Well I Was Close...
On my last post announcing our new website, I talked about at least one blog post a month. That was on January 31st. So, I am a couple of days late. However, we have been busy with family in town helping us prep for the upcoming year and removing some 20-year-old plants from our farm.
How Long does a Lavender Plant Live?
A lavender plant, in the right conditions, will live for well over 20 years. However, for production purposed 12-20 years is really about as far as you want to go. Thus, we are removing a few hundred lavender plants from our farm. This is not the first time we have done this, but it is at a scale of more than 100 plants. So we are learning a lot about techniques and best practices. We are really good at planting with about 10,000 plants planted since we purchased the farm. Removal, however, is fairly new for us. At this point, we are using our tractor’s bucket to dig up the plants. Then, once each row is removed, Bruce and I separate the ground cover from the plants. Finally, we burn all of the old plants.
Making Room For Lavender Babies
This removal is not permanent. We are making room for more lavender babies to be planted in a couple months. We are planting more Royal Velvet plants. Royal Velvet is one of our favorite varieties. Royal Velvet is the one variety we can use for anything. Royal velvet makes great bouquets, it is a great culinary variety, it makes a great essential oil, we use it for lavender buds. There is not another variety on our farm that is as versatile as Royal Velvet.
We Have Also Been Having Fun!
Some of our favorite family members came to visit a couple of weeks ago and we had a blast. We spent a day in Port Townsend, which is about 30-40 minutes away from our farm. Port Townsend is a great place to eat, shop, and drink. Which we did all of. One of my absolute favorite places to visit when time allows is Propolis Brewing! If you are a beer fan, a true beer fan of all styles, than this place is as close as it gets to heaven here on the Olympic Peninsula. Piper and Robert the proprietors of Propolis are excellent humans and make some of the best beer in the world for the styles they choose to brew. This is easily substantiated with the numerous medals and honors they have won. Including 3 GABF medals including Gold! Wow! I love to go here with friends and family and get an entire 11 set taster and share with my friends and family. Propolis primarily brews farmhouse style beers like saisons. Thus, you will not find your typical microbrew beer, like IPAs and Pale Ales, here. However, if you love “sours,” traditional Belgian and French beers, or farm house ales you will be right at home. Below you will see me enjoying a full tasting. Look at that rainbow of color! I had 2 others enjoying this with me…
Really! This place is awesome! GO VISIT!
What is next?
Next up is removing the rest of our plants, burning the old, and prepping for the new. We will be in touch soon! Cheers!
