English Lavender, Culinary
Let’s face it. It is hard to find a gentleman who is amazed by lavender. A chef-friend and her guy pal came out for dinner a week or two ago. I took him to the lavender, you know, to show him what it looked like, to stick some under his nose and to make me feel good about tending it all through the winter, spring, summer, fall, winter, spring…you get the picture. And I quote the guy pal, here, who said in amazement, “That smells really good. There’s more than one kind? I didn’t know there was more than one kind of lavender!” I gave a short discourse, talk of bees ensued and the amazement was brief but very gratifying, and yes, there are hundreds of types of lavenders.
Academic lavender confusion is so great that mystical musings and new cultivars constantly cloud the academic texts. What I mean to say is that lavender loves to morph on its own and folks love, well, morphing it, so there are always new breeds. One breed is better because it has long spikes, one because it has precious esters, and so on.
Sometimes an ugly ducking, but always a winner in my culinary garden, is English Lavender. It is, officially, the sweetest cooking lavender. I grow several English cultivars, and not unlike wine grapes, each brings its own bouquet to cooking.
We sell it, when we find someone knowledgeable enough to know the difference in our hand grown and the two-year-old stuff you can order in bags, online. I have nothing against the two-year-old European stuff (as a throwaway at weddings). But, seriously, no REAL culinary venture with lavender is as satisfying as including newly dried, just popped off the stem, lusciously purple Angustifolia bursting buds in your scones!
It can surely be said, scouts honor, there is nothing like it. Yes, you can. Yes, you should. Cook with newly harvested English buds. Lavender sugar, peaches, strawberries, jams! Stay tuned. Recipes coming this week.
Our culinary lavender is now for sale.
Find us online at Augusta Locally Grown or email us at whitehillsfarm@gmail.com to purchase new culinary lavender!
