The Romantic Dream of Owning a Farm...Lavender in the Mountains of Virginia!

I was looking for a niche business was in Washington State lots and lots of lavender in Washington and I wouldn't was there with one I wonder if lavender will grow at 3,000 feet elevation [Music] hey guys so we're with Barbara the proprietor of I country lag and we're up here in medicine damn what drew you to lavender farming tell me about your your past here a little bit I was looking for a niche business on the mountain yeah I wanted to get out of nursing and was in Washington state which is a very lots and lots of lavender in Washington yeah and I was there was I wonder if lavender will grow at 3,000 feet elevation yep on a farm that used to be a Christmas tree farm and five years later here we are nice nice so when I was growing up as a kid I remember driving by this farm and they were just Christmas trees everywhere and there's still some Christmas trees remaining is that right there are yeah but they're not harvestable you started growing lavender here how many years five years ago you said five years five years ago you've got three cabins four cabins we have four cabins when a poor rental cabin gotcha to two bedrooms and two one bedrooms and they stay well rented especially July and October our busiest month for the cabin all sorts of wildflowers - I see growing out through here you have fields of wildflowers it's just a beautiful place really thank you yeah thank you you're an herbalist also is that right I am yes okay a self-proclaimed herbalist stuff for fun well no with courses and classes and lots of teaching awesome gotcha awesome that do you ever hold any cup type of classes up here on lavender or I mean occasionally we have garden clubs that book with me and come up and we do lavender classes in the field also make lavender products here and then we do luncheons on the porch sweet let's go inside the store this is your lavender what do you call this your lavender store your my lavender store actually I tease and tell people it's my she shed disguised as a lavender shop pretty cool and your husband built this by hand with rough cut lumber is that right on Delphis sound awesome awesome stuff let's go inside and check it out [Music] man guys it smells awesome in here there's lavender just hanging from the ceiling all this stuff Oh smells so good why don't you tell us a little bit about your lavender shop it does smell a lot like lavender because there is a lot of lavender here a lot of lavender products that are in the shop and the lavender products that are here I do make most of them there are a few things that I don't but most of the lavender that is here is made here on the farm lotions and soaps hand sanitizers linen sprays all of that are made here also herbal products that I make it felt here in the shop I also have a flea platter for an organic all-natural flea powder for dogs and cats and no essential oils in those I am working on a line for men I do have men that come into the shop and look for something for themselves lavender isn't always a women thing I have guys that want to have their shaving soaps with lavender and it also I'm doing aftershave and body gels ship shaving soaps for them so that'll be up and coming here soon we are open on Thursdays through Saturdays from 10:00 to 5:00 and Sundays 1:00 to 5:00 and our website is high country lavender VA as in virginia.com and we I'm happily ship to any location that where you may be [Music] what we talk about a lot on our farm is diversification you really have to diversify in order to make it as a small farmer don't you you do you do you can't put all your irons in one fire you have to be flexible and creative absolutely uh-huh we're gonna check out a lavender plant she's going to talk us through it this one is a four year old lavender plant this is called lavender phenomenal we have five different varieties in the field we have phenomenal we have hid coat we have rel velvet and we have grosses these make great four bundles and sachets our roll velvet is our culinary lavender that we use to cook with we have a lot of honey bees on the lavender the lavender attracts the bees we have several people in the area within a mile radius of us that do keep these and their bees do come and visit our lavender you can see some of the lavender the damage to the lavender from the water on some of them the plants start blooming about the third week in June we harvest about the first week in July I usually leave about a quarter of the field for the bees and the butterflies and then come back in and get that the middle of August I used that for sachet lavender the lavender that is harvested about the first week of July is what I use for my bundles lavender it stays on the stem if you pick it too late it will just shatter off the stem that's not good for a bundle but it's fine for a sachet [Music] well Barbara we decided we'd bring you some stuff from our garden missus tiny Ridge has got some squash there for you and some cucumbers we thank you so much for having us here at High Country lavender I hope you guys enjoyed this video I hope you learned a little bit and we'll be back up here when they get ready to plant lavender I do believe we've been invited back up so we can teach you guys how to plant lavender and grow lavender I think what we've learned today is that farms in order to be successful have to diversify especially a small farm guys thanks a lot for joining us here on the Stoney Ridge farm it's time for the whoo see you guys next time [Music] Pierce we had some ways those Denise Tony Reed Oh so guys we noticed that there is like a big-time Wizard of Oz kind of theme out here the wicked witch's legs are hanging out from under the front porch and the ruby slippers are up here and the rainbows up here and I asked Barbara about that and this is aura their puppy dog that they lost last year and it's kind of a symbol of the puppy dog making the journey over the rainbow so pretty cool stuff good people