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I love a nice lavender sachet—they make great gifts and are easy to make, so long as you cut and dry your lavender correctly. I should mention: the white variety doesn't dry pretty—it smells nice, but it will turn brown and not look great in a see-through sachet.
Believe me when I say there are right ways and wrong ways to dry lavender. A few years ago, I learned my lesson doing it the wrong way—which was cutting the lavender just above the leaves on the plant (this is correct), placing the cut flowers in trays, then leaving them in a cool, dark garage to dry (this is the wrong part). Weeks later, they were moldy - ick - I threw them out.
The right way is to put 10 stems together with a rubber band and hang them upside down to dry. This is fine if you have a small amount to dry. For larger volumes, use a dehydrator. Cut off the stems (again) closer to the flower head and lay them out on a dehydrator tray. I set the temperature LOW—about 85°F. This is the important part: if it's too hot, the fragrance will "burn off." Several hours later, they are dry—I then put them in mesh bags and hang them to catch the dropping buds. In a couple of days, I strip the buds off inside the gauze bags and voilà—dried lavender.
Here are the tools I use for this process:
Japanese forged Snips – I love my new Niwaki needle-nose snips - these are super sharp. The thing to be careful about is opening them too wide and letting the coiled spring fall out. You can buy a replacement, which is great for longevity. But keep your hands on the snips or fold them up and put them in your pocket or pouch. For budget-conscious snips, I recommend the ARS Stainless Steel Needle Nose Snips—these are great for pruning between branches and flower stems. I have many of these strewn across the property.
1020 Colorful Trays - I use colorful trays from Bootstrap Farmer and the Sunpack Mega trays in from Greenhouse Megastore. I think I finally have enough - every year I've ordered more because I was short - I was using the trays for other things (other than seed starting). I use these trays for so many purposes: to harvest lavender, dry garlic heads, start seeds, start ranunculus and anemones, at my pop-up to display produce - the list goes on. I guess you could get the black for a bit less money, but they’re a lot less fun. Both types work really well and last a long time.
Dehydrator – I have a hand-me-down dehydrator from my parents. The brand is Nature's Made, it's well over 40 years old, and still works like a champ. Since this is no longer available, if I had to buy a new one, I'd consider the Excalibur 8-tray select series. This one goes down to 85°F and has stainless steel racks for easy cleaning. I can use the silicone mesh I already have on top of the racks if needed.
Silicon mesh tray liners – This was a game changer. The racks in my dehydrator have holes too big for drying herbs. Most of it would end up at the bottom of the machine by the end of drying. These sheets are breathable, can be cut to size, washable, and you can roll up the dried herbs to carefully remove them from the racks and shake them into a bag or bowl.
Mesh bags - This is what I use to store the lavender buds. They’re breathable and have a top that cinches closed. I also store my harvested garlic and shallots in these bags too.
Sachet Bags – Some people like the colorful organza sachet bags, and some prefer the natural cotton muslin bags. I buy both. The 3x4 inch size seems to work well.
Happy Gardening!
Kellie
Note: The links above go to Amazon - that's where I end up buying a lot of products. If you buy one of these products from these links to Amazon, I do receive a small percentage of the sale - at no cost to you, I use this money to support my small business. If you have an independent, local store instead, please support them.
In other words, if you're going to buy from Amazon anyway - you can also support Sugar Moon Gardens at the same time. Thanks!
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