As some of you may know we grow a considerable amount of lavender. This is the time of the year when we have to harvest it and dry it. We do sell some fresh at the market each Saturday in June but the vast majority is dried for us to sell the rest of the year. The stems are cut, bunched and then hung in our drying room. This is a fancy term for a greenhouse covered in black plastic. The bunches are hung on nails driven into two by fours mounted on an A frame. This very simple and effective system works well. To dry lavender well we need lots of air movement and no direct sunlight.

It takes about a week to dry. We then box up the bunches and store them at Lorraine's Drinkwell facility in Dixon. After lavender we will harvest and dry Basil for 'Herbs Du Provence' or as I will call it 'Herbs Du Dixon'.