Lavender and Healing The lavender that we harvested for bouquets is dry now. We dried the bunches in the dark, hanging them upside down and ventilating the room with fresh air. We cleaned the stems of bind weed and the small leaves at the bottom of the stems. The bouquets were then packed in boxes of 30 to store… Read more »
Lavender bunches cut and ready to be dried.
The heat of the last days pushed the lavender quickly, and lavender harvest has begun! We cut the longest stems for the dried bouquets, harvesting them just as the bees inform us two or three of the calyxes are open. This way the dried bouquets do not “shatter” or lose too many flowers. This year… Read more »
Lot Natalie in the early morning. The bees always alert us to the timing first! When they arrive, it means the calyxes are beginning to open, and we need to harvest lavender for the dried product pronto! We want to get it just after the opening of two or three calyxes so the flowers do… Read more »
Photo compliments of Kathleen Parks-Perry Marketing Lavender Alexandra is helping us promote our products to local markets, including Whole Foods, where we recently were accepted as a vendor. Look for our products in local markets, and if you do not see them, please ask them to stock our Harms Vineyards and Lavender Fields Biodynamic organic… Read more »
Dried Lavender
Lavender drying in shed. The lavender chosen for bouquets is dry at last. We hang it in our shed in the dark. Since most of our plants are used for distillation, we dry only one shed full these days, and do not use heat (energy conserving). Then we clean it by shaking out leaves from… Read more »
A native bumble bee visits the lavender this morning. The bees tell us when the lavender is ready to be harvested, and they are beginning to speak! They notice when the first calyxes open and pollen is available. This is the time that we harvest the lavender to be dried as it will not “shatter”… Read more »
Clarkia, or Farewell-to-spring. I always have a sadness when this little flower blooms. Clarkia, or Farewell-to-spring, means that the succession of wildflowers is almost over. Of course, the farming harvest has only begun! The lavender will be cut very soon for drying, the garden is coming on. In July when the lavender is more fully… Read more »
Lavender is still in its wintering mounds, just beginning to send up growth. Yesterday a friend said, “It’s only eight weeks until your Open House!” Yikes! I thought. This time of year I always go through the same anxiety: will the lavender be in bloom for the Open House? Right now it is just beginning… Read more »
Lot Number Goatsong 11
Lot Number Goatsong 11 This year 2011 most of the lavender we cut to dry came from field Goatsong, an area between our house and the labyrinth. This lavender grows in thin topsoil and the plants have grown more slowly over the years. But even now, at age 12, they are putting out the long… Read more »
Toyon leading goats up slope. Lot Number Toyon 11 Each year Ramon looks for those plants whose stems are the longest for bouquet making, and this year the field Toyon was one of two that won! Field Toyon is on an north-facing slope above the Chardonnay. Often the lavender there blooms earliest. The little brown… Read more »
© 2024 Patricia Damery.
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