Lavender only unfolds its rich bouquet when it is dried, and the valuable ingredients are then best preserved. Only clean and healthy plants or parts of plants are harvested, which are best hung upside down in a dry and shady place. Washing herbs before drying is taboo, and of course this also applies to lavender.

drying lavender

After harvesting, the plant should be dried as quickly as possible, but gently, in order to preserve the ingredients and aroma as best as possible. The aim is to remove all moisture from the herb, but without destroying the volatile essential oils. If dried at too high temperatures, their natural degradation begins. The right combination of temperature and humidity is therefore important. A temperature of 38 °C is ideal for drying, only special dryers can do that. In the home, ideal conditions are difficult to achieve, so a healthy amount of improvisation counts.

Where to dry lavender

Well-suited drying rooms are poorly insulated attics, garden houses or sheds. It is important that the rooms heat up well in summer and can also be ventilated. The ideal place should be dry, have little humidity and also be as dark as possible.

Dry lavender leaves

In the case of lavender, the young leaves in particular are harvested, dried and used as a kitchen spice. Just before flowering, the delicate leaves have the most intense aroma - like almost all herbs. Cut the leaves together with their stems, bundle them into small bunches and hang them up with the shoot tips down. It is important that the individual bouquets do not hang too close together; for quick drying, the air must be able to circulate well. Larger leaves, on the other hand, are picked individually and laid out on grids or paper. After three to four days, most of the leaves are completely dry; you can tell when they crackle when touched. The leaves are then stripped from the stems and crumbled.

Lavender as a kitchen spice

Young lavender leaves flavor fish dishes, stews, soups and poultry. But be careful: Only use the very aromatic herb sparingly, even small amounts are enough. The dried leaves should be cooked as well, as they give off their aroma best that way. Incidentally, lavender - especially the flowers - is part of the traditional herbal mixture "Herbs of Provence". The spice also tastes delicious in herb butter, together with other Mediterranean herbs.

Dry lavender flowers

Flower harvest is best done shortly after full bloom. Larger flowers are harvested individually and laid out to dry. If, on the other hand, the flowers are very small - as is the case with most types of lavender - the inflorescences are cut with the stems, bundled and dried as described for the leaves. You can then chop up the dried flowers, but you can also store them whole and only chop them up when you need them. In this way, even more of the intense aroma is retained.

Mix a scented sachet

Whether for the linen cupboard or as a potpourri for a pleasant room fragrance, mix your own scented sachet! To do this, mix lavender blossoms, lemon-scented lemon balm leaves and rose blossoms - naturally dried and crushed - in roughly the same ratio and pack this combination in a linen or cotton bag. Tie this loosely and place in a dry location of your choosing. By the way, this mixture is suitable, doused with boiling water and steeped for about 15 minutes - also great as an additive for the bath water.

Store dried lavender properly

After drying, the lavender or its individual components are crushed and packed in clean, airtight and opaque containers or paper bags. Dried lavender can be stored in this way for up to a year.

Other ways of preserving lavender

Traditionally, lavender is preserved by drying it. However, there are other ways to further process fresh or dried lavender. Lavender sugar or lavender honey, for example, is very popular, as is aromatic lavender oil.

sweet lavender

Sugar is great for preserving that wonderful lavender aroma. The flowers (and maybe leaves too) are dried, crumbled and mixed with commercially available sugar. In this way, the aroma of the lavender is transferred to the sugar. Lavender sugar keeps for a long time and is good for sweetening teas, baked goods and desserts. Lavender honey is also very easy to make. To do this, proceed as follows:

  • Heat the honey to around 40 °C so that it liquefies.
  • Now mix the liquid honey with the dried lavender flowers.
  • Pour the mixture into an airtight jar.
  • Store at a consistent temperature.
  • The lavender honey is ready once the flowers have dissolved.
  • The honey tastes good as a spread, in tea or in warm milk.

lavender oil

Lavender oil is also not difficult to make. Fill clean glass bottles halfway with fresh leaves and flowers. The bottles are then filled with a high-quality but tasteless cooking oil and sealed tightly. To avoid mold growth it is important that the herbs are completely covered with oil. The filled bottles should stand in a warm place for about a week. The oil is then sieved through a cloth and again filled into clean bottles. If the taste of the oil is not intense enough, the process can be repeated several times. Keep the oil cool and dark. If it becomes cloudy, it can no longer be used.

tips and tricks

The intensely scented lavender is one of the aphrodisiacs - the "plants of love". No wonder, since the herb is said to have a blood circulation-enhancing, strengthening and stimulating effect.

IJA

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Herbs