Lavender Lemonade

After a rough night up late with my sick dog, I decided I needed a little cooking therapy. Nothing quite soothes me the way lavender does, as is obvious by my blog name, right?

Friends and family have known for years about my passion for lavender and they often give me some as gifts. What’s great is there are so many sources for culinary lavender now and each one has its own unique flavor. Here’s a sampling of the packing you might see.

 
It’s a beautiful spring day here in Arkansas and I’d recently given my lavender lemonade recipe to a friend so the choice became obvious. 

2 ½ cups water

1 cup granulated sugar

1 Tbs dried culinary lavender flowers

1½ - 2 ½ cups cold water (depending on how strong you like your lemonade and how fast your ice cubes will melt – I used 1½ today)

1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice*

Ice cubes

* an average size lemon, especially this time of year will yield just under ¼ cup of juice. Sometimes it takes only 4 lemons to get to 1 cup of juice and sometimes you need up to 8. Today it took 6.

In a saucepan, bring water and sugar just to a boil and stir until sugar is dissolved.

Remove from heat and add lavender. Stir.

Cover and let stand for 1 hour.

Strain lavender syrup through a mesh strainer, discarding lavender flowers.

Stir in lemon juice and cold water.

Serve over ice.

This makes about 4-6 servings but is easily doubled.
Enjoy!

(I’m a little distracted today and accidentally threw the lavender in before the water boiled. No harm, no foul. It was just as delicious. Even us “professionals” make mistakes, too)

Oops! It all worked out.