Lavender Lemonade Recipe

Lavender is a useful herb and beautiful flower that can more than earn its keep in a polytunnel garden. This beautiful, fragrant herb will fill your polytunnel with its beautiful scent and will not only be pleasant for you as a gardener but will also help to attract pollinators and other beneficial insects to your undercover growing area. But lavender is not just to be admired when growing. Harvesting lavender will provide you with a yield that can be used in a wide range of different ways.

Quench your thirst with our delicious homemade lavender lemonade recipe. What better way to enjoy summer than with this drink recipe made from your very own lavender produced in your own polytunnel?

Ingredients
2 teaspoons of dried lavender heads
500 ml [1 pint] boiling water
150 g [6 ounces] caster sugar
Juice of four ripe lemons, about 100 ml lemon juice
1000 ml [2 pints] of cold water

Recipe
Put the lavender heads into a large saucepan, pour over the boiling water, bring to the boil and simmer gently for about a minute. Turn off the heat and leave for 10 minutes. Strain the liquid into a 2 litre jug, add the caster sugar, stir until the sugar dissolved, and pour back into the pan. Add the cold water to the pan, stir thoroughly, and add the lemon juice. Taste to see the strength and if need be add more water. Pour back into the jug and add some ice cubes. Serve at once

Suggestions
Add vodka, or gin to individual glasses to suit

How can a polytunnel help grow lavender?

Lavender is such a useful plant. There are varieties for medicines, food and fragrance. These plants thrive best in warmer conditions, away from the wind and harsher weather conditions. They are also susceptible to rot in wetter, colder conditions. Therefore, if you are looking to cultivate lavender for all these other purposes, the use of a polytunnel could a) maximise your growing window b) protect the plant from harsher weather conditions and c) allow you to control the level of humidity using ventilation. Lavender needs full sun and good drainage.