Lavender
Lavender brings luck and adventure for those who choose to embrace it.
— R. LaRocca, Midsummer’s Mayhem
Lavender is the earth’s herbal love letter. Beautiful in a floral bouquet, the lilac-colored super-herb can create an aromatic ambiance, is a powerful healer, and enhances savory flavors in the kitchen.
Before making its appearance as a linen spray and popular relaxation fragrance, lavender was renowned for its healing and cleansing powers. Modern science has confirmed the timeless knowledge of the Ancient Romans and Egyptians, who knew of lavender's myriad health benefits, and used its fragrance for perfuming, cosmetics, and rituals.
Delicate and mighty, the buds of lavender originated from the countries bordering the Mediterranean and India, but spread further into Africa, Asia, and to the English countryside by the 16th century. There are at least 45 species of lavender that comprise over 450 different varieties. The lavandula genus is of the mint family, with lavandula angustifolia being the familiar, fragrant lavender our farm brings to you.
Impress your plant pals with some lavender knowledge:
Lavender Fruits
The lilac-purple flowers grow on bare stalks and produce small nutlet fruits that contain their seeds. As with many other herbs, these can be eaten fresh off the stalk. A discerning palette will be able to detect hints of rosemary and mint, two plants of close relation.
The Fragrance Comes From Its (Plant) Hair
The famous lavender fragrance is a product of oil glands located along the star-shaped trichomes or plant hairs. A specific oil produced, S-linalool, is responsible for the sweet aromatic scent that Cleopatra herself used as a perfume.
Not Just Purple
Lavender has come to mean a soft, bluish-purple hue, but the plant itself comes in many colors. The classic deep purple is due to a chemical compound called anthocyanins. You know the ditty about “Lavender Blue,” but there are pink, white, yellow, and red varieties
Culinary Uses
Lavender is an aromatic culinary powerhouse; herbaceous and earthy and simultaneously delicately floral. Lavender sourced from your local Area 2 farmer, yields a more intense aroma.
Lavender For Cooking
Lavender pairs well with rich and fatty foods as it can break up dense flavors. Lavender is popularly paired with other herbs de Provence, such as rosemary, oregano, and marjoram, and incorporated in dishes featuring chicken, pork chops, lamb, and fatty fish.
Try: Grilled Pork Chops Rubbed with Lavender Salt or Wild Turkey with Lavender Masala Salt for your main course.
Lavender For Baking
Lavender can be used to complement many recipes. Consider balancing the herbal low notes with something bright and zesty, like citrus. Try grinding a few fresh buds in with your dry mixes, or grinding them and letting them infuse with sugar or milk before adding them to your recipe.
Try: Lavender Lemon Crinkle Cookies or a Chocolate Honey Tart featuring lavender buds.
Lavender For Mixology
Creating a simple syrup featuring lavender buds is one of the easiest and most versatile ways to use lavender in mixology for cocktails, iced teas, or sodas.
Lavender simple syrup :
Mix equal parts of sugar and water over heat
Remove the simple syrup from the heat
Infuse the simple syrup with dried or fresh lavender buds
Let the mixture cool, strain the buds out, and store the lavender simple syrup in a glass jar for up to six months refrigerated.
Splash a spoonful into your cocktail for an earthy floral twist.
Try: Lavender Soda or Lavender Gin Cocktail
Health Benefits
Lavender has been known for thousands of years as a cleansing and astringent agent. Like most medicinal herbs, lavender contains phytochemicals, the biologically active compounds found in plants. The combined effects of its different phytochemicals make lavender work like a home improvement team, surveying weak areas and fortifying your body with its reparative powers — not to mention blissing you out with its heavenly scent.
Lavender’s healing effects come from its potent phytochemicals, including:
polyphenols
flavonoids
volatile aromatics
Aromatherapy
Lavender has a long history of aromatherapeutic applications, from the ancient Greeks and Romans to the Medieval era. In today’s world, scientific studies have shown the powerful aromatic effects of lavender will impact nervous systems, yielding a calming effect. Evidence suggests lavender can also improve sleep quality, promote relaxation, and lift moods.
Antimicrobial
Lavender has long been used as an astringent and cleansing agent, from Roman bathhouses to 16th century English washerwomen. Medicinally, lavender functions as an antiseptic, antimicrobial, and antifungal agent. During the time of the plague, English graverobbers would wash in lavender oil to successfully prevent illness.
Anti-inflammatory
It is no mistake that lavender is commonly found in homeopathic remedies. Several of its phytochemical compounds make lavender a great natural anti-inflammatory that can help calm irritated, burned, or bug-bitten skin.
A study conducted in 2016 showed lavender accelerates wound healing by promoting tissue renewal and collagen synthesis.
In addition, both lavender's antimicrobial and anti-inflammation powers make it helpful for some people with skin conditions like eczema and acne. In wintry weather conditions, when dry air combined with indoor heating systems can cause skin flare-ups, lavender ointments can work as a balm.
Internally, lavender has shown to have potent anti-inflammatory powers as well, where in Germany, lavender tea was recently approved as a treatment for insomnia and nervous stomach irritations. Try our moon milk tea, sure to help with your inflammatory or restless sleep.
Lavender As A Remedy
John Parkinson, a 16th century English herbalist, wrote that lavender was “especially good use for all griefes and paines of the head and brain.” He wasn’t wrong! Lavender is the perfect tool to add to your Winter Remedy arsenal. Here are just a few ways that lavender can save your holiday season without you even having to leave the house.
Lavender Oil
You can easily make your own lavender oil at home using dried buds. The best lavender to use is organic and locally sourced to ensure you are making a pure oil free of chemicals with its medicinal value intact.
Fill a mason jar ¾ full of dried lavender flowers.
Submerge lavender flowers in the carrier oil of your choice. Almond, jojoba, argan, coconut, or extra virgin olive oil work well.
Place the jar aside in a warm and bright location to infuse the lavender's phytochemical compounds into the oil for at least one week.
Strain the lavender flowers out and reserve the oil. Wring the lavender buds through a cheesecloth for maximum extraction.
Uses include:
Cracked winter skin salve
Inhale or use topically for migraine or headache
Aromatherapy for insomnia
Aromatherapy for relaxation
Area 2 Farms: Recipe Card
What is This Week’s Harvest?
This Week’s Harvest is a one-time purchase to taste the season's goodness. It includes vibrant greens, fragrant herbs, crisp microgreens, and hearty root vegetables, all freshly harvested and delivered to your front door.
Taste This Week’s Harvest for yourself, and then let us know your thoughts. Or, come by for a tour. We are always eager to meet the families we feed and to show off exactly where our food came from.
And we can do so all season long.
Area 2 Farms offers different harvest subscription options to meet your family’s needs. Check out the 4-Week and the 10-Week Farm Subscriptions to choose what works best for you.
