Lemon verbena - It rocks!

[Skwerl]

I've fallen in love with this herb, so I think it deserves its own thread. I have three questions for you guys. First, have any of you tried growing it? I found and ordered a pair of the plants on eBay today, so I thought I'd ask if anyone else had had any luck with trying to grow these either indoors or in USDA zones 5 and under. It looks like it's an annual unless you're in at least zone 8, so I hope these little beauties will be able to produce a bunch for me over the summer. Second, I haven't had any luck finding a supplier for fresh lemon verbena, and I haven't tried using dried. Will it still do the trick almost as well as fresh? If you feel it's still potent when dried, I might order some more plants and make sure I get plenty to keep on hand during the cold months. And finally, does anyone have a recipe in which the herb is a star ingredient? It has always been a background flavor in panna cottas, parfaits and the like in desserts I have had it in. The herb seems to be very good friends with red raspberries. What other flavors would you recommend pairing this herb with? I guess that was four questions after all.

[rjwong]

Josh,

Click on this link to the Los Angeles Times Food Section digest (18 May 2005). There is an article on lemon verbena with a few recipes. Mind you, registration to the online LA Times is required. Follow the instructions that I've included about registering. The article eventually gets "archived," so I hope you can read it soon.

Russell

[cotovelo]

Josh,

I actually grow lemon verbena during the summer here in KC and I use it to infuse a ganache with. It is actually a very popular flavor for us. I have had very good luck growing it just in my herb garden at home.

Chris

[andiesenji]

I have several plants that have overwintered here outside and come back in the spring.

The leaves left on the plant drop with the first freeze and the woody stems look like they are dead. However as soon as it warms up in the spring leaves pop out at each joint except sometimes on the twig at the very tip.

I harvest leaves several times during our very long growing season and have found the dried leaves retain much of their flavor.

I use it in dishes which call for lemon when I am serving someone who is allergic to citrus.

(I have a friend who loves grilled salmon but is allergic to citrus. I place a few l.verbena leaves under, inside and over the salmon and cook as usual, often combined with dill.)

I also use it in recipes containing milk or cream as lemon verbena will not cause curdling as does lemon.

I make a strong infusion to which I add a little Everclear alcohol to preserve it. I also make an infused syrup, cooking the syrup at low heat in a crockpot for a long time until it reaches the strength I desire.

You can also place some of the dried leaves in a jar of sugar with a tight lid, shaking it ever few days for a month or so - the sugar will take on a lemony flavor and fragrance.

[Trishiad]

In the backyard herb garden. Ganache with honey.

[lperry]

Lemon verbena and white peaches. There is a lovely recipe for this jam in Christine Ferber's book, discussed here in this eGullet thread.

If you don't do any preserving, just macerate them together with a little sugar and lemon juice and eat as is or serve over pound cake, ice cream etc. Come to think of it, that sounds like a great sorbet....

I grew lemon verbena in the ground in Florida, but I'll be trying it in a pot this year. I've been told you just need to take it inside over the winter, and don't panic when it drops all its leaves since it is a deciduous plant. Like Andiesenji said above, just hang on and it will come back.

-Linda

[Skwerl]

I actually grow lemon verbena during the summer here in KC and... I have had very good luck growing it just in my herb garden at home.

←

Ah, someone else in my back yard growing it in their back yard! It's an annual for us here, though, isn't it? I'll see what happens when I bring it in for the winter. Thanks for the link, Russell. I added those recipes to my collection.

Lemon verbena and white peaches. There is a lovely recipe for this jam in Christine Ferber's book...

That does sound good! I do enjoy canning jams and jellies (Black raspberry/blueberry is my favorite), so I will give this a shot.

Now the problem is that I am going to have to wait for these plants to grow before I start snipping at them. I have ordered half a pound of dried lemon verbena from Glenbrook Farms, so let the good times roll!

[andiesenji]

I should have mentioned that although I do live in southern California, it is in the "high" desert - almost 3000 ft altitude and we have hard freezes usually beginning in December and can sometimes occur as late as early March but this year had two nights of temps in the high 20s in April, which is unusual.

This year the lowest temp was 9 degrees and we had several nights of lows in the low teens but in past years I have seen it down to 1. We do not get a lot of snow but have rain during the day that freezes on the surface of the ground at night.

I have hardy rosemary bushes that overwinter well and even bloom around Christmas in spite of the nightly freezes. Sage and lavendar also overwinter outsite.

My bay trees are protected with burlap wraps with dead leaves stuffed inside from the ground to about 4 ft high.

However I do not protect the lemon verbena and it will look totally dead (I have to make sure my gardeners do not cut it back so tie little tags onto the branches so they know to leave them). I am patient with it and eventually it will put out new leaves.

It can be maintained in a pot but you have to be careful to not give it too much water. Actually it, like so many herbs, will develop more flavor in the leaves if it is slightly stressed, i.e. given less water once it is well established and in full leaf.

[mccorry]

Hi Lemon Verbena is a fitting subject for my inaugural post! It's hard to track down over here so I keep meaning to grow it myself but never get round to it. Here's a recipe I tried once which is taken from the Ballymaloe Cookery Course. It's great as a start or finish to a summer evening meal.

Lemon Verbena Sorbet (serves 8)

225g sugar

600ml cold water

2 large handfuls lemon verbena

freshly squeezed juice of 3 lemons

Put first 3 ingredients into a non-reactive saucepan and bring slowly to the boil & simmer for 2-3 minutes. Allow to get quite cold. Add the lemon juice. Strain & freeze for 20-25 minutes in an ice cream maker or sorbetiere. Serve in a chilled glass and decorate with lemon balm. Enjoy!

[andiesenji]

I thought I would post some photos to show how the L.verbena looks this morning.

The first two plants get morning sun, light shade in the middle of the day and late afternoon sun.

The third plant is on the northwest side of a shed and only gets afternoon sun. It is just now putting out new leaves, ten days ago it still looked like a dead stick.

You can easily see that the leaves are 1/4 the size of the others.

In fact, the two that get the most sun are already blooming.

I have 4 more plants that are essentially just like the first two.

Edited May 29, 2005 by andiesenji (log)

[goldie]

I grow lemon verbena in Massachusetts. I treat it like an annual. After one mild winter it did return, but that only happened once. Wait until the night time temps are above forty- five and plant it in good soil with moderate light. I also underwater it because the flavors become more pronounced.

In addition to all the other recipes mentioned, I have had good results with a lemon verbena pesto (essentially substitute lemon verbena for basil) which worked well with grilled chicken. A nice dip for aspragus ond red peppers is lemon verbena, creme fraiche, salt and pepper. Sometimes I'll toss a few leaves in a fruit salad. I've added some into a green salad, but I was the only one who liked it.

I've never seen it in my markets, but that's not surprising.

[johnder]

I actually just planted some lemon verbena 2 weeks ago in my garden. I found some plants at the local farmes market. It is really taking off, it pretty much doubled in size in 2 weeks. I have it in a pretty large pot and it gets about 6 hours of sun.

It seems very happy.

[chefjillm]

I have tried using lemon verbena a few times but never actually got to put any on my menu. One thing I really liked was a cold infusion of heavy cream that I then whipped the next day. It would have been perfect with a pound cake or angel food cake and some strawberries. I just chopped some of the verbena, add it to my cream with some sugar (very lightly sweet) and then let it sit in the fridge over night. Strained it and whipped it the next day. Same with a syrup, cold infusions with verbena tend to have a fresher flavor. Just sugar, water and verbena, in the fridge atleast over night but it can stay longer. Only problem with this one is that the color changes after a few days but the flavor is so nice. I have mainly used the fresh herb, the flavor doesnt seem to be the same once it is dried.

[johnder]

Actually all this talk of lemon verbena make me decide to have a drink with it tonight in the backyard since today it wasn't actually raining here in NYC.

I usually always have a bottle of simple syrup in the fridge for iced teas during the summer, so I squeezed a few lemons, added some simple syrup and a sprig of lemon verbena and let it sit in the fridge for 2 hours. Filled a tall glass with ice, a generous splash of Ketle One Citroen vodka and some of the verbena lemonade. Very very tasty.

[chiantiglace]

I love lemon Verbena but i like lemongrass even more and will blend the two a lot. Its good with a lot of fall/ winter fruits I feel and is easy to use as a background feature in spring.

[redfox]

I once had a syrup that contained lime, lemon verbena, and lemongrass, which I drank mixed with soda water. It was wonderful. I also love lemon verbena but find myself with a pot of lemon balm instead. It seems as if it would be nice in all the same places -- is this true?