One thing I’d heard about and hadn’t done was the Hitchin Lavender fields, so we packed up one Saturday in late June and headed out to Hertfordshire to pick some lavender. The farm is open 10-5 almost all summer and I thought the cost was pretty reasonable for a day of picking. Adults cost £6 and under 14 cost £3 and under 5’s are free. For that price, you get a small shopping bag and the loan of a pair of scissors to cut as much lavender as you can fit into the bag.
Armed with our scissors, we started into the rows. They ask you go a certain distance in before you start cutting, so we walked in and started filling. It takes longer than you might think to fill that little bag, but of course, that depends on how picky you are about which pieces of lavender you take.
My advice is to wear trousers/pants–even if it’s hot! One thing is that bees are everywhere! My husband and I both wore shorts and both of us ended up stung because we missed the bee hiding on the underside of a stalk as we made our way through the lavender.
Hitchin Lavender also has a gift shop, a place to buy lavender to grow, as well as a cafe where you can sit on a patio and eat lavender flavoured ice cream. It’s not a full day, but it’s definitely a fun couple of hours. We didn’t stay too long because it was a really hot day and we wanted to cool off and eat some lunch, which was easier said than done in England when England is playing on that day in the World Cup.
For more info on Hitchin Lavender
Next up… Audley End House
L.L. Diamond 
Love the pictures. Thank you for sharing. I have never seen anything like this. How was the smell? Was it overwhelming? How long did the bunches of lavender last?
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The smell was pretty strong and with three bags of lavender in the car, it followed us everywhere! I think the lavender lasted about a week but we didn’t put it in water and let it dry so we could store it for later. One of my daughters went crazy putting it in her bathwater. Mine is in two canning jars because I haven’t quite figured out what to do with it yet. I do have a small dried bouquet in a marble vase I have. Thanks, Shelley!
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