Lavender and Stress Relief

There are weeks when the stress from work is overwhelming.  Unfortunately for me my favorite way to distress is to bake, and when work is that stressful there is simply no time for that.  Fortunately the sent of lavender is said to be a stress reliever, so I will be making lavender oil.  Lavender oil is also used as a headache cure, is great in a bath with Epsom salts, smells wonderful in lotion and the flowers can be used in baking (which some people claim can help with nausea).  Our lavender plants are still to small to produce an appreciable number of flowers, and its recommended you not harvest them the first year anyway, so Peter got me this bunch to use at the farmers market. 

 

In order to use these in baking you must dry the flowers.  Simply lay them out on the drying rack of your food dehydrator and set for herbs.

 



 

When dried (overnight and a bit) simply remove the flowers.

These can now be saved for baking, or to be used in your bath/lotion supplies later in the year. 

Essential oils are a bit more complicated, though most varieties (rose, lavender, and so on) are made the same way.  Remove the flowers and put them in a mortar, grind with a pestle to let out the oil.

 

 

Put the crushed flowers in a mason jar, rinse the mortar with the cheapest vodka you can find (it doesn't mater what kind as long as it is not flavored) and poor the vodka into the jar.  Cover the flowers in vodka and cover the jar with cheese cloth.

Place in a warm place and swirl it around every day until the vodka has evaporated.  Then strain the flowers out and store the oil in dark colored glass until needed.

We will see if it really is a good stress reliever, and how well it works to sent lotions!