Recipe Ideas

Merritt Farm Lavender not only looks beautiful and smells wonderful but it tastes good too.  The secret is that a little goes a long way.  Fresh lavender flowers add beautiful color to salads.  Mix fresh or dried lavender flowers with sea salt and a few drops of your favorite cooking oil for storage in a tightly sealed container to toss with salads or stir fry. 

Flowers can be put in sugar and sealed tightly for a couple of weeks then the sugar can be substituted for ordinary sugar for a cake, buns or custards.  Grind the lavender in a herb or coffee grinder or mash it with mortar and pestle before using in baking recipes.  The spikes and leaves of lavender can be used in most dishes in place of rosemary.  Use stems for making kabobs.  Just place your favorite fruit or shrimp on the stems which have been previously soaked in water and grill. 

Fresh flowers look beautiful and taste good too in a glass of champagne, with chocolate cake, or as a garnish for sorbets or ice creams.  Lavender lends itself to savory dishes from hearty stews to wine-reduced sauces.  Lavender blooms add a mysterious scent to custards, flans or sorbets. 

NOTE:  Most flowers from florists, nurseries or garden centers have been treated with pesticides.  Organically grown lavender is recommended for culinary purposes. 

To order organic lavender call "Merritt Lavender Farm" at (541) 347-7190.

One of our customer's favorite recipes:

LAVENDER SHORTBREAD
Sweet Annie’s Herb Nursery

1 ½ c. butter (no substitutes)
2 1/3 c. flour
2/3 c. sugar
½ c. cornstarch
2 TB. finely chopped lavender flowers
¼ tsp. salt
1 TB. chopped fresh mint

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  In a large bowl, cream together butter, sugar, lavender & mint; mix until light & fluffy.  Add flour, cornstarch & salt.  Beat until combined.  Divide dough in half.  Flatten into squares & wrap in plastic.  Chill until firm.  On a floured board, roll or pat out each square to a thickness of 3/8”.  Cut the dough into 1 ½ “ squares or rounds.  Transfer to baking sheet, spacing cookies about 1” apart.  Prick each cookie several times with a fork.  Bake 20-25 min. until pale golden (do not brown).  Cool slightly, then transfer to a rack.  You can then sprinkle them with lavender powdered sugar.  Store in tin cookie boxes or sealed containers.

LAVENDER SUGAR:  Put a few lavender flowers in a jar with powdered sugar for a day before using sugar