The latitude of lavender

Sept. 26, 2007

Ham radios and beehives were in the plans when Linda and Roy Longworth bought their Boyne City farm four years ago. But how quickly plans can change - today, with 4,000 plants and 15 varieties, Lavender Hill Farms offers visitors an opportunity to experience the beauty and the bounty of local lavender products.
“At the time, we had no idea we’d be doing lavender or anything else,” says Linda Longworth, who planted lavender for its easy-to-care-for and deer-repelling properties. After keeping her first beehive, which produced an impressive amount of honey, Longworth realized that the lavender was doing more than just existing as landscaping.
“They keep records,” explains Longworth (of the state beekeepers association), “and the average high that year yielded between 70 and 90 pounds of honey. Mine did 120.”
So planting more lavender for the production of honey was an easy decision for the couple.
“It was really the bees that led me into it,” admits Longworth, with a laugh. She now has seven hives which produce 300-400 pounds of honey each year. “It wasn’t that I’d always wanted to have a lavender farm.”

THE PERFECT LAND FOR LAVENDER
Through research, the Longworths discovered how well-suited their Northern Michigan property – on the 45th parallel like lavender farms in Provence, France, Tazmania and New Zealand – was for growing lavender.
“It’s a natural,” says Longworth. “The pH in the soil here is absolutely what lavender likes. In books it says between 6 and 8, and ours is 7. We don’t have to add fertilizer. We don’t even water.”
The sandy loam soil on the farm drains well, and the breeze over the hills keeps humidity in check. The only real maintenance required is the need for hand planting and hand harvesting with a sickle, as the fields are too small for commercial machines.
With staggered plantings of lavender varieties, “there’s always something in bloom starting from late June until the second week in August,” Longworth explains. “That way, there’s a long time for the bees to be in the lavender.”

INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION
Collecting and reading tons of books and articles, as well as visiting and observing various lavender farms around the world, has provided the Longworths with a vast amount of lavender knowledge. “In the course of learning about how to grow the plant,” says Longworth, “I’ve also learned a little bit more about the properties of the plant.”
Author and New Zealand scientist Virginia McNaughton, who harvests lavender and propagates new varieties, has become the farm’s biggest influence. Each winter on a visit to Roy’s relatives in Australia, Linda heads to New Zealand to help with the harvest there.
“We also visited a fellow in Tazmania whose family used to be perfumers in London. So I did more studying on their climate, rainfall and soil,” says Longworth. The couple also observed the silent monks at Abbaye de Sénanque in Provence, France to learn how to harvest lavender buds off of the plants. Different varieties have different uses – Sachet or pink lavender can be used in ice cream or milk, Melissa is packaged as buds for cooking, and Hidcote is dried for wreaths. “Most of it you learn by trial and error,” admits Longworth.

MANY BENEFITS
“In the United States at this point in time,” says Longworth, “people tend to think of lavender more as perfume, or aromatherapy for relaxation. But in other countries, it’s considered a medicinal oil, and they use it for good health.” Lavender oil – unable to be distilled from the Longworth’s farm just yet, as the plants aren’t mature enough – is used to prevent infection.
“Lavender, in general, is getting a real popularity surge,” says Longworth. “Not only are people recognizing that it’s relaxing, but it also has an anti-inflammatory property. You can use it topically on skin, but you can also inhale it and it protects your lungs.”
Great Britain used lavender oil on soldiers in the battlefields during World War I to prevent infection, and doctors protected themselves from the plague in Europe by breathing lavender oil from a handkerchief.
“To prevent colds and flu germs from flying around, we just inhale lavender during flights,” says Longworth, pointing out that it keeps her husband from getting bronchitis on their 14-hour flights to Australia.

LAVENDER OFFERINGS
Lavender oil brought back from Virginia McNaughton’s New Zealand farm is sold at Lavender Hill Farms, as well as locally made soaps using honey and lavender from the fields. Linda worked with Mary Corp, owner of Soaps ’N Such near Ellsworth, to formulate a lavender laundry bar made with all natural ingredients that’s been getting great reviews from the Boyne City Farmer’s Market.
Cooking lavender, sachets, neck pillows and linens created by Cross Village’s
Three Pines Studio co-owner Joann
Condino are offered, too, as well as stoneware vases by Condino’s co-owner and husband, Gene Reck.
And if you’d like to try your hand at working with lavender, classes on making drawer sachets and lavender wands are held at various times throughout the year, as well as Fridays on the Farm during the summer.

Lavender Hill Farms is located at 07354 Horton Bay Road, between Petoskey and Boyne City. The Longworths are at the Farmer’s Market in Boyne City each Saturday, or stop by Boyne City’s Harvest Festival, October 6-7. The Lavender Hill Laundry Bar can be purchased at the Grain Train in Petoskey, or visit the farm and its gift shop by appointment in the off-season. Call 231-347-1874 or e-mail lavenderhoney@sbcglobal.net.