Blog @ Purple Haze Lavender Ltd.

The day is finally here!…I leave for mexico tonite and will be gone a week…from what I understand, it’s incredibly hot and humid down there but I don’t care..I just need some down time and a period away from the farm…I’ve not had a day off since June 2nd…hopefully, I can bring some dorado or tuna back with me for the bbq………I saw my first Cedar Waxwings of the season yesterday…there was a small flock of them working the Twinberry tree in front of my porch…really cute little birds…so…gotta go getted packed up and outta here soon…

As the crew continues to cut lavender, all the leased barns throughout the valley are filling up with Purple Haze’s bundles…this will be the last day of helichrysum harvest, much to Kent’s delight; he has been distilling almost round the clock now for 4 days….We’ve been fortunate with the weather; foggy mornings, burning off by 9 or so…We’ll start distilling Grosso lavender next week and it will continue throughout the month of August.

Wow!…Kent McKay stayed on the still last nite till midnight cooking helichrysum…He has been SO instrumental in taking care of this oil. http://www.essentialaura.com is his website and it’s very informative. It’s really foggy here this morning so harvest of the lavender will be delayed till the sun burns through. Most of our barns are full now of drying lavender and a dried portion needs to be taken down and boxed before we can hang more.

The entire crew is here this morning early, (6 am), for harvest..Kent has already gotten the still fired up and will be cranking out his first batch of helichrysum oil of the day in just a short time. Jose is harvesting more helichrysum in the south field…it’s kind of sad to see this wonderful bright yellow flower disappear from our fields but it’s sooo valuable to us once it’s in a bottle. Kent really draws a crowd with his distilling expertise; many questions from the public…..so…I will leave for my home in Mexico a week from today to get the construction process going…I will only have a week to organize as I must get back here to finish distilling lavender throughout the summer…but…it will be a nice break from the run, run, run schedule that we experience here everyday.

Yesterday was so hot, (mid nineties), that i pulled the harvesting crew out of the fields as i was fearing heatstroke, sunstroke, or just plain stroke…SO searing hot and us “northerners” just arent used to it…will will start a dawn tomorrow morning and harvest helichrysum and lavender until 10 oclock or so…or however long the crew can take it…My friend, Kent McKay is coming tomorrow to distill helichrysum all this week…it us SO beautiful right now as it is in full bloom…a shame to cut it all off…but…we really need the oil…..the tourists continue to come in droves and the parking lot was full all day yesterday until way after closing hours…i LOVE it!!

Jose and the crew were able to harvest ALL of the Provence yesterday and will start on the Hidcote Giant today..looks like the temps will be in the 90s as the day wears on so will have to get after it early to avoid any heat stroke….the visitors continue to visit the farm in droves and the parking lot is full most of the time…Hey!..I guess it IS summertime…I went to a play last night with a friend and really enjoyed it. It was “Forever Plaid” and was really entertaining. There’s a pair of hummingbirds right outside my window right now. They really love the Monarda that is flourishing in one of the herb beds….now…time for a bike ride before it’s too hot.

Woke to a fog free day this morning and can now see it will be the perfect day for the crew to harvest. The farm crew shows up at 6am to get ready and will start cutting as soon as the dew is off the flowers….the public loves to watch the crew cut and hang the lavender as they are VERY accomplished having done it many many times in the past….Jose, my farm manager, is a veritable meastro when it comes to shearing the plants…he keeps 4 girls busy bundling while he cuts…the farm is SO lucky to have him on staff….so…i will get a bike ride in early then deal with the public when i return

The chaos continues at Purple Haze 4 days now past the annual festival….the parking lot is full from opening till closing and harvest of the flowers is in full swing…thankfully, we have beautiful weather to get the crop in as usually this time of year there is the chance of fog banks present each morning…many many tour buses this morning that we had to feed but now they’re gone and is just “regular” lavender customers looking to “bliss” out in our fields…more harvesting tomorrow then starting to distill the essential oil early next week.

This is the first post ever done to this blog, and there will be more to come.

Please stay tuned for information regarding the ongoings at the Purple Haze Lavender Farm.