Chocolate Mousse & a look at how we remove lavender buds

Sorry it's taken me so long to repost, I had some much needed surgery done last week and I am feeling much better.

Winter is here and I haven't decided if I am ready for it yet.  Above is a picture of our farm last year once Winter was in full swing.  Lots and lots of snow.

As promised, here are some pictures of how we get the tens of thousands of lavender buds off our lavender bundles.  This process takes a great deal of time, energy and patience.  Thankfully, we have a number of young and energetic people to help us out.

1st, we take down the dried lavender bundles from the cottage and place them in a wheel barrow or large basket.  

NEXT, we give these bundles to two darling and energetic sisters and they go to work separating the buds from the stems.  This process takes days and many hours to complete.  It is tedious but the end result is well worth all the work.

Below are pictures of the girls as they roll the lavender bundles. When they do this the buds easily (and sometimes not so easily) fall into the bowl.  We place the stems after the buds have been removed aside (they make great kindling for fire and smell great too).

After all the buds have been separated we have thousands upon thousands of lavender buds ready to be used in our products.  Our lavender truly is straight from our farm to you.

Last but not least, I know I promised to post a White Hot Chocolate w/Lavender recipe but, I want to tweak the recipe a little more before I post it.  So I have posted an oldie but goodie recipe for you.  My famous "Mimi's Mousse".  Named after my darling granddaughter, who helped me make it the first time.

Mimi's Mousse

3 cups mini marshmallows

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

9 oz best quality semi sweet chocolate, chopped (we used Hershey's dark chocolate)

1/4 cup warm water

1 cup whipping cream, whipped

1 tsp. vanilla

in a sauce pan combine marshmallows chocolate, butter and water. Heat gently, stirring occasionally. When all ingredients are melted and combined set aside to cool. Whip cream with vanilla until stiff. Fold cream into cooling chocolate mixture. At this point you can fill pretty glasses with this mousse as we did in the picture. Or chill and create your own temptations.