Lavender Harvest: Part One

It's All About The Buds

By the time July rolls around on the farmstead, I am getting ready for my second wind to commence, and that's a good thing, for there is a unique scent wafting through the air during this particular time of year. That scent, while super pleasant and chill mood inducing, is actually a harbinger of a whole plethora of work for this Kat.

Lavender. Humans have cultivated the plant for a long time. Some people think it smells gross, others lose their cognitive function and pocket change whenever they come across lavender in any form. I like lavender, it is a fairly easy crop to produce, and lavender lemonade, lavender ice cream, and lavender goat milk soap are a few of my all time favorite products.

Don't get me wrong, I am not one of those ladies that packs around essential oil bottles in my bag so that I might dab essence of moonbeam holistic spotted super herb on you to heal all of your ailments. I like essential oils and their useful properties, just like I admire lavender, but I am a big believer in the concepts of balance and moderation. Kind of like I found it hard to balance on my own two feet after spending all morning bent over in the lavender field snipping flower stems while inhaling that smooth scent of "let's lie down on the ground and not move for a few hours" inducement.

I have a few hundred lavender plants that need harvested every July. There are two stages of harvest depending on what you wish to do with your lavender. Today we will discuss harvesting lavender for dried buds. The buds are useful in crafts and culinary applications.

Once the plants start getting close to blooming, I make daily morning trips to the lavender field and check to see if it is go time. You want to start harvesting for dried buds once just a couple of buds on a lavender plant open and flower.

Harvest also needs to take place before it gets too warm out, I always stop cutting before 10AM. The reason for this is the oil that is present in the buds dissipates into the air around the flowers during the heat of the day, only to return in the evening. Also, I need breakfast at some point.

Once you cut a few flats, buckets, bags, or baskets of bud filled stems, it's time to prep the flowers for drying. I accomplish this task one of two ways.

First, I walk around the house kicking random cupboard doors shut and kid detritus out of the way searching for the rubber bands that I bought specifically for lavender harvest season. Creative cursery will fill the air as you discover that your spawn have liberated said rubber bands for their own non-relevant to the freaking project that they were purchased for use. Since they are off farm for the day volunteering at a Boy Scout Camp, you are deprived the joy of screeching at them, and instead deliver a passionate oratory performance to the cats and dogs espousing the injustice of untimely rubber band liberation!

Then you go to your hair accessory drawer, grab some hair ties and hair rubber bands that your daughter hasn't found yet and continue on with your day, albeit with slightly more elevated blood pressure.

Take a moment at this junction and inhale some of that chill mood inducing lavender scent. Sigh.

Now then, I stack the lavender in a handful, rubber band the bundle, and hang it upside down to dry. Repeat. I tend to dry the longest, prettiest stems this way. When I get tired of bundling lavender I grab an old window screen and dump the rest of the lavender that I harvested onto it.

You want to dry your herbs in a well ventilated area that is out of direct sun. I put mine somewhere close, so when I find my tape, scissors, yarn, or something else missing, I can take a detour to chill land. Truly, just a deep breath of lavender scent will divert rage molecules with more efficiency than a rabbit on Red Bull trying to type on a carrot covered iPad.

I might have a ton more lavender to bundle right now, so off I go. The next lavender post will cover how to harvest flowers and plant material for essential oil and hydrosol production. I'm also going to cover some home hydrosol production methods, demonstrate lavender lemonade and ice cream making, and throw out a few recipes here and there. It really is an amazing plant!

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And as always, all of the images in this post were taken on the author's very chill and lavendery fragrant iPhone.

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