Yule Love It Lavender Farm and Lavender Crafts

Continuing my post of my weekend outing to a local Lavender farm, this is about a 50 minute drive to me and what seems like way out in the country, down tree covered dirt roads. Peaceful rolling hills with blooming Lavender makes for a perfect summer outing.


The farm had several gardens all in bloom with varying varieties of Lavender, u-pick a bunch was 5.00, the first picture was my clippings this took me the best part of an hour to pick. You were given a basket and pair of scissors and a footstool if you wanted, I declined and soon realized its benefit as I sat in and around the plants gathering my bouquet.

I was given instructions which to pick and how, a "bunch" was defined by what you could fit between your thumb and middle finger when making an "OK" sign, you could pack it in. This was a ton of Lavender, so much I sort of gave up, the 90 degree day and my husband and 5 year old roaming around inspired me to finish early.

Looking down onto parts of the farm along with the covered patio, there is a small cafe that serves Lavender lemonade, ice cream and other Lavender infused treats. There is also a small gift shop, the patio hosts many talks and demonstrations during harvest months.

Filling my basket

Once I got home I was inspired to track down a Lavender craft I had been given many years ago, I had no idea what it was call I just knew it involved ribbon. Turns out they are called "Lavender Wands" or "Lavender Bottles", really a simple craft using the Lavender, ribbon and scissors. There are plenty of tutorials and videos out there should you wish to try this yourself, I took a few pictures of mine in progress, I made 3 of these with various quantities of stems.

First step, choose stems in about the same length, in an odd number, and tie off just below the buds.
Bend the stems down over the buds in twos winding ribbon over and under, the odd number is done in a group of three. You do this for about 3 rows then move to single weave. This is where the odd number comes into play to keep a consistent weave, to be honest each of my 3 have gone awry at some point having to double up the weave here and there, overall it is not noticeable. The goal is to create a cage of the weaved ribbon to hold the buds in when they dry and shrink.

Continue weaving below all the buds, tie off and make a bow, on a smaller one I did for my daughter (with just 11 stems - which si about the smallest I would do) I wrapped the ribbon all the way down and put the bow at the bottom, trim stems to equal lengths.


Lavender wands, great to slip into a drawer or set next to the bed for a light scent to promote relaxation (well that is what they said anyway).

Here is the rest of my bunch, I had used about 50 stems to make my wands, I am going to take the stems out for the first few days to promote drying so they don't mold, also there is some breathing room in this vase which should help too.

After this I was NOT done, I made Lavender cookies, I had lots of buds that fell during the Lavender wands so I used about 1/2 tablespoon in this simple shortbread cookie recipe. They turned out really good, I would cut down on the Lavendar the next time, but they were quite pleasant. These are not something I would make everyday but for a spe3cial occasion they will be a nice change of pace.

I have a recipe for Lavender lemonade and bread I am going to make hopefully this week. I also hope to share directions for a Lavender rice eye pack.