Well, we hope you were excited about the Rainier cherries this week. And we’ve got some great news–more cherries next week! Flathead cherries! They define July in Montana.
Some of you may have been surprised to get potted herbs this week. Always trying to come up with fresh ideas for the shares, we thought we’d experiment a little and see how it went. Please give us some feedback–did you like the herbs or not?
You will need to plant your herbs in larger pots soon, as they will quickly begin to stress from being rootbound. Rosemary is not hardy in Zone 4, so if you want to keep it around, plant it in a large pot so that you can bring it indoors this winter. The Munstead lavender is usually hardy in our area, so you can plant it outside in your yard and, given just a little bit of winter protection, should return again next year. You can also plant it in a larger pot to bring indoors to overwinter.
Looking for a few fun recipes for rosemary or lavender? Here are a few sweet suggestions:
lavender shortbread or lavender scones (you’ll have to wait until they flower later this summer)
lemon rosemary cookies (one of my favorites) or cupcakes
Looking for something on the savory side? How about one of these:
rosemary garlic chicken and potatoes
lavender tenderloin
Wondering how to use tarragon? One of my favorite ways is to create a simple syrup for iced tea or a cocktail. The recipe in the link uses orange juice, but you can use all water if you don’t want the citrus flavor.
What about that thyme? Don’t forget that rosemary and thyme are a classic herb pair. You can use the herbs to make a rub for chicken, bread, or grilled fish packets that also use zucchini and summer squash–that recipe alone would use up over half of this week’s share!
There are loads of recipes on the internet for each of these herbs, so get searching and good luck!
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