Next weekend is our first annual lavender party to bring in the harvest. Our crew will cut the lavender and we will bunch it and hang it in the drying room. This will be a very fragrant and happy time.

On the farm we are preparing for this wonderful weekend. Two 25 lb boxes of rubber bands arrived last week. Rosa and Juanita have been organizing the drying racks and cleaning up the drying room in their spare time for the last three weeks. We built these trestles to hold the racks over 15 years ago. Each 12 foot two by four has nails or screws onto which we attach the fresh bunches. The roof of the house will be a black sheet of plastic to exclude the light. On each side up to 3 foot high we leave open to let in lots of air. The drying process can take 3 to 5 days after which we pack the bunches into large flower boxes for storage.

Lorraine is planning the menu for the weekend. All food is provided at no charge. The sign up for members is now open. You are welcome to bring your friends to help. There will be twenty of us working together. Go to the Lavender Harvest Work Weekend event page at www.eatwell.com/events for more details and to sign up. We can’t do this without YOU, our members and community.