It all started back in 2015 after a visit to Keys Creek Lavender Farm in North San Diego County. I had been thinking about maybe possibly adding to the few lavender plants we had because I had always loved the plant and was trying to figure out what to do with a large part of our property. But after walking through the lavender field at Keys Creek, watching the distilling process, sampling their lavender lemonade and lavender shortbread, I was hooked. As we were leaving, Mark and I noticed flats of Grosso lavender for sale and decided right then that this was what we wanted to do and bought a flat. For the next 3 months we added a row at a time, purchasing the rest of our lavender, both Grosso and Sweet Lavender (Lavandula Heterophylla) from Pearson’s Gardens in Vista, CA.
Since then I have worked on educating myself about Lavender and its uses -- and there's a lot to learn. Thankfully there are some wonderful websites out there: Mountain Valley Growers, Millbrook Lavender Farm and Lavender Lake Farms to name a few. In the first year we had several harvests, one unattractive pruning (those poor Grosso plants have looked like a dog with a bad haircut for the last few months), tried soap-making, wreath-making, and sachet-making. And I gave lavender bunches to friends, family, neighbors...anyone really. I also researched essential oil distillation and tried it out over the summer as well. The follwoing year we planted a few culinary lavender varieties which opened up a whole other obsession.
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October 2024
AuthorHello! My name is Pam Reynolds Baker and I am a mom/wife, writer, and lavender farmer who lives in Dundee Oregon . |