Well it is nearly official.  The US Lavender Growers Association hopes to begin accepting membership within the next few months.  The Dues and Membership guidelines have been worked out and now the Policy and Procedures and Vision and Goals are being formalized.  It won't be long until we have a national organization whose mission is 'to support and promote the United States lavender industry through research, education, networking and marketing'.  Many fine people have been working hard to make this organization a true asset to all of those growers, researchers, retailers, manufacturers and marketers of lavender and lavender products in the United States.  Follow the progress on Facebook, www.facebook.com/uslavender or at the website http://www.uslavender.org./

I know on Valentines Day the color of love seems to be red, but not for us lavender folks, the color of love is, what else, lavender.  Happy Valentine's Day to all!

Culinary Lavender - Cooking and Baking with Lavender

Lavender is a very versatile herb.  It has a thousand and one uses, but few know about the spectacular taste that can be achieved with just a little bit of lavender when cooking.  From sweet to savory dishes, lavender can be used to enhance and add a special flavor that will have your guest saying, "mmm, I taste something different in here.  It is so good, what is it?"

Lavender is used in Herbs de Provence, a blend of herbs usually including savory, thyme, basil, fennel and lavender (but marjoram and rosemary are often substituted in the mix).  Herbs de Provence is used to infuse oils or to season meat or fish before cooking.  The cultivar, Provence, lavandula x intermedia, is often used for more savory dishes with the softer sweet lavenders, Melissa and Folgate, l. angustifolias, used for lighter dishes and baking but it is all up to an individuals palate what tastes good.  The one thing to remember is a little goes a long way.  Too much lavender and the taste becomes bitter and not agreeable at all.  A hint of lavender is what you want to achieve.

For baking I use a lavender extract.  To make the extract take a 2 oz of vodka and steep 2 teaspoons of dried lavender buds in the vodka.  Shake every day for seven-ten days and then drain off the liquid and throw out the lavender buds.   Strain again through a coffee filter to get any debris from the buds.  The extract is a coffee brown in color, so don't expect purple extract.  Use in place of vanilla in butter cookies.  Yum!  Or make a lavender sugar by putting 2 tbls of crushed lavender buds in 1 cup of white sugar and setting aside in a seal container for two-three weeks and letting the lavender permeate the sugar with flavor.  Sift out the buds, if you like, and subsitute lavender sugar for the plain sugar in recipes for cookies, cakes, scones and so much more. 

I'll post more about cooking with lavender in future posts with recipes, but if you want to know more,
Kathy Ghert as authored a wonderful cookbook on lavender with over 75 recipes on breads, drinks, savory and sweet dishes all cooked using lavender.  Contact me for more information or to purchase this book.