Harvest Moon Farms began growing lavender in 2000, after our founders,K.C. and Martha, attended a lavender festival in Sequim, WA at Purple Haze Lavender. They were bitten by the lavender bug and brought the idea of creating a cooperative farm back to Laytonville, CA. To Martha, who had been growing vegetables and mushrooms for years without a lot of success, lavender was the perfect crop. She was looking for something the deer wouldn’t eat, the gophers wouldn’t eat, and didn’t take much water. She explains that she “needed something easy. If you want to be sustainable, you have to grow things that are easy to grow in your area. You shouldn’t be fighting nature”.
After starting with 1/3 of an acre of lavender, K.C. (an herbalist and currently training as an Acupuncturist with expertise in Traditional Chinese Medicine) was able to turn the small amount of essential oil that was produced into HMF’s first product, our very herbal Healing Hand Salve. That was not enough. Within a few years Martha and K.C. found a land partner and added an additional twelve acres, nine acres of Lavandin “Grosso” and the other three in varieties of English lavender.
Farming means surprises, and there have been plenty of those. “Last year we started noticing feral pig damage,” Martha says. “They didn’t touch the plants, but they were like rototillers between the rows. The funny part is, that in the areas where they rooted, the plants doubled in size.” Using records, K.C. determined that our essential oil yield for this years’ harvest was 15% more than the projected estimate. Go, pigs!!
We are now able to offer our pure, unadulterated and certified organic (by CCOF) essential oil, along with our expanding home and body care line, which includes massage oils, body lotion, room and body spritzers and bulk hydrosol. These products are created for our own healing and the healing of our friends, family and community and it is in this spirit that our business is run. We offer our products with love, and enjoy teaching the community by giving talks at the local garden clubs and offering a class about lavender to a local herb school, which has resulted in the hiring of two local herbalists. We love our work and it is with this intention that we hope to expand and allow the love of lavender to reach far and wide.
To purchase directly from Harvest Moon Farms Lavender, visit their listing on Pick-A-Pepper or visit their website www.harvestmoonfarmslavender.com.
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