Lavender Daze

To be honest, most of the gardening I have done is by trial and error. My husband, who grew up on a farm in Ohio, knows more about gardening than I could ever forget. He indulges my trips to the antique heirloom plant place aka Fiske Gardens and my purchases from the local Agway, so I can decorate the yard as I see fit.

More than five years ago, I bought a lavender plant. I had no real plan for it, but I had a sunny spot at the top of the driveway and with out much thought, I dug a hole and plopped it in. I maybe *maybe* watered is a handful of times before something else caught my attention and I had to focus on other things. So 2 years ago, I noticed that the little forgotten shrub had now grown huge and the amount of blooms on it were just amazing. The amount that I had, needed to be dried and preserved for the future. I had no idea what I was doing at that point to dry anything I grew. Preserving flowers in silica I was an expert at, but air drying something that was edible was something that was a new challenge.
I had dried stuff before, don't get me wrong. But the problem is, I will take cuttings and turn them upside down on the odd nail hodgepodge on the kitchen beams and the nails in barn and almost forget about them, routinely. There is no destination for drying, just a little here and there. They become part of the chaos of my house, and it settles into the charm of living in a old antique home.

One trip to Pickity Place changed that. That same year that the lavender over produced, the Wachusett Garden Club had an outing to Pickity Place in New Hampshire. You may have heard of their gardens or their restaurant; but what they are really known for is that they are the setting for "Little Red Riding Hood's" house. The illustrator for Golden Books found this charming antique home and made it the fabled residence of "Little Red Riding Hood".  One could simply label it a tourist attraction with their three gift shops (yes there are 3 of them on the property) and be done, but I think that is a discredit to what the current owners have achieved. The restaurant is not only wonderful, but they have gardens and greenhouses. They teach in the greenhouses, and they also GROW a good deal of the fresh produce and herbs that they serve in the dining room. To make the most of each harvest, they dry their herbs in drying sheds. These are then used for not only cooking, but also as dried herb goods to offer in their gift shops. And wonderful gift shops they are!

Before our meal, the members of the club wandered around taking a tour of the gardens and I happened to look in the window of one of the charming little buildings. It was a drying shack. 

You know those moments when a light bulb goes off in your head? Yep, mine went off at 500 watts!
Nails were stuck into the rafters of the little garden shed, and from each nail one line of wire was strung, over and over, like a guitar strings on the arm of a guitar. The bottoms of the drying herb bundles were bound with elastics and then hung from those wires using... get this: unfolded paperclips in the shape of an "S".

This was possibility! This was organization! This was ****DRYING**** to preserve!

So as it is very hard to understand what I am talking about here, I will post some photos for you to understand HOW to bind and HOW to hang and show you the wire trellis I made in my attic.

Binding:

This is the hardest part of it all... hold about a comfortable bunch in your hand, take a rubber band and catch 4 stem bottoms then wrap around and around with the elastic, finishing by sliding the remaining band over the bottom. I will post a video when I find the file I recorded. It is easier to see it go together in real time.
 I don't bind a huge amount of lavender together as too much together is a moisture nightmare. Moisture is the enemy here. Moisture leads to mold. Smaller bunches are better than big hunky ones.

Hooks:

Paper clips are your friend. Take medium or large clips and twist them until they resemble an "S". Sliding one end under the elastic, this leaves the top of the S to be the hook to hang on the drying trellis. 


Trellis:

So what I did was I took what they call "paddle wire", you can get this in AC Moore or Micheals. It is wire that is wrapped around a paddle...there may be 10 yards or so per paddle. The wire is easily manipulated so you can wrap it around nails or wood crossbeams, like I did here:

Once this is all dried, I unhook it from the wire with an oversized clear trash bag under it, capturing all lavender seeds that decide to drop off.