Lavender Lemonade

Lavender lemonade is one of my very favorite ways of passing the time by during the summer. There is just nothing like it!

Here is my favorite way of making it.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups of freshly squeezed lemon juice, approximately 9 large lemons
1 3/4 cups of white sugar
2 TBSP of lavender
8 Cups of water

The first thing you will want to do is make a syrup out of your sugar and 1 cup of the water. Heat the sugar water to a boil stirring occasionally. Once it reaches a boil remove it from the heat and poor it over the 2 TBLS of dried lavender. Make sure your bowl is large enough to accommodate all of the lavender and all of the sugar water. Allow the lavender to steep for 4 min. Strain out the lavender and keep the lavender flavored sugar water. Allow it to cool. Once it is cool enough, move it to the fridge so that it can get nice and chilly!

Now its time to get juicy! Squeeze your lemons until you reach 1 1/2 cups of lemon juice. Place the lemon juice in a large pitcher. Add the remaining 7 cups of water and the lavender sugar water. Stir. If you want to add a magical touch serve with ice and garnish with a bit of fresh lavender.

Enjoy!

Just a bit about lavender..,

There are 3 different varieties of lavender pictured here. Mainly I started collecting lavender plants for my bees, but then I became interested in harvesting it for myself.

On the far left are 3 strands of French Lavender. This is a beautiful plant and I would say by far the most fragrant of the 3. The leaves actually smell better than the flowers! All you have to do is rub the leaves with your hands and they will be stained with a lovely lavender smell. It is considered to be more of an ornamental lavender not because you can't use it in cooking or crafting, but because it doesn't have a great yield.

The next variety of lavender pictured is Spanish Lavender. The leaves on this plant have a very distinctive rosemary like smell. Spanish Lavender is not usually preferred for cooking sweets and desserts because it is less sweet than the English Lavender, but it is great for the more savory dishes like meets. It can also be used in soaps and to make sachets.

The last variety of lavender pictured is English Lavender or Common Lavender. This is the variety that most people prefer to cook with. It has the sweetest flavor and a great yield!