This year has turned out to be a great year for our lavender. I thought I’d take you through the process of harvesting and then show how we have used our lavenders in the past.
Here are the plants before the harvest. Grosso lavender, which I’ve cut off in the back of this picture, is not quite ready to harvest.
I started with Melissa, the lavender with white buds, in the front. The only thing difficult about harvesting lavender is that the bees are all over it, buzzing around me as I cut. I keep telling them that I planted it for them, and now it was time for me to take it in! So far no bee stings!
I tried to get a picture of them all flying around, but all I could get was one bumble bee.
Then I cut the lavender.
Once harvested I take it inside.
I mark and cut holes in the bag before I bundle the lavender.
Once bundled, the lavender goes in the bags.
I used to hang this in the garage but now that I’ve converted the back area to my dye studio, it’s going to the basement to hang and dry. Once it’s dry which will take several weeks, I’ll strip the stems and put each of the variety of buds into their own plastic bags for storage.
Now what do we do with this lavender? Melissa is a great culinary lavender. Dave uses it to flavor his iced tea. Another favorite is the Lavender shortbread cookies. Here is the recipe.
Melissa would be great for lavender sugar, but I made it with Royal Velvet. See the recipe here. This sugar can be put in all kinds of baked goods.
Dave made a simple syrup with lavender which we used in tea and poured over fruit. See his recipe here.
Lavender is also good for bug spray since the bugs really like me when I’m out in the yard. Here is the recipe for my bug off spray.
Lavender bath bags are nice gifts.
And of course, adding lavender to our soaps. Recipe here.
However, if you don’t want to go to the trouble of drying it in bags and bud denuding, you can make a lovely wreath of the fresh stems. Directions for this wreath are here.
Or just put them in a vase to enjoy.
I really love lavender and so glad we can grow it here.
That’s it for today. I have some fun ice dyeing to show you next time. Hope you are having a wonderful Father’s Day and a colorful weekend.
Oh My Goodness me ! Is it that time of the year already ? !!! : )
Daisy Debs, Yes it is!! I can’t believe it either.