Meyer Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

I just harvested five beautiful lemons off my first Meyer lemon tree.  So that begs the question... when life gives you lemons, what should you make?  

The old saying suggests lemonade, but I certainly don't have enough lemons for more than a couple of glasses of lemonade.  Plus, it isn't quite hot enough to enjoy a refreshing glass of lemonade.  So, I opted for a delicious treat of Meyer Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins instead - a perfect pairing with coffee on a "chilly" Texas winter morning.

I used a recipe from Miss in the Kitchen which was absolutely delicious and I highly recommend:

Ingredients

for muffins:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons Meyer lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon Meyer lemon zest
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon poppy seeds

for glaze:

• 1/3 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon Meyer lemon juice

Cooking Directions

Preheat oven to 375°F.

In a large bowl, combine butter, eggs and sugar, beating until creamy.  Add lemon juice and combine.  Add flour, baking powder, lemon zest, salt and poppy seeds and stir just until combined.  Do not over mix.

Scoop or spoon into lined or greased muffin tins.

Bake for 18-20 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted comes out clean.

Meanwhile combine powdered sugar and lemon juice for glaze and brush over baked muffins as soon as the come out of the oven.

Serve warm or at room temperature.  Store cooled muffins in an airtight container.

The muffins were absolutely scrumptious.  Next year, hopefully I'll be able to make them with poppy seeds harvested from my own garden as well.

What is your favorite Meyer Lemon recipe?

New Bed Plantings

Last weekend, Central Texas had a major cold front come in causing our temperatures to go from the high 90's down to a high of 66 on Saturday and a high of 75 on Sunday.  Perfect gardening weather.  And having just completed my new garden beds, I had a lot of planting to do!  Well, first a lot of plant shopping, and then a lot of planting.  The Natural Gardener, Round Rock Garden Center, and McIntire's Garden Center were some of the local nurseries that got plenty of business from me last weekend!  It was a very successful gardening weekend in my book - getting over 80 new plants in the beds!

Let's start the tour with the front fence bed.

Since this bed is outside the fenceline, it requires deer-resistant varieties.  I wanted to stick to mostly native, or at least drought-tolerant plants.  In the front bed, I ended up with:

• 2 Blackfoot Daisies - Melampodium leucanthum
• 1 Thryallis - Galphimia glauca
• 2 Blue Plumbago - Plumbago auriculata
• 1 Coral Honeysuckle - Lonicera sempervirens
• 3 Purple Fountain Grass 'Rubrum' - Pennisetum setaceum
• 1 Mystic Spires Blue Salvia - Salvia longispicata x farinacea
• 1 Copper Canyon Daisy - Tagetes lemmonnii
• 1 Black Knight Butterfly Bush - Buddleja davidii

I know that the purple fountaingrass are pretty cold-sensitive, so I have to treat them as annuals and not expect them to come back next year, but that won't keep me from trying.  I'll plan to give them ample mulch this fall to try to combat the below-freezing temperatures this winter.  I have a little space open yet for a couple more plants.  I'm really hoping to get some apricot globemallow in there, but couldn't find it at any of the nurseries I went to last weekend, so the spot stays open, for now.

Moving onto the center or peach tree garden beds (they surround my Florida Prince peach):

I haven't planted too much in these beds yet, as I plan to do a lot of seed-sowing of perennials or self-seeding annuals in these beds.  But, I had to get started with a few plants, so in Bed #1 (closest) I planted:

• 2 Gregg's Blue Mistflower - Conoclinium greggii
• 2 Butterfly Weed - Asclepias tuberosa
• 2 Fall Aster - Aster oblongifolius
• 1 Purple Coneflower - Echinacea purpurea

In Bed #2 I planted:

• 3 Fall Aster - Aster oblongifolius
• 2 Tropical Milkweed - Asclepias curassivica
• 4 Purple Coneflower -  Echinacea purpurea
• 1 Artic Frost Hardy Satsuma fruit tree - Citrus reticulata 'Gremoy79'

Center peach bed #3 remains open and waiting for some fall-sowing seeds.

Along the neighbor fence line bed, I haven't planted much, as I'm waiting to purchase some specific antique roses.  

So far, I've planted:

• 1 Duranta 'Sapphire Showers' - Duranta erecta
• 1 Belinda's Dream rose 
• 2 Gardenia - Rubiaceae
• 1 Garnet Sash Pomegranate

The deck bed will mainly be an herb bed, but I'll throw some flower seeds in for some pop of color.

In the herb bed, I've planted:

• 2 French Thyme - Thymus vulgaris
• 1 Lemon Balm - Melissa officinalis
• 1 Garden Sage - Salvia officinalis
• 1 Italian Parsley - Petroselinum crispum
• 1 Triple Curled Parsley - Petroselium hortensis
• 1 Bouquet Dill - Anethum graveolens
• 1 Fernleaf Dill - Anethum graveolens
• 1 Garlic Chive - Allium tuberosum
• 2 Onion Chive - Allium schoenoprasum
• 1 Peppermint - Mentha Piperita
• 1 Spearmint - Mentha Spicata
• 2 Tavor Artichoke - Cynara scolymus
• 2 Society Garlic - Tulbaghia violacea

Finally, onto the shade tree bed, which got most of the planting:

Eventually, there will be a hammock that will be tied between the two trees.  I'm looking forward to spending afternoons under the shade trees, admiring all the wonderful plants that surround me.  So far, I've planted:

• 6 Red Turk's Cap - Malvaviscus arboreus
• 3 Pam's Pink Turk's Cap - Malvaviscus x 'Pam Puryear'
• 1 Shrimp Plant - Justicia brandegeeana
• 3 'Big Blue' Lithrope - Lithrope muscari
• 3 Hostas hybrids
• 5 Pigeonberry - Rivina humilis
• 1 Purple Heart - Setcreasea pallida
• 5 Texas Gold Columbine - Aquilegia chrysantha hinkleyana
• 1 Red Columbine - Aquilegia canadensis
• 2 American Beautyberries - Callicarpa americana

That's all - for now!

Florida Prince Peach Tree

In March, Jon and I bought a Florida Prince Peach Tree from Costco.  We planted it in the backyard where there is plenty of sun and where it would be safe from the deer.  We had to stake the little tree and tie it down with some supports because the windy Texas spring was too much for the little tree to handle.

After several weeks, I noticed several small peaches forming on the tree.  I was very excited that the first year we planted the peach tree we would also be getting fruit!  There were about 5-6 small little fruits forming.

The peaches slowly turned from green to an orange/peach color.  I didn't see any indication of disease or bugs on the plant, so I was very excited for the juicy little peaches to get bigger for me to eat.


And then disaster struck.  One day the little peaches were perfect, the next they looked half eaten, by the birds I am assuming.  I was so saddened by the event and that I wouldn't get to eat any of my peaches that year.


It was a definitely a learning experience on needing to keep my fruit away from the birds that surround my house.  I plan to use some bird netting next year, as well as place some shiny objects around the garden, like ornaments, silver streamers, and metallic pinwheels. 


Does anyone else have any suggestions on organic ways to keep the birds away from your fruit?