I do not consume much lavender at all. It has been proven to change endocrine elements especially in women so caution is to be taken with prolonged exposure (I'm sensative to it right now and am peri-menopausal). You can google endocrine and lavender and find some great info.

I collect the wands, dry them in small bunches hanging down. Mainly we use them for stuffing into tiny pillows and putting in our drawers and linens. Our house is almost 100 and try as we can to keep humidity out, it is not all that humidity proof. So our linens when stored can get a bit "smelly" odorous - just not fresh, and a sachet of lavender in a little pillow helps out a lot.

Occassionally we do eat just the florettes in things like homemade icecream, or stored in some sugar for lavender sugar (nice on plain white cakes especially with ginger).

GGG

I make Lavender Sugar, as GGG stated. Lovely on fresh baked sugar cookies, too. I sprinkle it on Lemon Pound cake when fresh from the oven. Yummy! Nice in Earl Grey or ginger tea, too.

To make Lavender Sugar, I put a tsp. of fresh or 1/2 tsp. of dried Lavender flowers in a small container of sugar (pint), seal, and let it set for a few days to make Lavender Sugar.

The two I would recommended for using in baked goods are Munstead or Provence. I did research on this years ago and these were the two most often recommended.

I too make Lavender wands and "Sweet Dream Pillows" and sachets as GGG stated. Lavender not only makes your linens smell lovely, it keeps moths away.

Mix in combination with any or all of the following dried herbs for extra-special Dream pillows:
Dried Rosemary leaves, dried Mimosa flowers, dried Rose petals, dried Scented Geranium, dried Chamomile.
These are all 'calming herbs'. They help relax you so you fall to sleep peacefully. :)

NOTE: A little goes a l-o-n-g way. Don't add too much to your Dream Pillows! It can cause breathing problems or sinus problems if the fragrance is too strong, and you could be allergic.

~Annie

My favorite plant. I have about 20 or more lavenders in my tight space. Most are Angustafolias (English), Munstead, some are Grosso and Provence. I use them exclusively to make sachets. I could make wreaths but I rather enjoy sachets more. I don't consume them.
I harvest lavenders when the buds start darkening and a few flowers begin to bloom. I collect these and dry them upside down in my basement. By Fall, I will start to remove the dried buds to make sachets.

I would like to know if there's a way to preserve the fragrance in the leaves itself. I have a few lavenders that have leaves with really sweet fragrance -no camphor notes at all.. Has anyone tried to preserve teh leaves too?

Ianna

I recently asked a local lavender farmer to write an article for my gardening blog. She went into great detail if you want to hear from a professional lavender farmer who also makes products from the lavender. She's a very nice, local lady and I've been to her farm. It's a smaller operation than one would think... not the giant fields of lavender as seen in Provence. BTW, I don't receive any discounts or products from her and didn't pay her for the article. This is just gardeners talking to gardeners.

Cameron

Here is a link that might be useful: How to Grow Lavender

Hi there~ I grow both Munstead and Provence lavenders. the flowers are edible as are the leaves of these varieties. I mainly use the flowers. Try making a lavender lemonade or lavender cordial by steeping lavender flowers in boiled simple syrup. Delicious! Here is a photo of some Lavender Syrup (Cordial) that I made recently.

Becky

I bake lavender scones. I adapted a favorite recipe and love these scones the best! I use the Provence lavender culinary buds, but don't harvest myself as I don't have this variety (yet).

Here are the lavenders in my garden, some are newly planted this year, so I don't yet know how they will perform. My husband and I are convinced that the lavender has helped with keeping away flies, mosquitoes and gnats. We recently had a garden expert visit and he was amazed that we have no annoying bugs. However, the garden was buzzing with hummingbirds, bees, butterflies and dragonflies.

Spanish
Hidcote
Grosso
Munstead

Cameron

Here is a link that might be useful: lavender scones

thanks for the great ideas..i was just looking at mine yesterday and wondering what i could do with it.