It's what's for lunch!

I love when the Armenian cucumbers show up at the farmers market. For a few short weeks each summer we have Chilled Cucumber Lavender Soup for lunch. It's the perfect cool lunch on a hot day and it's easily made ahead - even for several days worth.

You can click on the sidebar for more recipes using our culinary lavender products!

Chilled Cucumber Soup with Lavender

1 Armenian Cucumber, cubed
½ cup Plain Yogurt (unflavored)
1 + Tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil
½ Tablespoon Clear Creek Lavender Salt

Cube cucumber and put in blender with olive oil and yogurt. Blend until smooth, add lavender salt and pulse briefly. Pour into small bowls and chill several hours. Just before dining swirl a teaspoon of olive oil or yogurt in the center of each serving.

The long awaited sign of spring

Each year in April while weeding I begin a quiet search for the very first bud. Yesterday while working in the Munstead section of the field, I spotted the first tiny spikes of the season. It felt so good to see those little guys that I called Chris over just to show them off. It may seem a bit strange, because after all this is what lavender does every year, but I always feel a bit of panic until it happens. Every farmer and gardener probably has the same anticipation waiting on seeds to germinate or plants to flower and set fruit.

Munstead, the cultivar we use in our culinary products, blooms in May. Generally it blooms in May I should say, because last year it was very late in the season before we saw spikes - all due to the wicked April freeze of 2007. We're selling Munstead again this year during plant season. If you're interested in cooking with lavender I highly recommend this plant over the more fragrant, long-stemmed variety. Its flavor is mild and can be used sweet or savory. Our Fat Spike and Provence lavenders are beautiful and fragrant but add a slight soapy taste when used for cooking. Not what cooks usually intend - unless they've got someone who needs their mouth washed out.

Recipe Collection

A few recipes from the kitchen at Clear Creek Lavender

Lavender Rubbed Salmon

Salmon filets
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Clear Creek Lavender Salt
Purchase two salmon fillets at your local market. Finger each fillet with a bit of extra virgin olive oil and place on a baking sheet covered with aluminum foil. (The skin of the fish will adhere to the foil when you remove the fillet.) Sprinkle a teaspoon of lavender salt on the fish. Sometimes I add either rosemary or coriander. Cook for ten minutes, or until the center is no longer translucent.

Lavender Roasted Potatoes

Small golden potatoes
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Clear Creek Lavender Pepper
Red Pepper flakes
Select six small golden potatoes. Finger the potatoes with extra virgin olive oil. Slice them, almost cutting completely through the potato but leaving enough attached on the bottom to allow the potato to splay open a little. Place them cut side up in a baking dish. Combine lavender pepper and red pepper flakes. Sprinkle these over the potatoes and bake until golden.

Lavender Cookies

1 cup granulated sugar
½ cup Clear Creek Lavender Sugar
2 tsp cream of tartar
2 eggs
1 cup soft butter
1 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
2 ¾ cups flour
Mix sugar, half of lavender sugar, butter, and eggs. Stir in cream of tartar, baking soda and salt. Mix in flour. Drop dough by teaspoonfuls (one oat a time) into a bowl of remaining lavender sugar and coat. Place 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350F until edges are golden.

Lavender Blueberry Vinaigrette

¼ cup cooking sherry splash of white wine vinegar
½ cup fresh blueberries
¼ cup olive oil
2 Tablespoons Clear Creek Lavender Sugar
Add all ingredients to blender and blend until berries are liquid. Pour into curette. Great over butterhead lettuce with sliced apples or peaches, and walnuts.

Chilled Cucumber Soup with Lavender

1 Armenian Cucumber, cubed
½ cup Plain Yogurt (unflavored)
1 + Tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil
½ Tablespoon Clear Creek Lavender Salt

Cube cucumber and put in blender with olive oil and yogurt. Blend until smooth, add lavender salt and pulse briefly. Pour into small bowls and chill several hours. Just before dining swirl a teaspoon of olive oil in the center of each serving.

Edible

Briefly, the seasons overlapped. spring butterhead and summer blueberries were available in adjacent booths at the farmer’s market.

I’m an experimental cook. Not all my efforts are successful, as Chris and Hillarey can attest, but getting creative in the kitchen is fun for me. At the farm, food preparation is limited to what you grow and what we bring with us once a week as we leave the city.

As I was preparing a fast dinner after working in the field during the auspicious week when the growing season was slipping from spring to summer, I gave in to the temptation to be creative. Maybe it was the muses at play, maybe it was necessity, or maybe it was boredom with bottle dressings. And launching our new culinary line using primarily our own recipes is important to me.

Summer Solstice is upon us. Enjoying the bounty of the season’s harvest is great way to celebrate.


Lavender Blueberry Vinaigrette


¼ cup cooking sherry splash of white wine vinegar
½ cup fresh blueberries ¼ cup olive oil
2 Tablespoons Clear Creek Lavender Sugar
Add all ingredients to blender and blend until berries are liquid. Pour into curette.
Great over butterhead lettuce with sliced apples or peaches.