“Huge lemons, cut in slices, would sink like setting suns into the dusky sea, softly illuminating it with their radiating membranes, and its clear, smooth surface aquiver from the rising bitter essence.” Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926)
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups sugar
- 6 ½ cups water
- 1 ½ cups fresh lemon juice
- 1-3 tbsp fresh lavender leaves minced
- 2 cups fresh or frozen berries (such as strawberries or raspberries)
Directions
- In a saucepan mix sugar, lavender and water. Stir the fruit mixture constantly and press the fruit against the side of the pan to crush it.
- Once the sugar is dissolved and mixture begins to boil, remove from heat.
- Pour sugar mixture through sieve to remove fruit and lavender leaves.
- Combine sugar mixture and lemon juice. Chill.
Helpful Hints and Suggestions
Lavender has a distinctive taste so it is best to start with a minimal amount of lavender and work your way up to a larger quantity so that you know what suits your tastes best.
Warm lemons are much easier to juice and will return a higher volume of juice so keep your lemons at room temperature.
Strawberries yield a lighter pink juice and the flavor is that of more traditional pink lemonade. Raspberries will yield a much more vivid pink that borders on red and the flavor is more intense, less fruity.
If your lavender is in bloom, a sprig of blooming lavender at the edge of the drink is quite lovely. A few frozen strawberries is a delightful way to keep the drink cool and prevents the drink from being watered down by ice cubes.
History and Culture of Lemons
Lemons can be traced to the earliest history of civilization and were first known in the Mediterranean. The first verifiable written evidence dates back to the twelfth century when Ibn Jami who was physician to the Muslim leader Saladin wrote a treatise on the fruit.
Documents from Cairo dating back tenth century record that the Jewish community traded lemon juice in bottles with lots of sugar. The beverage was imbibed by the locals and was exported. Fourteenth century Egyptians were familiar with lemons. Most drank something known as honeywine made of barley, mint, rue, black pepper, and citron leaf. As a result, most people attribute the creation of lemonade to the Egyptians.
Today, about 25% of the world’s lemons are grown in the United States with the majority of those being grown in California. A healthy lemon tree can bear as many as 3,000 lemons a year. Most lemons ripen in the fall or winter.
