Garden Lessons: Herb Butter

Welcome Circle

  • Welcome Circle

  • What kind of herbs do you use in your kitchen, or have you seen your family use?



Part I: Making different Herb Butters

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  • If more than 10 students, divide into groups of two

  • Each group pulls out slip of paper with herb name on it from bowl

    • Good Herbs to use: Chives, oregano, basil, rosemary, thyme, mint, or sage are all great choices!

  • If you have the herbs in your garden, have students find them. Once everyone is near their identified herb, show them how to harvest that particular herb.

    • If you don’t have herbs at the ready in your herb garden, bring them to the garden and have students work together to “sort” the herbs, matching each herb to it’s label

    • Take some time to smell the herbs and take small samples of them. Do they smell familiar? What do you think they’re used for? Which of these have you tried before?

  • Get ready to cook! Everybody wash hands, put on gloves/hand sanitizer

  • Each group or individual gets a small jar. Using a bowl of water in the middle of the table, dip the herbs in the water to wash them. Students can tear their harvested herb and put the pieces into their jar

  • Once the group has “chopped” all of their harvested herb, add about 1/4 of a cup of cold buttermilk and a pinch of salt to each jar.

    • Tip: Make sure the buttermilk stays cold. If this activity is being done outside in the summer, for example, it’s best to have a bucket of ice nearby to store the buttermilk. It won’t turn into butter if it’s too hot!

    • For a dairy-free option, use olive oil in place of butter and just let it “infuse” for 10 minutes or so.

  • Students can shake their jars for about 5-10 minutes. With each minute, you should start to see the buttermilk turn into butter!

  • Add butterknives to each jar. Students can take turn trying the different types of butter with bread or radishes: rosemary butter, oregano butter, even mint butter!

  • Talk about the differences: What’s your favorite and why? What else could we use this butter for?




Part II: Making Posters about Herbs

  • Every person gets sheet of paper- make a poster about your herb.

    • You can work together or separately.

    • Work 10 - 15 mins on making a poster- you can include a picture, special information about the herb, what it’s used for, what it smells like, or how it’s used in cooking.

    • Tip: Check out some herb books from the library. Help students “research” and learn about their herb using the books.

  • Everyone share their poster at the end



Closing Circle

  • What was our favorite butter?

  • What was one thing that surprised you today?

  • Help water the Herb garden




Supplies needed:

  • Plastic gloves for students

  • cold Buttermilk

  • small mason jars- one per student or one for every 2 students

  • Loaves of cut bread and/or slices radishes

  • butterknives

  • Bowl of water

  • place-cards with different herb names on them

  • Paper

  • Bowls for collecting herbs

  • Scissors

  • Markers/colored pencils

  • Water pitcher

  • Cups for water

Teresa Woodard