Chamomile and Lavender

Time for some flowers in the garden! I’m hoping flowers will attract good bugs and keep yucky bugs away from the veggies.

Lavender in the middle with chamomile all around (and a couple tulips, for color). Lately, I’ve been obsessed with lavender flavored things – try it with dark chocolate! Or in scones! Also, I have plans to make little sachets to put in drawers and cupboards to keep linens fresh.

And chamomile for tea. My favorite kind of tea (No caffeine). So simple: just dry out out the flowers and steep in boiling water.

I recently purchased a cookbook from the Huntington Library called A Celebration of Herbs. This book is fantastic! It has a fantastic recipe for lavender ginger ice cream. I am so inspired to start growing herbs and actually using them. Plus there are beautiful color plates of these scientific plant drawings by Elizabeth Blackwell from 1737. Her story is crazy: her husband was sent to debtors prison, so she raised the money to bail him out by researching, illustrating and publishing an encyclopedia of herbs and plants used in cooking and medicine. Look her up!