Lemon Verbena Lavender Ecstasy

With an abundance of lemon verbena and lavender in our herb garden, this recipe invented itself!  The taste of this mixture lingers so divinely on the tongue, that even though the chocoholics in the house drizzled an organic chocolate syrup on their servings, I can’t imagine anything but the pure taste of the original mixture.  Cooling, soothing, thoroughly refreshing, clean-tasting ice cream! 

2 C organic whole milk
2 C organic heavy cream (Trickling Springs, of course!)
2/3 C organic evaporated cane juice
4 C container loosely filled with mixed lavender and lemon verbena branches (about 2/3 lemon verbena)

Place milk and cream in heavy saucepan, mix in sugar until dissolved, add herb branches and bring to the simmer.  Stir until sugar is completely liquid and turn off heat.  Let cool and refrigerate for several hours.  Remove when thoroughly cool and pour liquid through a fine strainer, pressing down on herb branches in strainer.  Whisk mixture to blend.  Pour in 1 1/2 Quart ice cream machine and follow manufacturers instructions.  Luscious!

Note:  The second time we made the ice cream we were lucky to have some huge blackberries from a beautiful garden in North Baltimore - thank you Alison and Ray!  These blackberries measured at least 1 inch long and had very few seeds and flavor bigger than their size.  What a delightful compliment to the herbal elixir.