pennsylvania lavender festival 2011

Today was a perfect day for a trip to Provence. Well not Provence exactly, but a reasonable facsimile a few hours away in Fairfield, Pennsylvania. Willow Pond Farm was hosting it's annual Pennsylvania Lavender Festival this weekend.

My festival-loving mother & sister-in-law had it on their calendars way back in January.

Dana swears she did not wear the purple shirt on purpose.

We were looking forward to the pick-your-own lavender event. They handed out clippers and let us have the run of the two acre lavender field.

I went a little crazy with the picking. I plan to hang it up to dry. Maybe make some sachets...

Over 100 varieties of lavender are cultivated on the farm as well as other culinary and medicinal herbs. This is the first year I am trying some in my garden. I have a hot dry slope where I think it will do well.

 

The owners, Tom & Madeline Wajda, also maintain an extensive demonstration garden.

Madeline's culinary training in Paris really came through in the lunch fare. No pizza, hotdogs, or sodas like at most festivals. Everything on the menu had a touch of lavender in it: the focaccia bread and jelly in the goat cheese & turkey sandwiches, the iced tea, the lemonade,

the cookies,

and the ice cream made by Bruster's. I had the black raspberry with lavender- oh baby! You wouldn't think it would go together, but it does. I was worried it might taste like soap, but the flavor is subtle and tasted like it belonged in everything we tried. I picked up some culinary grade dried lavender to try out in a recipe or two at home. I'll be sure to post the results...