LAVENDER-scented shower gels and body lotions made from these fields of blue are supporting local good causes.

The Jacobs Field Lavender project, which puts all its profits into local charities, is selling its merchandise at Garsington Opera’s shop until the end of this month.

The opera at the Getty Estate in Wormsley near Thame runs until the end of this month.

Managed by Julie Ross, pictured above, the project has sold lavender products at Wimbledon tennis tournament in the past and is stocked by a number of local independent stores.

Ms Ross set up the project with fellow Oxfordshire resident Lista Cannon, who bought the five-acre plot of land near Islip in nine years ago.

Ms Ross said: “The aim was to create a resource for the whole community, a place where children and adults can come to enjoy nature, grow fruit, vegetables and flowers and keep livestock and bees.

“We chose lavender because it is a tough and undemanding plant well-suited to the site’s stony soil and exposed situation.”

The lavender is grown without using pesticides and oil is extracted from flower heads using the team’s own still.

It generates income for the village’s primary school and volunteer-run shop and recently opened a classroom for local pupils and a forest studies programme.