Susan's Podcasts

Lavender's Blue Dilly-dilly

Listen to Susan's Lavender Podcast
Visit Susan's Podcast home

Everybody's favorite herb is a winner in your garden. Whether you live north or south, east or west, you can grow and enjoy lavender. Growing tips, ideas for cooking with lavender, and lavender crafts.

A Collection of Lavender Cookery & Crafts from Lavender Lies, China's eighth adventure

Lavender Lemonade

Lavender Madeleines

¾ cup granulated sugar
3 tblsp dried or 5 tblsp fresh lavender flowers
¾ cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 large eggs, room temperature
½ tsp vanilla extract
1 cup unsifted all purpose flour
Confectioners' sugar
madeleine cookie mold

In food processor, process granulated sugar and flowers until flowers are finely ground. Heat oven to 400 degrees. In a large bowl beat eggs with lavender sugar mixture and vanilla until light and fluffy (about 4 minutes). Gradually beat in 3/4 cup melted butter. With wire whisk, fold in flour. Spoon a scant one tablespoon batter into each madeleine mold. Bake 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. Immediately remove from pan. Cool on wire rack. Store in airtight container. Dust with confectioners' sugar just before serving. (Martha suggests spraying the madeleine mold with cooking spray before filling. She says you might also try substituting rose water for the vanilla--a wonderful rose fragrance!)

Ruby's Lavender & Mint Tea Party Punch

2 tblsp dried mint
2 tblsp dried lavender blossoms
6 cups boiling water
1 liter ginger ale
1 cup purple grape juice

In a teapot brew the mint in the hot water for 10 minutes. Add lavender, stir, and let cool. Strain, and add the grape juice. Chill. Just before serving, pour in ginger ale. Add ice cubes that have been frozen with a sprig of lavender or a mint leaf, or cool with a pretty ice ring. (Fill a ring mold half full of water, layer with roses and other edible flowers, then finish filling and freeze.)

Traditional Lavender Baskets

Here's what you need:

9, 11, or 13 fresh, long lavender stems
1 yard 1/8" satin ribbon per wand

Strip the leaves from the stems (don't disturb the flowers). Bundle the stems together, lining up the lowest blossoms, and tie a string tightly around the stems just below the blossoms. Bend the stems over the blossoms to form a cage around them, and secure with a rubber band. Starting at the top of the cage, weave the ribbon in and out of the stems in a descending spiral, forming a woven basket around the flowers. Tie tightly at the bottom of the basket. Trim stems neatly and add a bow.

Lavender Bath Tea

Soothing Lavender Bath Oil

Lavender Bubble Bath

Kate Ardleigh's Victorian Secrets

Lavender and Rosemary Sachet

2 tblsp lavender flowers
2 tblsp rosemary
10 whole cloves
¼ tsp powdered dry orange peel

Lavender Lip Balm

½ cup cosmetic oil (apricot kernal, sweet almond, or grapeseed oil)
¼ cup fresh lavender flowers
lavender essential oil
1-2 tsp pure beeswax, grated

In a clean lidded jar, steep the lavender flowers in the oil for a week. Strain into a small saucepan, add 5-6 drops of essential oil, and place over low heat. When warm, begin adding the beeswax. When you've melted in the first teaspoon of wax, removed from the heat and test for hardness by placing a little on a saucer and putting in the refrigerator. After a couple of minutes, check to see if the gloss has congealed. If it isn't hard enough, add a little more wax and reheat. If it's too hard, add a few drops of oil and reheat. When done, pour into a small lidded jar and let it cool.

Lavender Festivals

• Lavender Daze at Carolee's Herb Farm (Indiana)
• Pennsylvania Lavender Festival at Willow Pond Farm

You are visitor #