Lavender and raspberries

191/365 - Carus and G walking through the lavender rows.

A friend, J, bought a Groupon for five bunches of lavender for the price of one and invited me to come with her to get the lavender.  We went to Mountainside Lavender.

Carus and I joined her and her two girls and cut a whole bunch of lavender. By the end of it my hands smelled really lovely.

Then, J was sweet enough to share a couple of the bunches with me. Carus and I are going to make a few lavender wands tomorrow and then I'm going to dry the rest.





















I might make some lavender cookies, or maybe try my hand at making soap. It's been on my someday to try list for ages. Or I could just make some satchets for dresser drawers.




This is the same friend (slash neighbor - have I mentioned how awesome my neighbors are? Yes. Oh, well that's cause they are!) that gave me peach lavender jelly, which I really liked soooo when peaches become ripe I will be making (well attempting anyways) some of that.

Anyhoo, back to the lavender farm. There were several different varieties (species?) of lavender and we mixed and matched our bunches so I have some of each. I'm not sure which is my favorite!

This is one farm of several in the area and this particular one (not sure about the other ones) has a great view of Mount Hood. Today was gorgeous and warm, but not extremely hot.

After we got our lavender we headed down the road a bit to J's favorite U-pick berry farm and we got some raspberries, and ate a bunch too.

 

 

 

 

Carus was a great picker, and if I wasn't getting too hot (it wasn't roasting, but with the sun beating down on you for a few hours, you start to feel it) I could've picked more. Of course, that would have meant more berries for me to put up.

I made a chocolate cake, per unanimous request from the masses, and mixed some raspberries right into the cake batter. What I licked from the beater was yummy, very chocolate-y and raspberry-y and I can't wait to try some cake.



I will frost it tomorrow, with bonus raspberries between the layers and on top.

All that lavender in the basket is what we took home. Sorry that my mouth is open, I was talking to Carus when she snapped this photo.  I had her take another with my mouth shut, but I'm not in focus in that one...so open mouth it is... :)


The lavender sat in the car during berry picking, which made my car smelled great!

Wasn't the greatest help to my allergies, but the smell is good. 

Anyhoo round two - the rest of the raspberries will go into my first attempt at making jam.  Not just first attempt at raspberry jam, but first attempt at any jam.

In theory I know what I'm doing. . .


Oh and speaking of jam, at the lavender farm, since it happened to be a weekend of lavender farm tours of the area (we only went to the one farm) there were artisans and crafters out selling their goods - most of which had to do with lavender or gardening - but (the point) they had BBQ sauce, jams and jellies, and syrup, all with lavender in it.  Carus and I tested the jelly and it was pretty good.  She tested the BBQ sauce and said it was good too.

I didn't buy any (this time, maybe next) and I'm not ready to attempt to make either on my own (yet).  But still, interesting.

Well, I thought so anyways....





Look at those red, red berries.  They are as good as they look too!