Lavender flowers

Fleurs de lavande

What it is

Only fine lavender, angustifolia, belongs in food; the lavandin hybrid that covers most of the Provençal plateaux is grown for oil and runs high in camphor, which is what turns a cream soapy. In the field the two are easy to tell apart — lavandin sends up a branched stem carrying three heads, fine lavender a single one.

In the kitchen

Measure in pinches, not spoons: a teaspoon of buds infused in a litre of cream is already at the limit. Infuse warm, strain, and never leave the buds in — held too long they go medicinal.

Goes with

Honey Cream Apricot Peach Goat cheese Lemon Thyme Blueberry

Same species

Lavender honey

Also used with

Bergeron apricot German chamomile

In season alongside

Hyssop Labrador tea Wild thyme Bog myrtle Bronte pistachio Calendula

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