Lavender Lemonade

Lavender Lemonade | OMF!

Lavender is such a beautiful flower.

I love seeing it grow in Los Angeles because it brings color to the brown and crunchy landscapes. Soon after moving here, my roommate and I bought a small lavender plant and added it to our front lawn. Since, it’s been flourishing fabulously and has grown 4 times it’s size! I love seeing the bees buzzing around the lilac petals, searching for food. Reminds me that life still exists in this desert…

Lavender Lemonade | OMF!

I not only like the colors of lavender but also the smell. Its rich, flowery scent can be overwhelming but I love how well the petals and leaves dry. They can be crumbled into a mesh bag and stuffed into a sock drawer or closet for years without losing scent! 

The one thing I didn’t know is that lavender could be used in recipes! I was introduced to this while watching a cooking video about Lavender Caramels. Also while lesson planning for my high school students, I was trying to find recipes that would reflect edible parts of the plant: Roots, stem, leaves, flowers, fruit and seeds.

I’d found recipes for everything but the flowers. Broccoli is a flower but I wanted a recipe that used herbal flowers and not vegetables. Maybe something sweet that could be more of a dessert…

So I look up recipes for flowers. A tea perhaps….

Lavender Lemonade | OMF!

…somehow or other I came across hot Lavender Tea with honey or lemon. I tasted it and decided that cold would be tastier. It was!

So I added Lavender Lemonade to the recipe list.

I was surprised how much of a hit it was; the kids loved it and drank the whole thing. I think they liked it better than the salad they’d made the week before ;-)

Here’s the recipe for you!

Lavender Lemonade
An eloquent twist on traditional lemonade. Perfect for teatime in the afternoon with scones and jam (or at least, I *think* that's what teatime looks like ;-))
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Ingredients
  1. 2 cups hot water
  2. 1 cup sugar
  3. 5 lavender sprigs
  4. zest from 2 lemons
  5. 1/2 cup lemon juice (3-4 lemons?)
  6. 8 cups cold water
  7. ice, if needed
Instructions
  1. Heat up 2 cups water until nearly boiling.
  2. Stir the sugar into the water until it's dissolved and pour it into a pitcher. Add the lavender sprigs and let steep for 10 minutes.
  3. While it's steeping, zest the lemons and juice them. Cut one of the lemons into circles. Add this to the pitcher as well as the cold water.
  4. Stir and serve over ice.
  5. Store in the fridge for up to a week.
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