Fall on the farm is a bit slower paced. We still have a lot going on but we don’t have as many visitors so the farm is quieter and moves slower. We have been distilling lavender for our oil all of September and continued to de-bud dried stems. The oil process is lengthy in that it requires about 2-3 hours of distillation time to yield about 9-12oz of Lavender Oil from our Grosso variety. We have finished processing the lavender for oil this season and processed nearly 900oz. We will continue to de-bud the lavender as needed. Our plants are free of any chemicals so the lavender buds and oil can be used in cooking. There are several recipes on our “recipe” page, try them out and let us know what you think.
This is the time we also prune our lavender and a lot of the flowers that are done blooming around the farm. We harvested the remaining Sunflowers and laid them out to dry. This will be our second year drying the flowers for seed. Hopefully, once completely dry we will be able to pull all the seeds and use them next year. We are drying zinnias and marigolds as well. It has been fun trying new processes and
learning new techniques each year. The Ranunculus are ready to be pulled up and we are prepping the Anemonies to overwinter in the greenhouse as well.
Greenhouse clean up and cardboard compost is also on our list for September. The Mums are huge in the greenhouse now, we have been cutting and enjoying the unique blooms in the store. Taking the time while it is slow and still some what warm out to organize and put things away is key. We don’t always have the time in the middle of summer to organize as best we would like so this is the perfect time to do that. We shred cardboard to add to our compost pile. This is a good way to recycle all the boxes we receive from materials that are shipped to us.
The Farm Store get’s a little fall reset as well. We bring in tables and chairs for guests to sit and enjoy coffee and a cookie while they are shopping in the winter months. The tables and chairs are in the store for the fall and winter season again. Once we are in full lavender season we need the space for product and room to walk around for guests.
Remember to follow us on social media @lavenderfarming, we will be sharing a lot of our processes on our stories.