It's that time again!
Time for one of my favorite homestead harvest jobs, cutting lavender!
The lavender harvest takes place in two stages on the farm. The first phase is bud harvesting. If you want lavender for tea, baked goods, cooking, crafts, etc., then harvesting in bud stage is the thing to do.
What do I mean by bud stage? Well, right when the very first flower opens on a plant, right before the whole plant begins to bloom out, is the optimal time to harvest lavender for hanging. That way the buds stay on the stems and dry nicely.
Also, if you harvest before about 10AM in the morning, more of that lovely lavender fragrance sticks around (evaporation of volatile oils is a thing).
So, what that all means is for the past few mornings I have been out at dawn hacking lavender off of the plants.
Like I said though, there are far worse jobs.
Plus, I adore the farm early in the morning. Strolling out to the North Pasture with whatever random pets who choose to accompany me is pretty great. Living in the country has perks.
One of those perks is that you can be clad in clothing that would probably come close to getting you institutionalized, or at the very least raise and eyebrow.
It was super humid yesterday so I had on the coolest (literally) trapeze dress, my trusty (and sadly falling apart) John Deere hat, and my rose gold headphones, because listening to self-development podcasts while cutting lavender is the greatest thing ever.
And since the hubs mowed the North Pasture with the brush hog recently, I had the best setting ever! Look at this view:
This view was not as enticing, but cats gonna cat (I spared you all the cat butt flashing-leg raised like she was flipping you the bird pose):
At least Cora posed nicely for the camera:
After many years of being an absolute noob idiot and trying to rubber band the lavender after cutting big trays of it (tangle city!), I got learnt and started rubber-banding my bundles as I go. With all the rain we have had this year, the lavender bushes are packed with flowers! Like, I was averaging 3-4 bundles per plant rather than the standard two. A smile was definitely pasted to my face.
Cutting and bundling lavender is a bit of a time-consuming job though, it takes me about an hour to cut and bundle a respectable sized tray, but honestly, I don't mind. I am pretty sure it is the serenity-inducing fragrance of the lavender that has something to do with my chill vibe.
This year most of the bud harvest is going to my daughter for her FFA SAE project. SAE stands for Supervised Agricultura Experience, and my child decided to go all entrepreneurial and do a project with the lavender. I might be proud.
She plans on making added-value products with the buds and selling them at local farmers markets. I hope it goes well for her, and I am pretty excited to see how she does with the project.
Which leads me to part two of lavender harvesting, the hydrosol and essential oil extraction part. To make those two products lavender needs to be fully bloomed out. I love that because for years I just harvested the buds and it felt sorta deflating to not see the plants in full bloom, now I get to leave over half of the three hundred plus plants to do what Nature intended for them to do, bloom out in a display of glory.
Plus, my little pollinator friends really dig the whole blooming of an entire field of lavender thing and I love content pollinators!
After cutting and bundling lavender for a bit each morning, I come back to the house and hang the stuff. This year I am having my kiddo hang the bundles, and she did a pretty good job streaming them out across the school room on baling twine. I love baling twine.
After a couple of weeks in their well-vented and out of direct sunlight drying location, the lavender will be nice and dry and ready to be stripped and sifted. Which if I am honest is my least favorite part of harvest because it is dusty and super tedious work, lots of sneezing involved.
But, this time I have lots of help in the form of a very ambitious, business-minded teen.
It's looking to be a glorious harvest indeed!!
And on that note I better get off my flintlocks and into the out, there's chorin to do! Also, in the next couple days I have a lavender drink recipe post that I will share with you all, it's top notch!
So much Lavender!
It truly is a fair bit and sometimes it feels overwhelming to get it all harvested in the short time I have to get it done.
But it smells so nice so it's worth it lol!
!CTP
!PIZZA
As much as I love Lavender, too much gives me a migraine!
I gotta say something, so...
Wow.
That is a first for me.
Cool.
You never seize to amaze me and give me an education.
Was that a poker table?
!BBH
!ALIVE
!CTP
Aww, my friend, you always make me smile!
That is a game table my hubs made for game nights. Its got built in LED lighting, dice trays, drink holders, the list goes on. I did a post about it awhile back as it's a work in progress, but it's super awesome! I'll find it and link it at some point! I promise!
!CTP
!PIZZA
Sound great 😀
@generikat! You Are Alive so I just staked 0.1 $ALIVE to your account on behalf of @bradleyarrow. (9/30)
The tip has been paid for by the We Are Alive Tribe through the earnings on @alive.chat, feel free to swing by our daily chat any time you want.
Well, this explains your zen-like state during bowling. You were using performance-enhancing herbs!
I didn't inhale....
😁
!PIZZA
Thanks for showing us a few steps in the process of harvesting. It will be interesting to see what all you do with the Lavender.
!PIZZA
Thank you for such an awesome comment! I can't wait to craft a bunch of stuff to share with ya'll!
!CTP
!PIZZA
Wow, I can smell it while watching the photos, lavender is such a great plant and happy that some of them can stay for our little flying friends. I had one lavender dying this year in the garden, have no clue why :-( two are still alive. It's just hard to get those normal lavender plants, at the moment everywhere they only sell the lavender with the big fat bloom, you know what I mean? They never have the same smell.
Oh! I hate it when plants die. I mean, I know that everything does at some point, but I'm always wondering whether it was the plant's time or if it needed an intervention to thrive.
And yes, I do know what you mean, I think. It sounds like you have tons of Lavendula Stoechas around, AKA Spanish Lavender. All of mine are Lavendula Augustifolia which are the super fragrant English cultivars and there are also the Lavandins (French lavender) which are super fragrant too.
Hope that plant of yours perks back up! Thank you so much for stopping by!
!PIZZA
!CTP
Oh, I so much love Lavender ... its smell is so calming! Can´t wait to see your blog about Lavender drinks!
Morning:) As soon as I finish answering all these lovely replies I will get to work on the drink post! Yesterday I took the day off and spent all day in the garden harvesting garlic, planting potatoes, and even sent my son to pick up pizza. I love mental health days lol! Hope you are having fantastic day yourself😊
!PIZZA
!CTP
I never knew how lavender was harvested before. My knowledge was based on see huge lavender fields in France as the Tour de France rode by. Thanks for sharing.
Oh that sounds like a fun place to get lavender knowledge though! I've long dreamed of traveling to the lavender fields of Provence. They have gigantic machines that harvest the blooms. Would love to see that!
Thanks for stopping by!!
!CTP
!PIZZA
Haha why don't we have a selfie of said outfit? I love wearing what I want in garden.
I can just SMELL that lavender... how divine. I dry it to smoke my bees as well as for myself. Looking forward to this drink recipe!!💚
Okay, I will throw out a farm attire selfie at some point, lol, I promise!
And I absolutely adore that you use it to smoke your bees! That's beyond amazing and such a marvelous idea!! Talk about super chill buzzers lol lol! I use the stems for fire starter in my wood stove and throw them on the bbq when I am grilling things, so I totally love hearing of other great lavender ideas! AWESOME!
Drink recipe incoming! I've really been enjoying the concoction I whipped up during our hot summer weather!
Thanks for stopping by!
!PIZZA
I have learned something today about lavender, I never thought that lavender can be used on a tea.
It makes the absolute best tea! Especially if you are feeling a bit stressed, super calming!
Thanks for stopping by:)
!PIZZA
You're welcome (^_^)
Wow! You've been busy. Glad you have an ambitious harvesting partner to help you. The photos are great.
!ALIVE
!CTP
Yes, super ambitious lol! And incredibly busy, but I like that too lol! Hope you are having a super lovely summer😊
!CTP
!PIZZA
Yes, it's been a very nice summer so far, thank you, @generikat! 😀 Happy Sunday!
@generikat! You Are Alive so I just staked 0.1 $ALIVE to your account on behalf of @lisamgentile1961. (3/10)
The tip has been paid for by the We Are Alive Tribe through the earnings on @alive.chat, feel free to swing by our daily chat any time you want.
Good Morning and Thank you, @youarealive! Enjoy your day.😀
Great bundle work!
Thank you so much @mypathtofire!
!CTP
!PIZZA
it makes me want to go and bundle my neighbors lavender! !LOL
Thanks for sharing the process, @generikat. I learned a lot from your post.
I always thought lavender just came in a bottle, lol
Well, a lot of really cool things come in a bottle lol lol!
This next week we will be distilling essential oil from the lavender so bottled it shall be!
Thanks for stopping by @beststart!
!CTP
!PIZZA
WOW WOW WOW
Loving those Lavender shots and always blown away by your content.
@generikat
!WINE
Thanks a bunch @jimmy.adames! I love it when you drop by with one of your most awesome comments! And vino too! Thank ya!
!CTP
!PIZZA
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Dear @generikat, sorry to jump in a bit off topic but may I ask you to support the HiveSQL proposal?
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You can do it on Peakd, Ecency,
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All done @arcange! Happy to support your awesome work for us all here, take care😊
Thank you for your support @generikat, really appreciate it! 😻
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STOPI did wonder what you did with all the lavender each year...