Lavender

Commodity Overview

Lavender has woody stems with velvety silver-green, delicately pointed leaves and pale to deep blue-purple flower buds. The highly fragrant buds are the only part used for cooking, and can be used to flavor baked goods or combined with other herbs to season meat or vegetables. It has a strong, assertive flavor, so a little goes a long way.

Characteristics

Commodity: Herbs
Category: Cooking Vegetables
Appearance: Thin woody stems with silvery-green leaves and and pale to deep blue-purple flower buds or blooms
Flavor: An assertive sweet, floral flavor, with medicinal or "soapy" notes such as eucalyptus
Size: Lavender can grow to about 3 feet high
Color: Silver-green leaves than turn fully green when mature; pale purple to deep indigo flowers
Commonly Cooked: Yes
Served Raw: Yes
Availability: Summer
Additional Notes: Photo courtesy Wikicommons

Retail Price Data is based on USDA Specialty Crops Market News surveys. Data collection ends on the report date and encompasses ad pricing good from the Saturday before the report release date through the following Friday. Weekly data - from over 400 retailers, comprising more than 30,000 individual stores with online weekly advertised features - covers over 250 produce items. Registered (logged-in) users, can access weekly reports and additional market information.

USDA Specialty Crops Market News publishes FOB and Movement data on a daily and weekly basis. Pricing and volume information is aggregated by commodity and published weekly, subject to any source-data adjustments. Commodity data is further processed based on origin (domestic vs imports) and type (regular vs. organic). Registered (logged-in) users, can access weekly reports and additional market information.