04/05/2026
Lilac always feels a bit like finding an old letter in a drawer 💜
It’s very pretty, but the scent is almost too much when you get close - sweet, powdery, green, a little bit sad somehow. Like spring has suddenly remembered something 😏🍃
I always think lilac belongs to old gardens. The sort with cracked paving, washing on the line, a back door left open, and someone’s grandmother cutting flowers for the kitchen table. Mine certainly did all of that - and my memories of her are still so strong even 50 years on 🥰
Folklore links lilac with love, protection, thresholds and memory. In some traditions it was planted near the home, almost like a silent guardian at the gate.
Medicinally, it isn’t one of the big clinical herbs I’d reach for first for anxiety or stress. But I do think it has a place. Not as a “take this and your nervous system is fixed” herb - more as one of those old-fashioned aromatic plants that helps soften the stretched edges of modern life a little 🌸
A simple thing to make with it is lilac sugar. Pick a small handful of fresh lilac flowers on a dry day. Pull the tiny flowers away from the green stems, because the green bits can taste bitter. It’s a labour of love, do take your time 😉
Layer the flowers through caster sugar in a clean, dry jar. You can sieve the flowers out afterwards, or leave them in if you like the look of them. You do need to make sure it’s all dry - I tend to give it all a whisk in my blender and then leave it out to dry. Use it in shortbread, cakes, cream, pancakes, or over strawberries. It’s a lovely way of catching a little bit of May before it disappears again.
This is the sort of thing we explore inside the Crafty Herbalist Academy alongside the accredited herbal immersion course - the folklore, the old uses, the practical remedies, the science, the taste of the thing, and the way plants sit in ordinary life. Mine and yours 😉🌸
The waiting list is open now. Doors open again in June 🥰💜
https://craftyherbalistacademy.com/crafty-herbalist-academy-full-membership-waitlist/
