Kitchen: Lavender lemonade

On a recent trip to Montréal, I picked up a bag of lavender sugar from the local farmer's market, Marché Atwater. I decided to try my hand at lavender lemonade, so I went to the Santa Monica Farmer's Market to pick up some lemons. I found a citrus stand that had several varieties of lemons, and inquired with the vendor as to which lemons would make the best lemonade. He recommended the Eureka lemons, which are tart. He let me sample a Persian lemon, which was slightly tasteless. I settled on 14 Eurekas for $3.75.

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The first step was to make sugar water, so I boiled about 6 cups of water and added aproximately 1/3 cup of sugar to that. I don't always note measurements; I cook spontaneously. It's more fun that way.

The sugar appeared to be unrefined/unbleached (good) and raw, and had pieces of dried lavender in it. I was concerned that the subtle lavender essence would disappear with heat, but I could still smell lavender after dissolving the sugar in the boiling water.


The lemons were amazingly easy to juice; they were full of juice, and the pulp and membranes came apart without much effort. 14 lemons * 2 = 28 halves were juiced in a matter of minutes.


14 lemons yielded quite a bit of juice - the lemon juice filled a gallon-sized pitcher 1/3 full.

The sugar water had cooled by this time, so I added it to the lemon juice gradually, tasting every cup or so. After 6 cups, it was still too tart, so I made more sugar water. I ended up filling the pitcher all the way to the top, and then it was Just Right.

The finished product!

All photos are ©2005 Kathryn Hill Photography.