Lemon myrtle - Backhousia citriodora - is a popular garden plant, and we always have a waiting list for it when it's out of season. The big fluffy white flowers are very decorative, and they're a favourite with pollinators. It's also happy to grow in a pot when young, so you can enjoy it however small your garden space.But did you know this native tree has a lot of other useful attributes too, outside of the garden?
We posted about Backhousia on our Facebook page and got heaps of comments and recommendations for using it in the home.
It was like My Kitchen Rules meets Better Homes & Gardens! We had so many good ideas, in fact, that there wasn't enough room for them all on the plant product page - we had to make this special post to fit them all on! Thank you to everyone who gave suggestions and tips!
Here's how you can use lemon myrtle - and if you have any ideas we haven't listed here, let us know!
For eating
- Kathleen likes to use it to replace lemon grass in recipes : it has a "nicer flavour, easier to use, always available in my back garden"
- Robyn adds it instead of bay leaf in casseroles
- Jeannie recommends adding a couple of leaves to pumpkin soup
- Maureen dries her leaves and uses it in breadcrumb coatings for chicken, fish, lamb & steak : "it's amazing with a lemon flavour"
- We have also seen it used in restaurants in tempura batter, and rubbed onto chicken skin to impart a citrussy flavour
- High end Melbourne bushtucker eatery Attica adds it in many dishes, including wrapping a whiting in paperbark and lemon myrtle; and combining it with foraged mushrooms
- Judy remembers the "best ice cream I have ever tasted was a lemon myrtle sorbet"
- Sue cuts young leaves very finely and adds them to her shortbread biscuits
- Keith tells us it "makes very nice yogurt"
- Ally makes lemon myrtle macadamia muffins, and
- Jamieanne makes lemon myrtle coconut cupcakes
- Robyn has a recipe for lemon myrtle cheesecake with a macadamia nut base "DELICIOUS"
- Maroochydore Market Bistro served Hayden a lemon myrtle white chocolate mascarpone gateau
- Maureen made lemon myrtle chocolate for Christmas pressies "& it had an amazing after taste kick!"
Images : coconut cupcake, top left ; white chocolate gateau, bottom left
For drinking
- Sheree uses lemon myrtle in her recipe to make gin, and Meredith adds it to gin cocktails
- Christine creates a syrup for toppings and in cocktails from it, and says it's "great in cookies"
- Noma's feted popup restaurant in Sydney served a green tomato-lemon myrtle cocktail
- and there is a commercial lemon myrtle weisbier and several brands of herbal tea available
- CR Strebor makes a tisane - that's a posh herbal tea - from lemon myrtle, calendula flower, and licorice root for sweetness
- Adrienne says she makes tea from her lemon myrtle tree - to drink, "but also to wash my floors with"
Images : weisbier, top left ; green tomato cocktail, bottom right ; tisane, bottom left
And for health & beauty :
- Susan makes soaps and face cream from her lemon myrtle trees
- Anon uses lemon myrtle as a hair rinse : "steep leaves in hot water let it cool when rinse through hair after shower" ; it's good for a dog rinse too!
- Brett advises crushing the leaves and rubbing them on your skin as "a great mozzie repellent that actually works"
- Meredith adds branches to the fire pit - "smells amazing and keeps the mozzies away"
- Robyn's husband David "enjoys mowing beneath the trees because of the beautiful aroma" - anything that makes mowing more enjoyable has to be a plus in our book!
- it's Catherine's "favourite essential oil plant"
- and Judy simply states "products from lemon myrtle are wonderful". We agree!
