works, if people are drawn there and hang out! The contrasting colors, shapes and textures of plant groupings was amazing.

Thanks Marie for the wonderful addition to the Peace Garden Tour!  You can find out more about peace gardens at:

www.ipgf.org

www.worldpeacegardens.org

More about Omni’s Peace Garden project is at: www.omnicenter.org

Next, I visit the Blue Birds of Peace Garden!

Peace Gardens Tour – Ed’s Woodland Garden

Posted on Jun 14, 2009

Ed's Home and Woodland Garden

Yesterday I had the delight of visiting three of the five gardens featured on Omni’s Peace Garden Tour 2009. How fun to get to see what other passionate gardeners are doing! My first stop was Ed L.’s lovely home and woodland garden site in South Fayetteville. It’s like a fairytale cottage in a forest…only it’s right in the city. One of my favorite details is the vine with variagated foliage over the front entrance. I’d never seen such a light and airy vine growing in significant shade. Ed told me it’s a variagated porcelain vine. (You can see a close up of the leaf by clicking the image below.) Other great things at Ed’s included a cute garden shed built from reclaimed materials and a tiny water garden on the deck.

Enjoy this mini gallery of more delights from Ed’s place:

Next on the tour, Marie R’s art-filled shade garden in Fayetteville’s historic district…

Suet wildly popular at Larrapin

Posted on Jun 6, 2009

This photo is from a couple of weeks ago now, so now I can’t tell if this is one of the downy woodpeckers or one of the hairy woodpeckers that frequent the suet feeder. The downy is about half the size of the hairy. The hairy, true to the name, has small but dramatic white whiskers on either side of his beak, which is at least twice as long proportionally as the downy’s.

The suet is also a favorite of the red-bellied woodpeckers, nuthatches, and even the summer tanagers. The jays visit (only) occasionally (thank goodness). Even chickadees and carolina wrens will take a snack now and then. Most years we make our own suet blocks using lard, cornmeal, peanut butter, oatmeal and various yummy treats but this year we’ve gotten lazy and have bought blocks.

After the January 2009 ice storm, a local birder said on the radio that it might create some hard years for woodpeckers, because pretty much every stick of rotten or weakened wood — the very places woodpeckers find the grubs and bugs they eat —  was now gone. Mother Nature can be a ferocious pruner of trees, as we learned very well in that experience.  So we’ve been extra attentive to keep the suet feeder going longer in the year than we usually do. We many just continue year round now that they are spoiled. (You can buy or make suet that won’t melt in the heat. We have so many diners, it gets eaten in no time…but if you don’t have as many, watch out for mold and discard right away.)

Just the other day we watched at the kitchen window as a mother hairy woodpecker was joined at the suet by her youngster, who was very loud and demanding. Mom ate a few bites, then would stuff his gullet with suet a few times, then go back to eating.  She had passed on the location of the best diner in town, the way we share directions around here for the best barbeque places!

Thanks for stopping by Larrapin. Please leave a quick comment  so I’ll know you visited!

Ice Storm: Videos

Posted on Feb 14, 2009