Cleaning the Lavender

Cleaning the Lavender

This year the lavender is looking good and we are just about ready to harvest. All we need is a couple of sunny days to make sure it is dry. So we reckoned it was about time we looked at last year's lavender. It has been sitting in a wool bale for 12 months so we were a bit apprehensive as to how it would turn out. Apart from a couple of dead mice it didn't look too bad so we picked out the stalks and shook them to let the flowers fall to the bottom. It was very dusty so we wore dust masks while we did this first stage. Once we had cleared much of the plant matter into a box then we progressively seived the remainder to separate out the flowers from the stalks. A seedling tray did the trick. 

Then it was time to spread out the flowers on a flyscreen to allow the dust to fall through. Whilst spread we could spot the red droppings of the dying mice and remove them by hand. After all that we could pick up the flowers and store them in a 5 litre plastic bucket. 

Now we can use the lavender to keep the moths away and make our clothes smell nice. This variety of lavender has oil that has a high camphor content so it is not ideal for pillows.

Next job - cut the lavender for this year's harvest!