Throughout Oregon, lavender festivals are in full bloom through July, marking the peak of lavender season. With the harvest period winding down to mid-August, even after festivals end Oregonians can pick up bouquets and plants at local lavender farms.
Lavender is a versatile plant whose buds are often used whole or in oil for household cleaners, home goods, culinary treats and crafts.
“It’s just fun,” said Pamela Baker of Little Lavender Farm in Dundee. “It fits into so many things you can do, and it seems so wonderful.”
Baker originally got into lavender because it was the only thing she could get to grow on her south-facing property in Southern California. As the plants grew, she began to research all the things she could do with lavender.
“The more I learned the more in love I was with the plant,” she said. “There are so many benefits, and I learned how to make soap and different recipes for body products.”
Read more: How to pick, plant and prune lavender
Of the 45 different lavender species, the two most common species are Lavandula angustifolia — more commonly known as English lavender — and intermedia — also known as French lavender. Baker grows both because each species serves different purposes.
“English lavender is used for culinary and bouquets and wreaths,” she said. “I don’t really use it for oil. I use intermedia for oil because it provides a lot of oil and it’s perfect for bath and body.”
Within those two species, Baker grows nine varieties for her products. Her two favorite English lavender varieties are Royal Velvet and French Fields.
“Royal Velvet is my favorite of them because it dries beautifully, keeps its color and the culinary (quality) is fantastic,” she explained. “French Fields bloom early, and I can cut, process and have bouquets earlier.”
For essential oil, Baker said the Grosso variety is a standard and her favorite oil producer.
Determining when to harvest lavender depends on what the plant is being used for. For culinary purposes and dried bunches, Baker said it’s best to harvest when “just a few flowers are blossoming.” Fresh lavender should be harvested when a third to two-thirds of flowers have opened, and lavender used for oil can be harvested at any time during the season.
Once the lavender is harvested, there are multiple projects you can do with the bounty. Here are a few:
Essential oils and hydrosols
If you have multiple lavender plants around the house, you can turn that yield into oil and hydrosol. Essential oils are used for aromatherapy as well as in home goods products.
To make essential oils, you will need a distiller, Baker said. Online, kits range in price from $50 (through Amazon) to $293 to nearly $800 (through Copper Pro).
Baker said the basic distilling process involves placing lavender buds or a short-stemmed bunch into the distiller’s tin underneath a vat of boiling water. Steam goes up through the lavender and grabs the oils in the stream, re-condensing it as water and oil. The water can be drained out, leaving the oil that floats on top. But you don’t have to dispose of the water! The distilled water has become hydrosol, a less concentrated byproduct that has many of the same benefits as essential oil.
To make one dram of oil, Baker recommends using flowers from two to three plants, but lavender can also be purchased in bulk from local lavender farms.
“It’s an easy process,” Baker said.
There are important safety precautions, however. Caryn Gehlmann, owner of Phoenix aromatherapy company essential 3, teaches classes on distilling essential oil by request. Her next class is Friday, July 31, with Lavender Fields Forever Farm in Jacksonville, Ore. She said it’s important to be mindful that the equipment can get hot due to the steam and recommends wearing protective gloves to protect hands from the steam and distiller’s tin when removing the essential oil and hydrosol.
Cleaners and sprays
Essential oil is also a key ingredient in making household products. If you don’t make your essential oil, you can purchase it at local lavender farms such as Wayward Winds Lavender Farm in Newberg or Portland Lavender Haven.
Baker also sells hydrosol byproduct in her shop, Little Lavender Shop in Newberg, as well. Hydrosol can be used as a deodorizer for linens or room freshener.
To make an all-purpose cleaner using lavender essential oil, Baker recommends mixing two tablespoons of distilled white vinegar and one teaspoon of Borax in a 16-ounce glass bottle. Next, fill the bottle three-quarters full with hot water and shake until the Borax is dissolved. After that, add a quarter cup of liquid castile soap, one teaspoon of lemon juice and 10 drops of lavender essential oil. Baker said she uses the cleaner for her kitchen countertops.
For a carpet deodorizer, Baker recommends combining eight drops of lavender essential oil and half a cup of baking soda in a mason jar, shaking the mixture, and sprinkling it over the carpet. Three to five minutes later, vacuum up the mixture.
When drying laundry, placing a few drops of lavender essential oil onto a reusable wool dryer ball will add fresh scent without having to use a dryer sheet.
“It’s just fun,” Baker said of lavender. “It fits into so many things you can do, and it smells so wonderful.”
Bath products
Lavender is also a common ingredient in relaxation products like bath bombs and bath salts, which Baker said are also easy to make.
“Bath salt is just (mixing) Epsom Salt, Dead Sea salt and some essential oil,” Baker explained. “It’s such a fun gift to give.”
Her bath bombs are made using baking soda, citric acid, Epsom Salt, cream of tartar, grapeseed oil, lavender buds and lavender essential oils.
Baker also said that it’s fun to make soap with essential oils, but she recommends taking a soap making class first to understand basic safety precautions.
- Lavender wreaths are one easy craft to make with lavender bunches. The Little Lavender Shop in Newberg, which Pamela Baker owns, sells these wreaths.Aliya Hall, For The Oregonian/OregonLive
Wreaths and sachets
Wreaths are another great and easy way to use fresh lavender. Baker uses Royal Velvet in her wreaths because the buds stay on the stem and hold their dark purple color.
Using a 10-inch wreath frame and five to six fresh lavender bundles (approximately 80 stems) per wreath, you can use twine or coil to attach each bundle to the frame until it fills out in a fan around the frame.
Another easy craft Baker suggests is making sachets with dried lavender. To dry lavender, Baker recommends hanging bundles upside down in a dark place with a fan for two to three weeks. After that time, the bundle will be dry enough to rub in your hands until the buds fall from the stem. Collect the buds and fill a small muslin bag, then tie it shut. Sachets can go in dressers, be tossed in the dryer with clothes or be carried on the go.
Syrups and Bitters
Lavender is also popular in culinary aspects and particularly fun to play around with in alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages. Cindy Capparelli, founder of Portland Bitters Project, makes lavender bitters that also feature coriander and vanilla flavors.
“Lavender is great. Our lavender bitters in particular are blended with other gin botanicals so they integrate really well and surprise a lot of people,” she said. “I think a lot of people associate (lavender) with candles and soap, so one of the goals with our flavor was to make it really useful, but also make it accessible and interesting.”
While lavender is a natural pairing to gin, Capparelli said, it’s also, “wonderful with lighter whiskey, Irish or French, and makes a nice Old Fashioned.” She also recommends pairing lavender with citrus, lemon, honey and lime, as well as red fruits like raspberries and cherries. Capparelli said lavender works well with other Mediterranean herbs, such as thyme, rosemary and basil.
“I think that lavender really shines when it’s layered with other supporting botanicals,” she said. “Thinking about what other flavors you like and what could work well with lavender, it works so well in combination culinarily. You can put it in whipped cream, black tea, coffee — there’s so many directions you can take this.”
When making bitters, Capparelli said that either English or French lavender could work, although French lavender will have a stronger taste that is more camphor heavy, compared to the English lavender that is more herbal and on the lighter end of floral. Making bitters also allows for flexibility and creativity because flowers can be either fresh or dried and can include the stem or just the bud.
“We use just organic lavender buds (and) we don’t use the stems or leaves, but you certainly could if you wanted to,” Capparelli said. “If you’re picking lavender from your own garden, you could do an infusion just with buds and you could try with stems and leaves. That’s just something to keep in mind for different flavor correlations.”
The process for making bitters includes steeping lavender in spirits, soaking the mixture for days until it's reached the desired strength, straining the solids and adding a sweetener to the mix.Daniel Fauss/Portland Bitters Project
The first step to making bitters is steeping either fresh or dried lavender (and any other added botanicals) in spirits. Portland Bitters Project uses organic cane spirits, but you could also use any kind of liquor or a glycerin-water mixture for a nonalcoholic option. Soak the mixture between four and 10 days, depending on the strength preferred for the bitters, before straining the solids from the resulting tincture. Another method Capparelli uses is making each of the botanical flavor tinctures separately before blending them together, making the flavors clear and crisp.
After the tinctures are made, Capparelli said to add either raw sugar, unrefined cane sugar or refined honey to the mixture. “That helps decrease the volatility of the alcohol and helps your palate perceive what the flavors are,” she said, “so it’s not just overwhelming and helps integrate better into drinks and food when you use it.”
Capparelli also recommends starting out with a small test batch to try different percentages and see where your personal preferences lie, as well as tasting the tinctures along the way.
“There’s a lot of trial and error in formatting things to make it how you like it,” she said.
For many, lavender can be a polarizing flavor, Caparelli said, but the most rewarding aspect for her is changing people’s minds about it. Although everyone responds to herbs differently, she said using lavender is one way to open people’s eyes.
She said she loves it when she’s making someone a drink, “and they’re like, ‘Oh, that has lavender in it? I’ve never thought of lavender in that way.’”
Baker also enjoys seeing customers’ reactions and said it’s a privilege to put something beautiful out in the world.
“One of my favorite things in the shop is someone coming in to get a gift for a friend and putting a sachet in there too,” she said. “Just being able to give as much as I can.”
When it comes to crafting with lavender, both Capparelli and Baker said that the key is experimenting and having fun.
“If you love lavender and want to just go get them and try something: Do it,” Capparelli said. “You can make really simple things that work lavender into your day, and I think it’s such a satisfying experience to make things for yourself and go through that process of refining it.”
— Aliya Hall, for The Oregonian/OregonLive
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