MILTON-FREEWATER — Take a little trip down Crockett Road and one will find a sea of fragrant lavender, just waiting to be harvested.
Before becoming known for its purple buds, Crockett Road Lavender Farm, 53671 W. Crockett Road in Milton-Freewater, underwent various transformations that shaped it into what it is today.
In 1982, Tom Binder, the owner, bought the property, which was a thriving apple orchard at the time. However, a shift occurred in 1989 when a study on Alar, a chemical used to manage growth and enhance apple harvest efficiency, implied it was a carcinogen.
The report hit the agriculture industry hard, and Binder closed shop as an apple farmer and planted hay instead, but hay wasn’t as profitable as he hoped.
“The whole Milton area changed after the Alar scare,” Binder said. “There were a lot more orchards back then.”
He sold the property in 1998, which he said he regretted, but it wasn’t until one fateful day the same property he had sold was up for grabs. He said he couldn’t let the opportunity pass him by.
Binder and his wife, Louise Dyjur, planted hay on the acreage again, but it still wasn’t the moneymaker they were hoping for.
“We were looking for something that would be more profitable,” Binder said. “Everywhere we went for suggestions, lavender was at the top of the list.”
Now, Crockett Road Lavender Farm has 4,000 plants, and Binder said he plans to put in another 2,000 in September.
“We have 15 acres of land here,” Binder said. “We don’t plan to have that all planted as lavender.”
“I sure hope not,” Dyjur added, laughing.
There are more than 20 varieties of lavender growing with names such as Folgate, Buena Vista, Melissa and Betty’s Blue.
“We have four or five wholesale customers who will buy most of our crop, and the rest is sold at farmers markets, festivals, and bazaars,” Binder said. “We have the store here and the website as well.”
Blue Mountain Lavender Farm also collaborates with several local businesses such as Sweet Bee Honey Company, Walla Walla Cheese Company, Hummingbird Tea, and Umapine Creamery.
Busy bees
Most of the lavender is harvested by hand, using small but sharp sickles. As Zach Lincoln, a lavender farm employee, reaches down to cut a bundle of the fragrant lavender, the honeybees busy with pollination move out of the way.
Binder said that at the height of blooming season he can hear the buzzing of honeybees from his back porch, which is some distance away from the rows of lavender.
Just like the bees who are on the job and completely focused on the purple flower, this time of year is the busiest for the work crew at the lavender farm. It’s also the most profitable time.
From June to July, Binder said, the farm is open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
English lavender varieties are blooming with the French varieties a bit further behind. Binder said French varieties are used for culinary purposes and fragrant soaps and candles, because the smell is stronger. The English varieties, which have a comforting aroma, are better for therapeutic purposes and making essential oil.
Binder said harvest season typically starts mid-June and lasts a couple of weeks into early July.
The lavender is harvested when only a few blooms can be visible on the plants. Binder said when about half of the buds have bloomed on a plant, the lavender is harvested to be made into essential oil.
The cut plants are bundled and dried in the shop on the property. Binder uses 100-year-old grain cleaners that he purchased in Joseph, Ore., to clean the dried lavender. They retrofitted the machines so rather than stripping wheat of chaff, it strips lavender stems of their buds. The culinary lavender is cleaned twice to get rid of any unwanted dust or leaves.
Binder also distills lavender essential oils, both French and English varieties. He said it takes about 750 plants to make one quart of oil.
Crockett Road Lavender Farms sells plants, soaps, oils, teas and many other items that are made, scented or flavored with lavender. The smell in the small store stuffed full of goodies is intoxicating and relaxing. Customers can also cut their own flowers.
So, what does it take to be a lavender farmer?
“It takes a lot of work,” Binder said. “And weeding. Lots and lots of weeding.”
Blue Mountain Lavender Farm
Twelve miles west of Walla Walla, a rolling sea of purple is tucked away in green fields of wheat waiting for the summer sun to turn it all to a shade of gold.
Blue Mountain Lavender Farm, 345 Short Road in Lowden, sits on 10 acres of gentle slopes that overlook the Blue Mountains. The 10-acre farm belongs to the Grimaud family.
Jean-Paul Grimaud is from France, and he met his American wife, Karen, while they were in Switzerland. They moved to the Valley in 2000 to cultivate a rural lifestyle and to fulfill their desire to grow lavender, which also happens to be France’s iconic crop.
“We stumbled upon a place that was growing lavender when we first moved back to the states from France,” Karen Grimaud said. “We were just enthralled.”
From there a desire grew in the couple to cultivate a rural lifestyle in the Walla Walla Valley countryside.
“Our minds just kept going back to that little farm and we thought, we could do this, even though we didn’t even own a shovel at the time,” she joked.
Grimaud said the farm has been in a constant state of change, from when the couple put their first plant in the ground to where the farm is now with full rows of lavender.
“It’s amazing what you can do with water,” she said.
The farm has 25 varieties of lavender, which is available for U-pick. The farm boutique features handmade goods such as dried lavender bouquets, sachets, essential oil and culinary treats.
Classes such as lavender wand- and wreath-making are available for booking, and the farm allows for professional photography reservations as well.
Before blooming and harvesting season, lavender plants are available for purchase on site in late April.
“We like to take advantage of the cooler part of the spring, and it’s a good time for people to get their plants in the ground,” Grimaud said. “Although we do have people who buy plants nearly up until the Fourth of July.”
She said the majority of the sales are from locals and visitors who come out to cut their own lavender.
Jean-Paul Grimaud said he is retiring from his job as a college professor. He said every summer that he has had off since being a professor were packed full of lavender harvest and weeding. Some may consider that a chore, but he said it’s like vacation.
“This is my active retirement,” he said. “I’m in heaven here; the work satisfies my soul.”
He said he hopes to plant more lavender and bring in more visitors to the farm, now that he has more time on his hands.
Grimaud said one of the best things about the farm is seeing the visitors return year after year to smell the flowers, bask in the sunlight and enjoy the quiet of the area.
He attributed the success of the farm to the work of his family, with his children and now grandchildren helping with harvest.
His wife said the mentality that lavender cultivation takes is rooted in the willingness to work hard.
“Just keep hoeing those rows and keep harvesting,” she said. “There are no lavender emergencies, we are outside with nature, and the flowers are a plus.”
