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Lavender Apple Pie

 

This is an awesome pie! Use tart apples like Granny Smith, or the equivalent.

Ingredients

Pie Crust
DOUBLE CRUST

Pastry flour 2 1/2 Cups
Salt 1/2 Tsp
Butter 2/3 Cup (or 1/3 Coconut Oil and 1/3 butter)
Cold Water 6 TBL

You will need a 9″ pie pan.

Making pie crust is an art. You can buy pie frozen pie crusts if you don’t want to take this on, but we’ve learned to do it pretty quickly and it works.
In a food processor put in the flour and salt. The butter (or butter and coconut oil) need to be cold, then cut them into about 1″ pieces and put into food processor and pulse until the flour/butter mixture looks rough, but there aren’t any huge butter chunks. Then add about 5 TBL of cold water and pulse again, you might need another TBL or two more of water until the dough in the food processor is still loose, but will hold together if you try to make a ball out of it.

Roll out 2/3 of the pie dough into a circle and then transfer to the pie plate. Roll out the last 1/3 of the pie dough into a circle (to use after the filling is in).

Pie Filling
Apples 8 Cups
Lemon zest 1/2 tsp
Corn starch 2 Tbl
Vanilla 1 tsp
Cardamom 1/3 tsp
Lavender 2 tsp
Sugar 1/2 Cup
Melted butter 1/4 Cup

Top Sprinkle
Cinnamon Sugar 2 tsp

Zest the lemon, toss it with the dry pie filling ingredients. Peel and chop apples and mix them with all the rest of the pie filling ingredients, including the dry ingredients. Fill the pie crust.

Take the circle you have rolled for the top and put it over the whole pie. Cut the outer edge of the dough so that it’s evenly sticking out from the pie pan. Roll the top and bottom of the edges of the pie crust down and crimp with your fingers to make a little designed edge. Cut some holes in the top with either the point of a knife or a fork to make holes for steam to escape while cooking. Put the pie onto a cookie sheet to protect your oven from overflowing.

Cook at 350º for about 1.25 hours – check for golden brown crust. When it’s nice and golden, and there is a hint of bubbling in the pie, or steam coming out, then it’s done. Cool and serve. It’s really good with ice cream – lavender ice cream if you have any. Yum!!

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Pecan Puffs

Who doesn’t like a tasty bit of butter, pecans, and sugar? It’s one level better with lavender.

Lavender Pecan Puffs

Ingredients*

Cookies:

114 g Butter
2 g Lavender Extract
150 g Pastry Flour
23 g Sugar
110 g Ground Pecans

Sugar Dusting:

80 g Confectioner’s Sugar
1/2 tsp Finely ground Lavender

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 325°

Beat butter until soft, add sugar & blend until creamy, add lavender extract.

Measure the pecans, then grind them in a nut grinder, food processor or chop finely with a knife. Stir them into the butter mixture and sift in flour.

Roll the dough into small balls, place balls on greased cookie sheet & bake about 30 minutes.

Roll after cooled in powdered sugar to coat, put them on a plate and watch them disappear.

If you want to store them, they will do well in a sealed container.

* If you don’t already have a scale, get one that also measures grams. Your baking will be ever so much better because you will be able to measure more accurately. Atmospheric conditions affect the volume and weight of ingredients, so using a scale helps make recipes succeed no matter where you are.

But, if you don’t have a scale here are some tips to help translate the weights

Butter – 1/4 lb = 115 g
Pastry Flour – 1 Cup = 106 g
Pecans – 1/8 Cup = 110 g
Extract – 1 tsp = 4.2 g
Sugar – 1 Cup = 200 g
Confectioner’s Sugar – 1 Cup = 125 g

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Clearing for Lavender

Farming involves so many tasks that you don’t normally associate with farming a crop. At our farm the trees that were planted in 2000 as a wind and visual block had grown to over 20′ tall and were shading the lavender field. They also created a barrier between the two lavender fields.

In an old-fashioned display of extreme neighborliness, our neighbors pitched in to take some of them down. We took down 9 trees, and while it’s sad to take them down, it’s also a farming issue – the lavenders need sun, and these trees have grown more successfully than we had expected. Now they will contribute to the soil through the chips we will create from the limbs, and they will give heat through our burning of the wood. And now, the view between the two lavender fields is more accessible.

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Herbs de Provence Quiche

Quiche

Need an exceptional Quiche for a party and aren’t allergic to cooking? This is our secret recipe for a Quiche that is utterly delightful. (Printable Quiche Recipe)

Quiche

 You will need the following ingredients. There are some ingredients that are simply best to measure by weight, so get out your scale or make your best guess. Get your Herbs de Provence from us!

quiche filling ingredients

Make your Pie Shell first (see below)

Preheat the oven to 350º

Sauté onions in the butter until tender.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, cream and apple juice. Stir in most of the cheese, Herbs de Provence, bacon, salt, pepper and onions. Pour into pastry shell that you have prepared; sprinkle the top with the cheese you didn’t mix in earlier. If you don’t want a darker color on the top then mix all the cheese in earlier and don’t sprinkle the top with it.

Bake at 350° for 40-45 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean.

Pie Pastry Shell

pie shell ingredientsMaking a pie crust doesn’t have to be a huge mystery. But, it does take some basic understanding of what needs to happen to make a good pie crust. The dried ingredients (flour and salt in this case) need to have little bits of fat all through it. The best way to do that is to cut the fat into the dry ingredients, and then add really
cold water (cold to stop the fat from melting) enough so the dough will form into a ball that doesn’t stick too much to your hands.

I use a food processor to cut the butter into the flour mixture. Put the flour & salt into the food processor, then add the butter that you have cut into chunks and pulse it in quick short bursts. When it looks like you’ve got little bits of butter throughout the flour, then you are ready. Add a few Tablespoons of the water and pulse. You want the dough to form little balls, but not one big ball – because if it does that you’ve put in too much water or pulsed it too much. Once it has a lots of little balls, see if you can pack it with your hands into one big ball. If you can you are ready to roll it out into a circle for  your pie shell. Get your pie pan near the circle, fold the dough circle in half, and then ease it onto the pan, spread it out. Cut off the uneven bits around the edge. Along the edge, fold the dough under and press with your fingers to make a scalloped design. Voilá! You have a pie shell ready for your Quiche filling

Bon Appetite!

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Makes Scents to Me

Makes Scents for You - LavenderDeveloping new products is part of what we do, and it’s fun. We had been selling pure essential oil in a roll on for a while. It was good. But, then we became aware that straight essential oil on the skin is drying. Not so good. Enter Jojoba Oil.

Jojoba oil has some amazing properties and it is really more of a wax than an oil – but it’s liquid at room temperature. It nourishes all skin types, especially mature skin, and it penetrates readily. It is not greasy. In the 1970’s whale oil was finally banned for use in perfume products, and Jojoba has become it’s replacement. It carries scent very well.

In addition to nourishing skin and carrying the scent of essential oils well, Native Americans used Jojoba to treat sores and wounds. The beneficial qualities of this oil are huge.

With all those amazing qualities, how could we not formulate our new perfume with that as a base? So, we added a blend of our own lavender essential oils. Our first fragrance in this new line is pure lavender and we call it:

Makes Scents for You: Blended for Relaxing

You will love this oil-based perfume. Order it online or get it at our Coupeville Shop.

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Lavender Wind FESTIVAL – 2016

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Sat. & Sun. July 30 & 31, 2016

Join us for our annual celebration of lavender and art at Lavender Wind Farm, located on Whidbey Island.  Stroll the gorgeous grounds and lavender labyrinth, browse the various booths showcasing local artisans, wander through the fragrant fields of lavender, and sit in the wine garden and enjoy live music.  Wine Garden benefits the Pacific NW Art School.  There will be activities for children and demonstrations of lavender distilling and crafting.  Free admission and on-site parking.  Two fun-filled days for the whole family!

  • Dates: Saturday & Sunday, July 30 & 31, 2015
  • Time: 10:00 am to 5:00 pm
  • Artist Booths: 10:00 am to 5:00 pm
  • Children’s Activity: 10:00 am to 5:00 pm
  • Lavender Demonstrations: 10:00 am to 5:00 pm
  • Wine/Beer Tent: 12:00 pm to 5:00 pm
  • Music: 12:00pm to 4:30 pm

This page will be updated anytime we have new information, so keep checking back.

ARTISTS! LWF Artist application 2016

Food

Food will be provided by Milepost 19’s new venture. If you are a local you are well aware of their bagels. For the festival they are going all out to create delicious and healthy food for you to enjoy at the festival. As usual, our cookies, scones, and lavender lemonade will also be available.

Music

Saturday

10:30 – 11:00 – Shifty Sailors
11:30 – 12:30 – Jim Castaneda
1:00 – 2:00 – Just In Time Jazz Duo
2:30 – 3:30 Budapest West
4:00 – 5:00 Budapest West

Sunday

11:30 – 12:30 – DB Jazz
1:00 – 2:00 – Choro Tomorrow
2:30 – 3:30  Skinny Tie Jazz
4:00 – 5:00 Choro Tomorrow

Wine & Beer Garden

This festival started years ago as an Art Festival to celebrate the amazing artists in the community as well as the art of nature. So, over the years we have supported various non-profits with Wine & Beer sales. For the last three years we have teamed with the Pacific Northwest Art School (right here in Coupeville). The sales in the garden will go to the school to support their art classes and activities.

The garden is right in front of the stage where the musicians will be playing.

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