Blog Posts
Welcome to Bald Butte Lavender Farm! We are a small, family-run farm in Johnson, WA. We are passionate about growing beautiful, fragrant lavender and hand-crafting small-batch products. Follow our blog to learn about how we grow and harvest lavender, create the perfect lavender products for your everyday life, and choose the perfect lavender cultivar to enhance the flavor of your favorite recipes. As former educators we want to take you behind the scenes and share the daily adventures of running a lavender business.
Culinary Lavender
Most lavender flower buds are edible. English lavender cultivars such as Purple Bouquet, Buena Vista, Folgate, Rosea, Melissa, Royal Velvet, Miss Katherine, and Avice Hill tend to be sweeter and are used in beverages, cooking, and baking. Hybrid lavender cultivars such as Grosso, Phenomenal, and Provence have more of a camphor flavor and are typically used in soaps, lotions, and savory dishes. Ultimately, you should taste different cultivars and determine what cultivar you like the best. The key to cooking with lavender is to experiment, starting out with a small amount of buds, and add more to taste. Read your lavender recipe carefully, and remember to use 1/3rd the quantity of dried to fresh buds. You should only buy your culinary lavender buds from reputable lavender growers and resellers.
How do you choose the “perfect” lavender to add to your food or drink to enhance the flavor providing that distinctive and delicious floral note? The kind of lavender you choose depends on your individual tastes. We have created the following guide to help you choose that “perfect” lavender from our eight culinary lavenders. Just click on this linked Lavender Culinary Cultivars PDF document.
Download our featured lavender recipes, and check out the Lavender Northwest website for additional beverage, dessert, and savory recipes. You can also search Google for other culinary “lavender recipes”. Check out the Art of Cooking with Lavender, which is a full-color cookbook with 80 recipes, and over 70 lavender and recipe photos.
Let us know your favorite culinary cultivars and recipes.
Lavender Farm How-To PDFs
We welcome you to read and download the following how-to pdf’s to learn more about lavender farming. Better yet, visit our farm and explore our vibrant fields, learn about the art of growing and harvesting lavender from the farmer, and shop our handcrafted collection of products made right here on the farm. If you have any questions, then send us a text or e-mail message by clicking on Contact Us.
Dried Lavender Wreaths
Our wreaths are made using Lavandula angustifolia species which have a floral fragrance and are available in several colors including white, pink, purple, and mixed purple/pink and purple/white.
The wreaths are handmade using a Mitchell Craftmaster II clamping machine, and are available in small, medium, and large outside diameters.
Dried lavender is fragile, and therefore, wreaths should be displayed in a low traffic area away from direct sunlight, wind, heat, and excessive moisture to minimize accidental damage, fading, shedding, and mold formation. In spite of your care, lavender buds will naturally shed and the fragrance will dissipate over time.
In particular, for outdoor display ensure the location is shaded, and protected from wind and rain. Consider spraying your wreath with a clear sealer such as UV-protected acrylic spray or hair spray to provide some protection against wind, moisture, and dust to extend its lifespan.
