Preserving – Lavender Syrup and Lavender Sugar

I have a lovely lavender plant at my allotment, although I have no idea what variety it is, and it obviously quite likes where it’s planted because this year I have had a crazy number of flower stalks.

I decided to cut it earlier in the week because it had spread so much and was covering the path between mine and my neighbor’s plots and was starting to get trampled.  However once it was cut and I saw quite how much I had i realised I had no idea what I could even do with it.

Thank goodness for Pinterest…. (the link will take you to a search for Fresh Lavender Recipes)

The first thing I tried was Lavender Syrup.  I found the recipe here on The View From Great Island blog.  As I had a lot of lavender I doubled the recipe up and ended up with these 2 bottles of syrup.

It’s super easy to make but mine did need the food colouring to changing it from slightly murky grey to a more appealing lilac shade.

The syrup has a strange more-ish taste, it’s obviously quite sweet, and definitely tastes of lavender, but leaves you with a slightly antiseptic taste at the end – which bizarrely is the bit that makes you want more.  The serving suggestion was with ice cream, but I think it would also work well in lemonade or Prosecco.

There was still lots lavender left so I started looking for other recipes too, and found this one for Lavender Sugar.  It doesn’t say if the lavender should be dried or fresh, so I’ve tried it with fresh and if that doesn’t work I’ll try again with dried!  Further research is suggesting I should have waited for the flowers to dry but we’ll see what happens.

I also now have 2 massive bunches of lavender drying in the cellar for future use…