A Grower Perspective

We have a special connection to lavender here at Pleasant Hill Nursery. Nancy Blum, our horticulturalist (and frequent writer on this blog) spent many years growing lavender at the Sawmill Ballroom Lavender Farm. She is an expert in all things lavender. In fact, her husband, Joey Blum, wrote a book on how to grow lavender. Nancy’s love of lavender inspires us here to love it too. Just today, a reporter from the local paper, The Register Guard, came out to visit our nursery and talk with Nancy about growing lavender and the culinary uses of lavender. We grow several different varieties which are great for cooking, ‘Provence’, ‘Mustead’ and ‘Tuscan’.

Just this weekend, I made Lavender Honey Ice Cream, from David Lebovitz's book, The Perfect Scoop. It was so yummy! It was sweet and creamy with a lovely fragrance and delicate taste. Anyway, I thought I would do some research online and see if I could find recipes for lavender in case other people want to use lavender from their gardens in their kitchens. There are millions of lavender recipes, but here are the ones that I really want to make:

This beautiful Lavender Lemon Cake looks almost too beautiful to eat. Almost.

Here is a tasty recipe for Lavender Vodka Lemonade that is making me thirsty!

This recipe seems quick and easy for pork chops with lavender.

This recipe for herbes de provence will have you cooking with your lavender through the winter.

You can read Nancy’s post about how to harvest and prune lavender here.

And if you still have fresh lavender in your garden after trying these recipes, dry some to use later. I asked Nancy the best way to dry lavender and she said take a small bundle, wrap it in a rubber band and hang it upside down in a warm, dark place- a garage, for example. When I asked her why it needed to be a dark space, she said that sunlight fades the flowers and takes away their color and fragrance. Good to know!

Do you have any recipes that use lavender? We would love to hear from you!