Category: News

In the January edition of our newsletter I announced that Lavender Wind Farm would donate 10% of sales for one week. I had some misgivings because it seemed selfish to say that if people bought from us we’d donate. I had fears that people wouldn’t believe that we actually would make the donation and that we wouldn’t sell enough to donate much at all. That week just ended and we donated $86.07 to the UUSC Haiti Relief Fund. I am very gratified to have been able to send that much – this is our down season and that represents a very good week.

Our customers deserve credit for making this possible. Rather than getting 10% off for themselves, they made it possible to send more money for long term help in Haiti. I’m proud of them, they’re great! Thank you, all.

What a great day at Norfolk Lavender. Henry Head, who spent the last 30 years building it up into a world class venue for lavender, lavender distilled oils, and lavender gardens, put together a fascinating day of tours and information sharing sessions. He brought in the perfumer he uses to create the scents for Norfolk Lavender products. I have to say, getting my nose to be able to smell the subtleties of the oils is difficult. Maybe after 30 more years of sniffing I’ll get there.

Presentations today focused on using lavender essential oils for health care, both physical and mental. It was an amazing collection of information and case studies – much more research is needed, of course, but let’s just say that there are certainly reasons to do the research because the potential for significant healing seems to be there.

This, after all, a first rate university, here at Cambridge, and the scholarly presentations are quite good. We haven’t had much in the way of practical exchanges, but the scientific papers give a lot of food for thought. For instance Timothy Haig presented on his research on how to use lavender extract to suppress weeds. In his case he was trying to rid wheat fields of annual rye. That was somewhat amusing to me because this year we planted annual rye to reduce weeds between rows of lavender without having to till. It worked, although we did have to mow between the rows. But he said he made a slurry of ground up lavender leaves and stems and then strained it out and applied it to the weeds. I have to ask him for a bit more information on details – so keep checking to find out more.

At Cambridge University about 85 people from all over the world have gathered for the First International Lavender Conference. Tim Upson from Cambridge University Botanical Gardens has organized the conference with the help of Susyn Andrews (co-author of Genus Lavendula). Stacy and I have joined this group for six days of lavender immersion. Already we have learned so much and are inspired.

I usually don’t brag all that much, but our festival was really pretty darn good. People had fun, ate good food, drank good wine or lavender lemonade, looked at lots and lots of good arts and crafts, bought lavender, and listened to outstanding music.

The people who work here on the farm were fabulous, and then we were graced by a number of amazing volunteers who parked cars and helped us set up and tear down. Finally, I want to thank my neighbors who put up with this party once a year.

You can see pictures of the 2009 Festival

A month ago we had our Third Annual Lavender & Wind Art Festival with a Taste of Provence. It was sort of the first, because we combined the two events into one big festival – and big it was! There were over 3,000 people who came.

There was a great wine garden that had a “fence” of lavender bunches and fabulous cheeses and french bread.

We had lots of music, and one of the staples of Whidbey life – the Shifty Sailors – were very popular.

The artists showed their creations and some sold quite a bit! Families of the artists came to help out, too. Our staff helped some of the artists set up. They also hung many artists’ works in our own display areas.

The weather was fabulous, the Olympic Mountains guarded the event. The staff worked their tails off! It is humbling to see the dedication and hard work that so many people put into this event – the artists with their works and their booths, the musicians with their instruments and talent, the folks from WSU Extension who staffed the wine & food tent (did I mention that section was a fundraiser for the WSU Island County Extension Sustainable Agriculture position?), the staff in their constant attention to the needs of the visitors, artists, and volunteers. The farm, in its beauty and purple splendor on that weekend, put on a fabulous show!

Farming is NOT an exact science. Someone (Mother Nature) keeps us from having the same situation year in and year out. This year in the Pacific Northwest we had an unusually cold and rainy spring. It looks like we are now getting to a more normal summer pattern. But, the cold wet spring means we still have green grass and our lavender is just barely starting to be purple.

Will that mean that all the varieties will be slow to bloom? If so, our purple alert which reaches 10 around mid July, might not get there until the end of that month…. Tune in, to find out.

Have I raved recently or even at all about the people that work here at the farm? The folks that work here are amazing – funny, kind, hard working, dedicated, smart, creative, and did I mention hard working? They are: Kathy, Stacy, Abby, Mare, Leslie, Maxwell, and then there’s Rick and me. Over the years there have been more – and sometimes they come by for a visit, I love those days.

Over the last couple of months Stacy and I have been developing recipes for our new line of mixes. In order to work on the recipe we have to make up batches of the goodies (by now Stacy is the one who does most of that while I flitter around waiting for them to come out of the oven).

Stacy is mixing up stuff – Great except we’ve all gained weight as a result!

Then Leslie inherited Bailey now known as the Lavender Wind Farm Spa Dog. She’s a delight – mellow, watching the people and only barking when the UPS guy comes and she knows he’ll give her lots of dog biscuits if she barks at him.

Leslie has been so fun for all of us, and boy oh boy can that girl work!! She even dug out moss from our neighbor’s place and brought it here for the step into the gazebo. She’s an inspiration, too, because she took time off from her career to hike the Appalachian Trail – all the way! She blogs about the farm, too.

Kathy comes every other week or so and files papers for us. She comes in time for lunch – a fine farming tradition that we uphold with devotion. Some of the folks bring energy bars for their lunches and we make fun of them. Then they eat cookies or lavender shortbread. It was Kathy who really got the gift shop started – she kicked me out of the room, telling me to get my potting and gardening stuff out of there – no arguments. We’re so glad she did!

Bottom line: I love this group of people! More about the rest later.