It's easy to modify some of your favorite recipes to include a bit of Lavender.

Culinary Uses for Lavender
By Mary Ann Walz

It's always a delight to gather vegetables, fruits, and herbs from the garden for our meals. But did you know that you could also use the Lavender from your perennial gardens for food preparation? Culinary use of Lavender may not be as well known or widespread as its uses for bath and body products, but it's been used in cooking for many years and is becoming increasingly popular.

Give It a Try

• Take care that the plants have no chemical fertilizers or pesticides on them.
• Buy fresh and dried Lavender that is labeled for culinary use.
• To use fresh, pick flowers that are in their prime. Wash and dry in the same manner you would leaf lettuce.

If you're interested in growing your own plants, a good resource book is Lavender: How to grow and use the fragrant herb by Ellen Spector Platt. She includes the history, lore and recipes as well as planting guides.

Type of Plants
Some prefer the English varieties of Lavender for culinary uses as it has the most intense fragrance. Clint Alcott and Randy Murray, makers of of For the Love of Lavender products, prefer Lavandula x intermedia 'Provence' as it has the least amount of camphor so you get a more subtle scent and flavor without as much risk of overdoing. As a general rule, the darker the bloom, the more camphor the bloom contains.

Provence Lavender adds a nice floral accent without being perfumey, medicinal or bitter tasting. When using Lavender, a little goes a long way so it's best to start out with small amounts and experiment a bit. Too much Lavender can easily overpower a dish and lend a soapy taste.

• Normally, the flowers are used for cooking. Dry Lavender should be broken up a bit in an herb mill or mortar and pestle. Don't pulverize it to a powder. Sharon Shipley's The Lavender Cookbook is my favorite source for techniques and recipes. Included are desserts, meats and breads that all use lavender. Sharon also recommends Provence Lavender as the best variety for culinary use.

Cooking Methods
There are a few basic ways to use Lavender. Once you master them, it's easy to modify some of your favorite recipes to include a bit of Lavender.

• Crush dried Lavender flowers, add them to sugar, and store in an airtight jar until ready for use. Use a sieve to separate the sugar and flowers. The scented sugar can be used in cakes, cookies, whipped cream, jams, and other sweets for a delicate flowery flavor.
• Add Lavender to water to create an infusion. Strained, this makes a nice addition to teas, lemonade, or other summer drinks.

Lavender is not just for sweet treats. It is a wonderful addition to savory meat dishes as well. The traditional way is by using an herb mixture called Herbes de Provence, a combination that includes Lavender and other herbs. Every brand I've tried has a different combination. Perhaps the one best suited to my style of cooking is one called Herbs de Santa Fe that has red and green chile and a Christmas, which is a combination of the two. It's available from For the Love of Lavender.

• Use a tiny bit sprinkled on a salad or in your vinaigrette dressing.
• Use as a dry rub on roasted meat such as a leg of lamb or on baby back ribs. Dried Lavender lends a nice smoky flavor to meat, poultry or fish that is just wonderful.
• Use the Lavender stems in lieu of metal or wood skewers for small pieces of meat. Soak the stems in water for 5 minutes before skewering the meat and placing on the grill.

Keep several Provence Lavender plants in your kitchen garden and consider keeping a potted plant in the house for winter use. You'll have a pretty plant that's a useful addition to your repertoire of herbs along with the added benefit of a nice scent whenever you brush the leaves.

View all our lavender plants and products

Design Tip #9 -- Adding Color to the Fall Landscape
By Mary Ann Walz

Nature announces fall in the southern Sangre de Cristo Mountains of Northern New Mexico with a glorious display of purple Asters and yellow Chamisa. Then display is augmented by the golden leaves of the quaking Aspen trees along with the red and orange leaves of Three-Leaf Sumac. It's a gorgeous time of year.

Although the color palette may be a bit different, similar exhibits of changing foliage take place everywhere this time of year. But if your garden doesn't have a lot of turning leaves, a few tricks follow for brightening the fall garden. Some will offer instant gratification, and others will provide spectacular results next autumn.

• Tuck some Chrysanthemums in pots that look tired or in areas of the perennial garden that are lacking color.
• Select a big sunny spot to put a Helianthus maximiliana. This spectacular plant will grow to 6 feet in height and 3 to 4 feet wide. Its bright yellow blooms seem to glisten in the autumn sun.
• Add Aster novae-angliae 'Purple Dome' and Solidago sphacelata 'Golden Fleece' to your perennial border to mirror the colors of the wild Asters and Chamisa.
• Look for a spot to place either Rhus aromatica 'Gro-Low' or Rhus trilobata. Both shrubs have brilliant fall foliage with shades of red, orange and burgundy.
• Ornamental grasses often have wonderful fall color, decorative seed heads, and offer texture throughout much of the winter months. A couple of favorites are Schizachyrium scoparium 'Blaze' (Little Bluestem) and Panicum virgatum 'Shenandoah' (Switch Grass).

The garden season is not over in September. Keep it going with a few new additions and you'll find many warm days to observe the results of your efforts.

Plant Combination
This month features two plants that work beautifully together in the fall.

Aster novae-angliae 'Purple Dome' (Purple Dome New England Aster) #23518 is an outstanding compact cultivar of the New England Aster. Notable for its symmetrical mounding habit and luscious deep lavender-purple flowers, it's easy to grow in any decent soil and not bothered by mildew. Zones 3-8.

Solidago sphacelata 'Golden Fleece' (Dwarf Goldenrod) #91928 is a superb dwarf Goldenrod, recently introduced by Dr. Richard Lightly, director of the Mt. Cuba Center for the Study of Piedmont Flora in Delaware. The profuse sturdy, arching golden-yellow flower stems make an eye catching display. Pictured here with Agastache cana in the background. Like all of the Goldenrods, "Golden Fleece" is very easy to grow in average garden conditions. Zones 4-9.

Pick-Your-Own Raspberries
For the past 14 years David Salman's family has opened their ranch's raspberry fields so you can pick-your-own. You can also purchase picked berries in the Ranch's country store. Raspberries are available through the first week in October, weather permitting.

The Ranch Cafe has a yummy lunch menu and sells cooling soft-serve ice cream and drinks when you've finished picking.

Located in Mora in Northern New Mexico, the historic ranch buildings were built in the 1860s. The old mill, apple storage warehouse and house still stand.

View more information and directions.

It's Fall and It's Time for Bulbs
Bulbs are a miraculous part of nature's life cycle. They hold sleeping flowers that leap into bloom when their season arrives. Some are fall blooming, others are spring, but just like perennials flowers, bulbs can also be woven into the recurring fabric of a garden.

Plan how bulbs can be planted into your native grass lawns, groundcover beds and ornamental grasses to extend the season of color.

Also, we have two new pre-planned bulb gardens – the Shades of Blue Bulb Garden and the White Bouquet Bulb Garden.

View What's New for Fall
View our Fall Flowering Bulbs
View our Spring Flowering Bulbs

Our September Garden Game
This month our Garden Game is another crossword puzzle. To print it out click here.

Gift Certificates and Gift Gardens
High Country Gardens wants to make gift giving easy for you and a delight for friends and loved ones. In addition to our traditional Gift Certificate, we now offer special gift packages--our most popular Plant Collections and Pre-Planned Gardens.

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