My mother used to buy little sachets of lavender that she would put in drawers. One of these was a wicker container I carried for a long time in my knap sack when I was seventeen. The smell was very effective in masking the odour of blue cheese that I would carry with other food items to snack on. It wasn't until I was twenty that I really learned anything about lavender. Till then I confused it with lilac and thought that it grew on a shrub, then an elderly lady in my church showed me her little lavender clump in her back yard. Its humble presentation utterly amazed me.
I try to pick it every year. It grows everywhere in Vancouver thanks to the generous public plantings, courtesy of Vancouver City Hall, which also happens to be the location of some of my most frequently plundered lavender beds. Lavender is an absolutely wonderful herb. I collect six or seven stalks per outing but only when I come across a fairly substantial crop. I store them in my shirt pocket and try not to get drunk on the fragrance as I get through my day. At home I leave it to dry in my fruit bowl where it repels fruit flies and bed bugs. Yes it does work.
And it smells so beautiful.
I will break off momentarily and ask Uncle Google...
Lavandula (common name lavender) is a genus of 39 species of flowering plants in the mint family, Lamiaceae. It is native to the Old World and is found from Cape Verde and the Canary Islands, southern Europe across to northern and eastern Africa, the Mediterranean, southwest Asia to southeast India. Many members of the genus are cultivated extensively in temperate climates as ornamental plants for garden and landscape use, for use as culinary herbs, and also commercially for the extraction of essential oils. The most widely cultivated species, Lavandula angustifolia is often referred to as lavender, and there is a colour named for the shade of the flowers of this species.
And it smells so beautiful...
Culinary use[edit]
Though it has many other traditional uses in southern France, lavender is not used in traditional southern French cooking. It does not appear at all in the best-known compendium of Provençal cooking, J.-B. Reboul's Cuisinière Provençale [19] In the 1970s, a herb blend called herbes de Provence usually including lavender was invented by spice wholesalers,[20] and lavender has more recently become popular in cookery.
Lavender lends a floral and slightly sweet flavour to most dishes, and is sometimes paired with sheep's-milk and goat's-milk cheeses. For most cooking applications the dried buds, which are also referred to as flowers, are used. Some chefs experiment with the leaves but only the buds contain the essential oil of lavender, from which the scent and flavour of lavender are derived. In the United States, both lavender syrup and dried lavender buds are used to make lavender scones and marshmallows.
I have never used it in food or beverage and there is something in my very pragmatic and working class subconscious that recoils at preciosity. But it smells so beautiful...
Medical uses[edit]
Lavender is used extensively with herbs and aromatherapy. Infusions are believed to soothe insect bites, burns, and headaches. Bunches of lavender repel insects. In pillows, lavender seeds and flowers aid sleep and relaxation.[10] An infusion of flowerheads added to a cup of boiling water is used to soothe and relax at bedtime[citation needed]. Lavender oil (or extract of Lavender) is used to treat acne when diluted 1:10 with water, rosewater, or witch hazel; it also treats skin burns and inflammatory conditions.[citation needed]
A study published in 2010 investigated anxiolytic effects and influence on sleep quality. Lavender oil with a high percentage of linalool and linalyl acetate, in the form of capsules, was generally well tolerated. It showed meaningful efficacy in alleviating anxiety and related sleep disturbances.[21]
Lavender oil is approved for use as an anxiolytic in Germany under the name Lasea.[22][23] A survey paper on lavender and the nervous system published in 2013 states that, "there is growing evidence suggesting that lavender oil may be an effective medicament in treatment of several neurological disorders."[24]
Lavender may be very effective with wounds; however, Lavender Honey (created from bees feeding on lavender plants), instead of lavender essential oil has the best effects of uninfected wounds.
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