These are our resident chickens, easter eggers, speckled sussex and plymoth rock, giving us the most wonderful free range eggs and keeping the bugs and ticks at bay.
Harvest time on the farm is the busiest time of all. Must collect lavender mid-morn just as the dew has evaporated but the sun has not depleted the oil content. Every space is utilized.
Lavender ready for harvesting. We wait patiently all year to see this and when it comes, you only get a short window to harvest it all before it gets over ripe.
This is how we harvest the lavender with an old sheep shears. I find once it is kept very sharp it makes a clean even cut. Also wide blade helps to keep surrounding foliage out of the way when cutting.
We tie the lavender in bunches and secure with a rubber band and then hang to dry. Labor intensive but in a couple of weeks its dried beautifully and ready for market.
This was Bess, and she was my lavender mascot. She passed away October, 2011 and left us all with a broken heart. She was truly a wonderful dog and we miss her terribly.
This is our new dog. A rescued border collie. His name is Vic. He is a little shy, but we think he loves living on a lavender farm. He herds the chickens and cat, but is afraid of the deer.
The white stone between the lavender rows insures maximum sunlight reflection to the center of the plant keeping it healthy and dry. Although, initially a lot of hard work and expense it pays off in the long run. It keeps the plants healthy while keeping down weeds. We first lay down a row of black weed barrier and then cover with the white stone.
Come visit us at one of our scheduled farmers' markets.
