LAVENDER FARM, BOUGHT ON A LARK, BEING RENOVATED
Carol Kinsley

American Farm
7.01.2008
MD

The latest saga of a lavender farm in Sussex County, Del., began
totally by chance. Sharon Harris happened to visit the farm on Cool
Spring Road south of Route 9 on the day in 2002 that owner Pauline
Petit learned that sale of the farm had fallen through. "I came out
to buy a plant and bought a farm," Harris said.

Petit, whose father was a famous lavender grower in Norfolk, England,
had purchased the farm in the 1980s and planted thousands of lavender
plants there. She also fixed up the circa 1890 farmhouse, built by
the Warrington family who owned the farm from 1774 to 1946. Petit
opened the house to overnighters as the Manor at Cool Spring Bed and
Breakfast. Years later, at age 60, she’d lost the battle with weeds and
was ready to move to Australia. The farm was to be sold to a developer.

Harris, who has a home in Milton, Del., stopped by to purchase some
lavender for her farm in Catonsville, Md., and ended up buying the
whole lavender farm.

The house and grounds were in bad shape, so bad that people asked,
"What were you drinking when you bought it?" But Harris doesn’t drink.

People in the area expressed love for the idea of a lavender farm and
encouraged her not to subdivide the property but to try to resurrect
the overgrown farm.

Harris convinced two friends, Mary Ann Etu and Marie Mayor, to go in
with her on the venture and proceeded to fix the place up.

"People said I needed a Bobcat," she told members of the Seaside Red
Hat Society, one of several groups which came for lunch in June. "I’d
never been on one, but I decided it couldn’t be that hard. It doesn’t
take a college degree to drive one. When the rental people asked
if I knew what I was doing, I said, ‘Sure!’ They brought it to the
farm and left. I did figure it out, but then my friends wouldn’t let
me get on it. They wanted to operate it. Women don’t get a chance to
play with men’s toys," she told the ladies from Lewes, Del. "I rented
it three weekends."

Harris and her friends started planting in 2003, "and we’re still
planting," she said. Unlike Petit, who had planted directly into the
ground and who had allowed people to dig up plants, leaving holes
all over, the threesome used garden fabric so they would not have to
weed. They slit the fabric to tuck the plants in. They sell lavender
plants in pots.

They take cuttings to make more plants, dipping them in Rootone,
then starting them in potting soil. While the cuttings are rooting,
they are kept moist. "It takes two to three months," Harris said. "Some
say just tear a part off and stick it in the ground."

There are three kinds of lavender: English, French and Spanish. "The
Spanish is too tender to grow here," Harris said, "except that we’ve
had mild winters recently."

The English and French varieties are very hardy here. Native to the
Mediterranean, lavender likes it hot and dry, prefers sandy soil
and thrives on neglect. There it gets 17 inches of rain a year,
"so we never water ours," she said. "When farmers are upset because
of drought, we are happy. The more hot, the more dry, the less water,
the more neglect … the better."

It’s not the cold that bothers lavender — it grows in Cape Cod,
even in Canada. The problem is with snow melting and keeping the
soil moist. Lavender can be potted in the fall and kept in the house,
but it will have a shorter life expectancy.

Lavender is a perennial that will last about 15 years. It doesn’t
spread.

The English lavender blooms first, from June until November. "We
harvest it all along," Harris said. "In the fall we use a hedge trimmer
to cut one-third into the green and shape it. If you do that, it
increases the life of the plant and encourages growth at the bottom."

English lavender is a smaller plant which has no camphor, which would
give it an astringent quality. English lavender makes fine, expensive
perfume that is very delicate. English lavender is used for culinary
uses; French is used for bouquets, sachets and other crafts.

Lavender can be used to flavor sugar, cookies or lemonade. As with
sage and thyme, it adds a savory taste to vegetables, meats and
sauces. "You can use it in anything you’d use rosemary in," Harris
said. A sweet herb, it adds flavor to pies, cakes and biscuits,
even creme brulee and vodka martinis.

Lavender is a calmative and aids in sleeping. It is used by jockeys
to help calm race horses. Some people use lavender for headache relief.

Other uses include as a natural insect repellent. "Last year we sold
100 bottles of Bug Away a week!" Harris said. "Our grandmothers
put lavender in their drawers to keep out moths, spiders and
silverfish. There are no mosquitoes at our farm in summer," she
continued. "Only bees and butterflies like lavender."

Lavender Fields has put bees to work on the property. When a former
hive rental agreement was discontinued, Harris delayed looking for
someone to supply hives. A retired beekeeper, now a condo resident,
came up the drive one day and begged for the opportunity. They ordered
70,000 Italian bees which were delivered from Ohio through the post
office. The bees are less aggressive than Russian bees and smaller
than bumblebees. Harris hopes to get 500 to 600 pounds of lavender
honey this year.

Harris is in charge of the farming operation. She likes being
outside. A former lawyer, she said she always felt imprisoned in
an office.

"I’m an introvert; Marie is an extrovert. She does sales at farmers
markets in Lewes, Bethany, Fenwick and Rehoboth. Mary Ann is in charge
of product development."

In the beginning, "we didn’t know anything about lavender products,"
Harris admitted. She and her friends went to Washington State where
there are 60 lavender farms. They went to Provence. Mayor went to
Hawaii, Pennsylvania and Cape Cod.

"I think we have one of the nicest stores, and we make half the stuff
in the store ourselves. People come in and say, ‘I can do this’ and we
say ‘Make it for us, and we’ll sell it — but it has to be lavender!’"
The luncheons and farm visits began by chance also. A Red Hat group
called and wanted to come. A protest that no facilities were available
didn’t matter. The Red Hatters came anyway.

Now a milk barn has been converted to a comfortabe place to eat;
groups arrange their own catering. The Seaside Red Hatters hired
Nancy Chirdon of Nancy’s Fine Foods in Milford.

The store was built in 2003; the house is being restored. The two
fat cats on the property — one weighs 22 pounds — have their own
little house next to the store.

With three partners, decisions are made by majority rule. Mayor
wanted a lavender cottage, and got it. "I want a barn and a shed,"
Harris insisted.

Some things are added just because they can. An outdoor labyrinth
based on the 11-circuit labyrinth in Chartres Cathedral in France
offers a meditation device — but it also provided a use for piles
of bricks found on the farm.

Someone had dumped the remains of a house on the property, Harris
said. She removed the dirt, shovel by shovel. Underneath she found
a concrete slab where a corn crib once stood. Because there were
sassafras trees on the site, providing one of the few spots of shade
on the farm, she recycled concrete chunks and bricks to make a patio
where she gives talks.

Harris noted that they couldn’t get a home equity loan to pay for
all the improvements. Because the place was a farm, no banks would
talk to them. MidAtlantic Farm Credit came through for them, however,
and has been very good to work with ,Harris said. Last winter Farm
Credit called to ask if they could bring 40 Armenian men to see the
farm. Harris did some research, learned that lavender does well in
Armenia and made such an impression on the group that they offered
to pay her to come to their country to make a presentation, which
she declined.

The Lavender Fields group also has declined bus tours and other
requests that would overwhelm them.

"We have all the business we can handle," Harris said. With the help
of the Small Business Development Office in Georgetown, they drew up
a five-year plan for the business. All of the goals were achieved in
the second year, and the business just keeps growing.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress