Have you ever noticed that late season basil just does not taste as good as basil harvested in mid-summer? I find that the leaves lose their tender texture and their flavor becomes harsher and develops a stronger anise undertone. When I was researching my book, I uncovered a few reasons behind these changes. It turns out that the aromatic oil content in basil leaves reduces as they age, which in turn dials down their flavor. The flavor profile of basil also changes when the plants flower. Basil is a tropical plant and is very sensitive to cooler temperatures. Frost out right kills the plants, but temperatures below 50 degrees damage them, turning the leaves brown or black and unappetizing.

Frequently harvesting the basil during the summer helps the plant continue to produce young, tasty leaves and it also prevents the plants from flowering. But at this time of year cool evening temperatures are unavoidable and the older the plants get, the faster they try and flower. This basil is still worth eating, I think, but I prefer to process the leaves rather than using them raw. Over the weekend I cut down all my basil and brought a huge armload indoors. As you can see in the photo above, several plants were flowering while others showed some chill damage. I separated out the most unappetizing looking stems and gave them to my chickens who gobbled them up. I then made a big batch of my grandmother’s pesto and froze it. Here are a few other ideas for using up late season basil:

* Make a loose puree of basil leaves and olive oil and freeze in ice cube trays. Drop a cube or two into soups, stews, and sauces over the winter to add flavor.

* Garnish drinks with the basil flowers.

* Tuck basil flower under the skin of a chicken before roasting it.

The problem with so many lemony herbs is that they have a lemon top note followed by an astringent Pledge-like aftertaste that really undermines their flavor. Lemon balm is the most obvious offender, but sometimes even herbs like ‘Mrs. Burns’ lemon basil and lemon thyme taste like furniture polish.

Not so with lemon verbena. It tastes like lemons, only better.

It is bright, fresh, slightly sweet and truly citrusy. Despite its superior flavor, lemon verbena remains a bit of a fringe herb. I have never spotted it at a supermarket and it is rarely available at the farmer’s market. If you want to cook with lemon verbena, it seems, you must grow it. Even though lemon verbena is difficult to buy, it popped up on a profusion of restaurant menus this summer. I saw a peach danish with lemon verbena cream, a lemon verbena infused vodka cocktail, a lemon verbena soda, a lemon verbena and blueberry tartlet, and pork meatballs with lemon verbena. With its surge in popularity (at least in Portland), I have a feeling that lemon verbena may soon join the ranks of formerly obscure but now popular flavors like chipotle, meyer lemon, and lavender.

Lemon verbena (Aloysia triphylla) is a tender perennial that goes dormant and loses its leaves during the winter (at least in most parts of the United States). The plant tends to be a bit gangly and leggy. To avoid growing an unattractive, unwieldy plant you simply need to frequently cut the stems back by 1/3. Use scissors to cut off the stems and make the cut right above a whorl of leaves. This stimulates the plant to branch and encourages it to develop a bushier habit. In summer, I keep the soil just barely damp around the roots and fertilize with dilute fish emulsion every 2 weeks. In Oregon, we can overwinter the plants outdoors, but in cooler climates you must bring them in (the Herb Companion has a comprehensive guide to growing lemon verbena, including tips for overwintering it).

The plant’s raspy leaves retain their amazing flavor when dried and make delicious tea. My favorite way to enjoy lemon verbena, however, is to infuse its flavor into simple syrup. The syrup can then be drizzled over fresh fruit, used to sweeten tea, make soda, or ice cream. It is a little late to find lemon verbena at nurseries, but look for plants next spring after the danger of frost has past. Choose a nice bushy plant with lots of branches and in the meantime content yourself by sipping lemon verbena tea (Mighty Leaf offers several lemon verbena teas) while flipping through gardening books.

Apartment Therapy is hosting Design Showcase 2010, a contest where independent designers can submit their designs for AT readers to vote on. I am really loving Lesli Ott’s ClearlyHerban Garden. The clear rectangular container mounts to a wall, swivels 360 degrees, and can be removed from the arm for easy watering and harvesting. The coolest part is the container is customizable—there are narrow opening along each edge  that allow you to slide in a piece of art or panoramic picture. How cool is that?

Ott came up with the idea because her cat was constantly eating the plants in her small apartment. This design allows her to grow herbs out of reach. Even though I don’t have a cat, I’d love to have this mounted next to my kitchen window! To vote for Lesli’s design, click here.

A few weeks ago my friend mentioned that she bought some water at the store that was flavored with mint, lavender, and lemongrass. It cost $2 for a tiny bottle. I told her to not even think about buying it again since we could make flavored water with herbs growing in my backyard for free.

Since then I’ve been experimenting with brewing herbal sun tea. It is ridiculously easy. Simply pick a great big handful of herbs, stuff them into a large jar, fill it with water, screw on a lid and set it in a sunny spot for a 4 to 6 hours. That’s it! The results are amazing. So far plain peppermint is my favorite, but lemon balm and lavender was quite tasty too. Here are a few other combinations I’m planning on trying:

Basil & Cucumber

Anise Hyssop & Fennel Fronds

Chocolate Mint & Orange Slices

Spearmint & Chamomile

Plain Pineapple Sage

Rosemary & Lemon Slices

Lemon Verbena & Anise Hyssop (or Fennel Fronds)

Rose Geranium & Chocolate Mint

Making this tea is so much fun. The combinations are pretty much endless and it is a great way to utilize herbs, especially the more unusual ones, like the fruit sages and scented geraniums. We have a Penguin (a kitchen gadget that makes carbonated water out of tap water), and I’m thinking about making some sparkling flavored waters for an upcoming car trip. I love the idea of taking a bit of my garden on the road!

My ‘Mammoth’ dill just began to bloom and the ‘National Pickling’ cucumbers are setting fruit. Pickles are clearly in my future. Happy Monday!

This year I decided to add edibles into my ornamental containers on our back porch. I’m really loving how the variegated lemon thyme and the red million bells look together. Plus, it is super handy having the thyme five steps from the kitchen because I use it in vinaigrettes all the time!

Many annual vegetables and herbs bolt when they set seed. These plants literally lengthen, or bolt, towards the sky as they begin to flower. My cilantro is just now bolting—sending up long feathery stalks of leaves that will soon be topped with delicate white, umbrella shaped flowers. The feathery leaves (pictured on the left) have an intense soapy flavor that I find very unappetizing. Cilantro bolts when the days are long and the nights are short, though dry soil and hot weather can also signal the plant to go to seed. To keep a consistent supply of cilantro in the garden, I make small sowings every couple of weeks through out the summer (the leaves on the right in the photo above are an example of un-bolted cilantro).

I also let some bolted plants set seed. Cilantro seed is the spice coriander. The coriander seed sold in the grocery store and at spice markets is brown and looks a bit like a BB. It is delicious, but when you grow coriander you also have the opportunity to harvest the seed when it is green. This fresh coriander has an amazing citrusy flavor and tastes fantastic in vinaigrettes and marinades. It is an absolute treat and almost impossible to buy, even at farmers markets. So, if your cilantro is beginning to bolt, let it go!

Happy Thanksgiving Eve! I’m on my way to celebrate the holiday with my family in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where I plan on eating a generous helping of my favorite Thanksgiving side dish: oven baked cornbread stuffing!

Sage is a classic addition to stuffing because it adds a savory undertone to the buttery bread bits. My very favorite culinary sage is ‘Berggarten’. This fabulous German variety has a very mild flavor and it almost never flowers, which means you don’t have to worry about the leaves developing a resinous taste and a tough texture. Berggarten grows quickly—forming a three-foot wide mound in the space of one growing season—and its velvety silver leaves make lovely garnishes and fry up nicely. I just love it! The leaves get a bit bedraggled by the end of winter, so I usually shear the mound back by about 1/3 in late spring and it rebounds in no time. This sage also looks great in containers, especially if paired up with dark foliaged plants like purple shiso or ‘Ararat’ basil.

I hope you all enjoy your holiday. I’ll be taking a break from blogging for the next few days so I can concentrate on eating my way through Santa Fe. I’m planning on hunting down some of those famous Hatch chiles, so stay tuned for some New Mexican inspired recipes soon.

Photo via Jim Henkens.

I love feta cheese. But not the kind that comes crumbled in a little plastic tub. No, I prefer the tangy sheep’s milk feta that is sold unadorned, floating in its own pool of brine. I nearly always have a bit of this cheese in the fridge because it pairs up so well with salad greens, but I also often use it as the base in a very simple, but seriously delicious, appetizer. This dish comes together a little different every time, but it is always very, very good.

Feta Marinated in Olive Oil and Herbs

* Pop out into the garden and snip a big handful of your favorite herbs. I like to mix and match thyme, rosemary, sage, marjoram, oregano, and savory. Basil is delicious, too, but I think it tastes best all by itself. Roll the herbs back and forth between your palms to crush their leaves and release their essential oils. Sometimes I then strip the leaves off of their stems, sometimes I don’t.

* Slice a hunk of sheep’s milk feta into ½ inch cubes.

* Select a cute container that is deeper than it is wide. Place a layer of feta in the bottom of the container. Sprinkle the cheese with red pepper flakes and a good grind of black pepper and then cover it up with a light layer of herbs. Repeat until the container is full.

* Pour a good extra virgin olive oil over the cheese, until all but the top layer is completely submerged. Set the container aside and let the cheese marinate at room temperature for at least two hours (though 6 or 8 is better). Stir the cheese occasionally during that time. Serve with bread and crackers and be sure to include a spoon so you can drizzle extra olive oil over the cheese.

I made this dish for the dinner party I posted about yesterday, and by the end of the evening there was nothing left. A good sign, I always think. If you decide to bring this dish to one of the many holiday parties that lay ahead, don’t let any leftover olive oil go to waste. During the party, Julie (from La Medusa) used the herb infused olive oil to dress the zucchini cruda, but it also tastes divine drizzled over roasted vegetables!

Thanks to Jim Henkens for sharing photos of my marinated feta. To see more photos from the dinner party, click here and be sure to check out Jim’s website www.jimhenkens.com.

Twinkly lights under a wisteria arbor.  A bunch of velvety sage. Footsteps crunching on gravel. Laughter rising up into the starlit night.

My memories of this summer’s solstice are as bright as snapshots. Luckily, if they ever begin to fade, I’ll have photographer Jim Henkens’ photos of the evening to bring them back into focus. Jim and I met when he visited my garden last summer. He was on assignment from Sunset and I was so pleased that the magazine sent him. He took great care photographing my garden and all the food growing in it, and I was thrilled with how the photos came out.

Afterwards, I asked him if he’d like share some photos for DigginFood, but he had a better idea—to throw a little party. The theme: fresh picked herbs, from his garden and mine. The setting: a long rustic table set out in his exquisite backyard.

I invited my dear friends from college, my beekeeping mentor, and his girlfriend. Jim, God bless him, asked of Seattle’s best chefs to join us—Justin Niedermeyer, the founder of Spinasse, Julie Andres, who owns La Medusa and her husband Evan Andres, the owner of Columbia City Bakery, plus Gordon Wishard, who is the new chef at La Medusa. I love to cook, but Justin, Julie, and Gordon are chefs. They surveyed the ingredients Jim and I presented them with and without much discussion made a truly memorable dinner.

The menu included a leg of lamb rubbed with garlic, anchovies, and rosemary. Little potatoes roasted with thyme. Fava beans braised in vinegar. Homemade prosciutto. Soft boiled eggs drizzled with harissa. Zucchini cruda with pea vines, mint, fennel, fresh goat cheese, and olive oil. And the most exquisite bread baked by Evan.

It was so fun and inspiring to watch the cooking unfold, because, like these chefs, I often make up a meal on the fly with whatever is fresh from my garden. It doesn’t always work out as deliciously as our solstice meal, but I now certainly having something to aspire towards.

To see more really lovely photos of food, I highly encourage you to spend a few moments exploring Jim’s portfolios on his website www.jimhenkens.com. I’m partial to the bakery shots. You’ll know why when you see them.

Justin has moved on from Spinasse, but you can sample Julie and Gordon’s cooking at La Medusa in the Columbia City neighborhood of Seattle. Evan bakes up the best bread in town at Columbia City Bakery—where he also sells homemade puff pastry. Swoon.