How to Dry Lavender
Lavender Herb - Dried Lavender
Learning how to dry lavender is really quite easy but there are a few tricks to ensuring you get top quality dried lavender for use in medicinal recipes, lavender soaps, lavender water and using for lavender tea and my personal favorite, lavender tea cookies!
Drying lavender requires little tools or skill. But here are some of my tips when picking lavender to dry.
Drying Lavender - Tip#1
Pick your lavender flowers while they are in full bloom. Some people wait too long and the flowers are partially spent. It is better to harvest sooner than later.
Drying Lavender - Tip#2
Pick your lavender early in the morning, before the sun has hit the flowers. This will give you a better quality dried lavender than if you pick in the mid day sun.
Drying Lavender - Tip#3
Pick your lavender stems long, this will make the process of hanging the lavender to dry much easier.
How to Dry Lavender - Steps
English lavender is my favortie for all my lavender recipes and the one I am most used to drying. Pick your stems long, and healthy.
When you have a nice sized bunch, wrap the bottom of the bunch with string or an elastic band. Make sure that you have something to tie it off with.
Now hang your lavender in a cool, dry, dark place. This will give you the best colour. The main key is it must be dry!! If it is damp, your lavender will go moldy and be of no use.
You want the temperature on the cool side so the lavender dries slowly.
It should take 7-10 days to dry out and be ready for you to use.
Lavender Tea with Dried Lavender
To use your dried lavender for tea, or any other lavender recipe, you simply strip the flowers from the stem. You can do this by pushing them off between two of your fingers.
For every 8 ounces of lavender tea you will need 1 teaspoon of dried lavender herb.
Simply infuse the lavender in fresh boiled water for 4-6 minutes. This is a relaxing tea, great to calm nerves.
Dried lavender has many uses and I hope that you found this article on drying lavender useful.
More Lavender Herb Information
Lavender Herb - Description, Uses, Benefits
Lavender Tea - Buy Lavender, Lavender Tea Recipe
Return from How to Dry Lavender to Lavender Herb
