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The Granery and Unexpected Help

Gathering Lavender at Granery
Gathering Lavender at Granery

There is an amazing resource in Coupeville, and no, I’m not talking lavender.

GraneryLate one afternoon I drove up to the Bishop’s Granery,where they have been letting me hang lavender to dry because we have a bumper crop and needed more drying space. I needed to clear out some dry lavender to make room for more fresh lavender we are harvesting.

The Granery has been on the prairie since at least 1893 as you can see in this image from the inside wall where they were logging bags of grain. Granery Graffitti

As I drove up to the gated dirt road, in my white Chevy Colorado pickup, a car was blocking the entrance to the driveway. A couple of people with cameras were wandering down the road. “Hey!”, I called out, a bit annoyed “I need to get in here.” The woman, with good will, immediately ran to her car and moved it so I could drive in. At the granery they approached me and asked if they could take pictures. With a grin, in spite of still being rather peevish, I said, “Sure! But you have to earn the right by helping me take down some of this lavender.” These two students of light, Arthur Myerson and Keron Psillas who are instructors at Pacific Northwest Art School, gasped with delight as their eyes adjusted to the darkness inside and they saw the racks of lavender hanging. The three of us cheerfully set to work taking the lavender out and throwing it into the back of the pickup. As farm workers they lacked efficiency because they kept stopping and taking pictures. I really can’t fault them, though, look at the result – Arthur sent me the top picture, it makes the lavender come alive. I ended up with a full load of lavender, and they ended up with a bunch of pictures and a story to tell their students.

Owl In Granery
Meet one of the current residents of the Granery.

The amazing resource is two-fold. It’s the Pacific Northwest Art School that brings talented, creative people to our community, and it’s Ebey’s Landing Historical Reserve that has preserved the prairie and beyond for generations to come.

PS. The Granery was part of a larger homestead, which is now gone. This is the setting where the granery is located just back of the tower sort of building.Historical Buildings

The historical pictures of the Granery and the owl are from Karen Bishop used with permission.
Arthur Meyerson’s picture of Sarah gathering lavender in the granery is used with permission.