Lavender Picking at Hitchin Lavender

Friday, 23 August 2019 - 2 comments

This summer has been so much fun and I'm so proud of myself because I've done so many things that I said I wanted to do over the six weeks holiday. I've visited a new country, picked my own fruit, experienced the Harry Potter Studio Tour and got passionately back into blogging. It's been one of my best summers and I decided to finish it off with a visit to a local lavender farm with my little sister Angela and my best friend Ana.

I got the idea to visit a lavender farm about a month ago when I was looking for a pick your own farm to visit in Hertfordshire. I found somewhere to pick our own strawberries and then stumbled across Hitchin Lavender which isn't too far from me. Oddly enough, I saw that a couple of bloggers on my Instagram had been there and seeing their lovely photos, I knew I wanted to go. I've never been the biggest fan of lavender but it's a scent I've grown to love and I liked the idea of spending a morning or afternoon visiting a farm and picking my own lavender to get crafty with later on.

Here I am holding a bunch of lavender in the middle of a lavender field kneeling down.

Visiting Hitchin Lavender

We decided to go on Tuesday afternoon after it was forecast to rain all of Monday (which it didn't) and was greeted with warm weather with a little wind. Lavender blooms from Mid June to Mid August so we were visiting close to the end of the season, meaning the lavender petals were almost all fallen but the scent of lavender was strong. Reading the Hitchin Lavender Blog, they say that "the lavender remains high quality in terms of fragrance and the oil within the heads" at this time of year so it's still a great time for picking.

When we arrived we parked on a designated field between the display field and the picking field. The farm was really easy to get to and navigate around and we spotted the tearooms, a shop and even a museum on our drive-in. It was pretty obvious where we had to go to begin our lavender picking experience as by the car park entrance there was a small booth where you could pay to pick and collect a brown paper bag and scissors to begin.

A landscape of a lavender field and a sky scattered with clouds.

A landscape of a lavender field with clouds scattered in the sky and high green bushes along the edge of the field.

A close up photograph of the lavender heads with the rest of the field blurred behind.

A close up photograph of the lavender heads with the rest of the field blurred behind it.

A close up photograph of a yellow and black bumblebee on a lavender head.

Picking Lavender

When we got to the field, the scent of lavender was strong and the atmosphere was so calm and peaceful. The field went up a hill and had rows upon rows of lavender bushes. It was a gorgeous sight and I was just so happy to be somewhere so lovely for the afternoon. We'd started walking up the first row of lavender and just took in the sights for a little bit and talked before beginning to pick our own lavender. Lavender is amazing for bees so I was really pleased to see so many bumblebees around too.

A point of view photograph of my hand holding a bunch of lavender and red scissors. I have a brown paper bag around my wrist.

A photograph of me wearing a white and black polkadot long sleeve top and blue jeans, kneeling down with a bag of lavender around my wrist. I am looking down.

A picture of me wearing a white and black polkadot long sleeve top and blue jeans, smiling and holding open a brown paper bag filled with lavender.

A point of view photograph of me holding the brown paper bag filled with lavender. The ground is stony and dry.

Picking lavender was really therapeutic. You could really smell the lavender and though there were quite a few people there, it wasn't noisy at all. Angela and Ana looked for lavender that still had some petals to display at home whilst I was looking for lavender with large heads to make lavender oil with. We were there for about an hour and a half and made our way around the whole field. By this point, we had all collected quite a bit of lavender each and decided to make our way to the main entrance with our lavender pickings neatly tucked into our paper bags.

A photograph of me posing in the middle of the lavender field wearing a white and black polkadot long sleeve top and blue jeans. I am looking down with one hand in my hair and holding a brown paper bag with lavender in with my other hand.

A selfie of me, my sister and my best friend all smiling at the camera.

The Overall Experience

I absolutely loved going out to do the lavender farm and I'd 100% recommend going. It's a fun thing to do whether you're with friends, family, partner, kids or even alone. I definitely want to come here again next year, especially if my lavender oil turns out well!

It costs £6 per person to pick lavender and £3 for anyone under 14. I'd say that this isn't an all day activity as we were only there about 2 hours but with the farm shop, tearooms and museum, you could easily make it a long and fun afternoon out. Their website, blog and social media are well updated too with opening times, dates and information so you know what's happening on the day. It's best to check this, especially if you're going close to the end of the season like I did.

As much as Hitchin Lavender is a lavender farm, I discovered they've also got lots of other events that take place there too like an outdoor cinema nights and workshops. I'm actually keen to go there to see Mean Girls in September.

Not only is it a fun activity for a sunny afternoon, but it's a beautiful place to go (totally instagrammable). Personally, I also think it's quite inexpensive and ou can make some amazing things with the lavender you've collected afterwards. Keep an eye out for a future post on my lavender DIYs. If you've never been lavender picking, put it on your list of things to do next summer. You won't regret it!

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