Lavender Sugar

I have been moving my lavender plants around my garden for a few years now, in search of the spot they will love to grow in. I knew they liked soil with drainage and since we have sand for soil, I wasn't too fussy about first planting them. But nope, they needed something more....long story short, they are now in a spot that is rocky, gravelly, sandy, elevated off the ground and they are happy little guys! This is my favorite herb...I really don't care if I didn't use if for anything except smelling...that would be fine. There is nothing like the fragrance of lavender....at least for me. So, this year one of my plants favored me with three flower stems which I cut, inhaled deeply, photographed and stared at. Not enough flowers to cook with or dry so I decided to make lavender sugar! I took about a cup of organic cane sugar and broke up the flowers and stirred them into the sugar, covered them with cheescloth and, as I do with anything herbal and infused, put it into the sun for a couple of hours. Since then I let it sit on the counter for a week or so and this weekend I sifted the flowers out of the sugar and now I am ready to use the sugar in teas or on top of cookies or strawberries or........just stick my finger in and take a taste!

There was a time when I would get a migraines alot and if I could catch them before it got too bad and if I would rub lavender oil on my temples, I could avert alot of hours of suffering. Fortunately, I don't have the headaches anymore but I always have lavender oil in my medicine cabinet. It is fabulous on burns or a dab on the pillow to relax you at bedtime. I infuse it in olive oil by the quart and then use that for soapmaking. Gosh, now that I think about it, if I could be buried in a bed of lavender I would be a happy, happy corpse!!