Sunday, July 19, 2009

A Sweet Saturday


St. Louis enjoyed an unseasonably cool weekend. It was 70 degrees, no humidity and gorgeous - there was no way my friends and I were going to fritter away this opportunity. Elena suggested that we visit Winding Brook Estate Lavender farm in Eureka, Missouri.


Leah, Elena and myself found ourselves within the rows of Lavender "harvesting" the stalks.


The only piece of advice the owners gave us before we left to pick Lavender was to look for the most "colorful" ones. I suppose that stands to reason, as the bloomier the stalks were the more fragrant they became.

I wish you all could have smelled that air.

The bees were pretty fond of that sweet smelling air as well since there were hundreds of them.

Below is a nice little butterfly I chased around for about 10 minutes, I think.





Harvesting Lavender takes more time than you would think. Leah was determined to get as much as she could fit!


Afterwards, we poked around the small giftshop and spent waaaay more money on things Lavender than I thought would be possible.


All of that "harvesting" left us pretty hungry, so we treated ourselves to Lavender infused desserts. Pictured above, is all that is left of a Lavender/Lemon bar. I bought some Lavender buds to use in some baking - I think this will be fun to experiment with.

All in all is was a wonderful afternoon. The kind you get when old friends get together and there is no rush so everything is just easy, light and relaxing. Great idea Elena!

12 comments:

Shay said...

Oh, man! I wish I had been there--what a great day!

lucylucia said...

It was! We'll go next time you come up to visit. You'd love it.

Julia said...

Martha Stewart has a wonderful Lavender/Lemon Sugar cookie recipe.

lucylucia said...

Julia- I will look it up directly!

Aili said...

You girls look as pretty as the Lavender.

lucylucia said...

Oh Aili, you charmer, you!

Sarah M. Anderson said...

I know you can't really tell it's Leah in that pic, but it's an awesome pic!

Mama Nae said...

Where the heck is that place? It looks awesome! I totally want to go! Do you think it's kid-friendly?

lucylucia said...

Janae! It's in Eureka in the Legends subdivision - its right off HWY 109. I think Nola and the kids would love it. The only thing is that there are seriously a TON of bumblebees flying around. I don't know if the girls would be comfortable with that? Otherwise it's cute as can be. It's $12 to pick a bunch of lavender and it took forever. It's a sweet little place. Let me know if you decide to go and I'll go with you!!

Sally - Thanks!! I was experimenting!

LauraBlab said...

I love these pictures! What a great idea! I really want to check out Eureka. Staying the night in a B&B and window shopping sounds fun to me.

TBM said...

I bet it did smell lovely there! We have a small clump of lavender near our kitchen door, and yes the bees love it so.

Beautiful photos!

lucylucia said...

JAPRA - Thanks! I am now so obssessed with the smell of Lavender that I bought some essential oils to burn at home - the entire house smells wonderful! I was pretty happy with the photos that day too. :)