Roger’s travelogue

Lavender-Marinated Grilled Prawns

Lavender-Marinated Grilled Prawns

The Sequim Lavender Festival featured noted chefs demonstrating recipes using lavender buds and essence. This recipe for grilled prawns was a favorite at the Angel Lavender Farm and is served at Bella Italia, a local restaurant. Other recipes included lavender-honey peach barbecue sauce for chicken, lavender-encrusted salmon, and lavender and rosemary-herbed lamb. General techniques for using lavender in cooking were shared at the demonstrations.

Each farm and the street fair sold flavorful treats such as lavender cheese cake, lavender sausage, lavender cupcakes, as well as other delicious lavender-herbed food and wine.

This Lavender is "Bee-rated"

This Lavender is "Bee-rated"

A bumblebee finds the lavender blossoms irrisistable at the Lost Mountain Lavender Farm in Sequim, Washington, during the 2008 Lavender Festival.

Dungeness Bay and Lighthouse

Dungeness Bay and Lighthouse

Sequim, Washington is located in the Sequim-Dungeness Valley surrounded on one side by the Olympic Mountains, Sequim Bay and by the Strait of Juan de Fuca on the north side. Dungeness Spit juts out several miles into the Strait and protects Dungeness Bay and Harbor. Dungeness Wildlife National Refuge located on the Spit provides exciting discoveries of sea and shore birds, seals and other marine life, as well as whale, dolphin and Orca-watching opportunities.

Dairy Barn and the Olympic Mountains

Dairy Barn and the Olympic Mountains

The Sequim-Dungeness Valley on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State was noted mainly for its fine dairy farms prior to the introduction of lavender growing a few decades ago. The rich, well-drained soil and unusually sunny, dry days are beneficial to growing sweet grasses for cattle as well as lavender. The Olympic Mountains provide a spectacular backdrop to the Valley.

A Youthful Bloom

A Youthful Bloom

This young visitor enjoys the sights and smells at the Jardin du Soleil Lavender Farm during Sequim, Washington's Lavender festival in mid-July, 2008.

Abstract in Lavender

Abstract in Lavender

The lavender fields on display during the Sequim Lavender Festival provide opportunities for abstract art in the colorful patterns of the blooming lavender plants. This field is at the Olympic Lavender Farm in Sequim, Washington.

Terracotta Chicken in Lavender

Terracotta Chicken in Lavender

Garden art highlights a demonstration garden showcasing several varieties of lavender at the Jardin du Soleil lavender farm in Sequim, Washington, during the Sequim Lavender Festival in July, 2008.

An Angel in the Lavender

An Angel in the Lavender

A little girl runs through a field of Old English Lavender during the Sequim Lavender festival, July, 2008 at the Angel Lavender Farm. The Old English variety has lighter green stems and lighter-colored blossoms than many varieties, but is heavily (and heavenly) perfumed.

Sunny Lavender Picking

Sunny Lavender Picking

Many of the lavender farms in Sequim, Washington, offer fields where visitors can cut their own lavender bouquet, as this woman shows.

Lavender in Bloom

Lavender in Bloom

The "Augustifolias" variety of lavender is one of the best for cooking and use in herbal recipes because of its light, mild taste and fragrance.

Roger Ward

Roger Ward has been a member since 21 January 2008 and goes by tacomasunset.

Currently in Tacoma, enjoying the mild summer breezes off Puget Sound..

I am a traveler who likes scenic spots, eco-tourism, adventure travel and voluntourism living in Tacoma, Washington, where Mount Rainier is a misty memory and occasional visitor in the winter or an everpresent luminescent beacon in the summer.