Went to a U-Pick Lavender yesterday

Wed Jul 06, 2011 8:02 pm

It's a beautiful place with huge expanse of lavender. Chickens and Guinea hens, owner's honey bees and "visiting" bumble bees all over. "They won't bother you as long as you don't bother them!" Even a wild turkey made an appearance in the woods past the farthest field.

My daughter was enchanted by the bees landing on her basket of lavender she picked, and loved the whole experience. And my Mom with her big basket of lavender was happily composing Haiku poems.

After sampling Lavender Cookies, we bought their speciality -- jars of lavender and applemint infused honey in addition to our basketfuls of lavender.

As I mentioned we're experiencing drought this spring. Owner -- Toni -- and I talked about how the scent must be intensified but in all honesty, I couldn't detect it while we were there, but now, as I sit here, the lavender drying overhead is almost intoxicating. :()

What to do with them all...?

Definitely tea blends, those cookie was fabulous, she said they are also great in brownies, a lady told me she mixes them with artemisia for moth sachets (She said she's going to share her lavender with a friend of over 70 years.

), and we talked about lavender ice cream as a decadent treat. I make home-made lavender hair conditioner by stuff a bottle of unscented conditioner with dried lavender to infuse. :-()

Before we left Toni showed me her tea garden and had me try nibbling the leaves of Rootbeer Hyssop and Mexican Tea Marigold -- yum! Also Chocolate Mint.

Wed Jul 06, 2011 10:42 pm

Lavender is wonderful stuff! I have, oh, I'd say about 40 or 50 lavender plants in my yard ... front and back combined.

Make lavender wands and sachets, to freshen closets and drawers (I think these are especially nice used where bed linens are stored); add it to potpourri; add it to salads and other recipes; drop a few sprigs into a pretty bottle and add a clear light-flavored oil, to make lavender oil for use in cooking; make lavender jelly and cookies. All of these things make lovely gifts, too.

Wed Jul 13, 2011 3:05 pm

Kisal, your garden sounds wonderful!

My MIL sent DH home with 4 pints of Jersey blueberries. I made blueberry sauce and added a sprig of lemon balm and some lavender flowers. Mmmmm! Heaven! :()

...having some on a toasted English muffin slathered with butter. :wink:

Thanks for your other suggestions.

Thu Aug 18, 2011 8:45 pm

The u-pick lavender place sounds wonderful! I love lavender, have some rounded Grosso lavender in the front yard always full of blooms that the bees hover over all summer. The Goodwin Creek Grey lavenders I planted in the back yard are too big now, I need to trim them back this fall and am hoping the cuttings I took can be made into a few new plants since the silver leaves are so gorgeous on the plant.

I had lavender flowers in a crumble once at a friends house, really divine! Thanks for the lavender oil idea, never heard of lavender jelly and cookies, must be delicious.

We have dried the Grosso lavender flowers and used them to steep with my husband's favorite loose leaf tea Russian Caravan, it's a wonderful combination.

Mon Aug 22, 2011 8:07 pm

Wonderful! I think you have mentioned lavender syrup elsewhere, Applestar. I make lavender biscotti that are just lovely with teas. Lavender is a nice ingredient in a lot of herbal tea blends. I distill the essential oil for using in candles, soaps, etc.

You can make a lovely heating/ cooling pack with lavender and sage. Mix raw rice with lavender and sage (oils or leaves) and stuff it into a long tube made of porous fabric and seal. The rice tube can be microwaved to be warm and fragrant and soothing for achy muscles or it can be refrigerated to be cooling and soothing for headaches, inflammation, etc.

Mon Aug 22, 2011 8:36 pm

Rainbow, your idea of the lavender and rice tube reminds me of a set of coasters I once made. I sewed strips of fabric into narrow tubes about 1/2" in diameter. Sew one end shut. Use a funnel to fill the tube loosely with any herb of your choice -- I used lavender, because I have a lot of it available. Pin the other end closed. Then hand stitch the tube into a flat coil, like a braided rug. If you overfill the tube, it won't coil easily, which is why I always just pinned the last end closed until I was finished stitching the coil. That way, I could add or remove filling as needed.

The warmth of your cup of hot drink will release the scent of the herb or spice you filled the coaster with. Easy to make and great little gifts!

Tue Aug 23, 2011 4:51 am

I love these ideas!

Tue Aug 23, 2011 2:11 pm

Yes, I really like the coasters, never thought about that one.

For the hot/cold pack the idea of the rice (other than the fact that you could never have enough herbs to fill it, these are big tubes, a couple inches in diameter and long enough to drape over your shoulders) is if you microwave it a couple minutes, the rice holds the warmth for a long time.