2014 Rhubarb Festival

On June 13, 2014, Gene and I headed down to LaPine, Oregon for the 5th Annual Rhubarb Festival at L&S Nursery.  (If you have never been, check out their website as well as, next year, join us at the 6th Annual Rhubarb Festival.)  We loaded all our products, including our three "children"--Foxie, Molly and Toby--into the toy hauler and away we went...

We arrived on Friday the 13th with winds gusting and colder than everything to set up our booth.  My ears hurt from the wind, my nose was dried up from the wind, I was cold to the bone and I whined a lot!  We went to bed eventually, Toby hating Foxie and Foxie mad at Molly--Oh, I could see--this was not going to go well!

I was wrong!  We woke up to a beautiful day--not too hot, not too cold; in fact, it was just right!  People were busy finishing up setting up their booths.  A husband-and-wife from Sisters, Oregon had exquisite jewelry: there was a glass blower, woodcarvers, fancy vests and scarves, salsa, bird houses, books, raffles, jerky and, of course, rhubarb.  There were vendors from Arizona and California and, as can be expected, many from Oregon.  Gene and I took the dogs out for their morning constitutionals, we ate breakfast and headed over to the Festival (which started at 9a) around 7a.

We set up and people started arriving immediately.  People were brought over from the overload parking area on a wagon loaded with straw pulled by an old tractor.  We were right next to a band--Out of Hand Band--it was AWESOME!  So loud we couldn't hear people at our booth half the time and, after the show, our ears were ringing but the band was AWESOME!  They played for at least four hours and I remember seeing them taking only one break.  Some rock, some blues, some western--they had such a wide range of music: from the 40's to today.  Some I couldn't understand the words and some brought back wonderful memories!  There were line dancers--one little leather-skinned, crinkled lady line dancing right outside our booth--really energetic, having lots of fun!  One grandmother came by the booth who had been dancing with her granddaughter saying she was getting too old for this; the next thing you saw was she and her granddaughter going back to dance some more.  You saw couples dancing, dads with their babies--it was a time of great fun!  Beer contest (lots of breweries in Central Oregon), pie contest--59 pies tasted, said one judge who came by the booth!   There was even a rapper group--five ladies--rapping about rhubarb.

Gene is in his element talking to people.  I love watching the interaction as he answered questions and the person asking listened intently.

Gene talking to the people in the booth next door:
 they had books!

 LaPine is zone 3-4 so it is very difficult to find lavender that will grow there.  We took Lavandula angustifolia 'Munstead', which is suppose to be a zone 4 plant (in one book, it has it at zone 3 but I think that's if it's pretty well in a protected area).  We also took two Lavandula x intermedia 'Grosso' plants. We did that basically to show the difference between an angustifolia vs. intermedia.  Your angustifolias are generally hardier, smaller and their aroma is thought to be sweeter than the intermedias.  While the intermedias are showier, they usually don't take the cold as well as the angustifolias.  People were skeptical if lavender would grow and have had the disappointing experience with the difficult growing conditions in that area.  I believe that is why people have come to trust L&S Nursery:  they grow specifically for that zone (the owner said it wasn't so much the cold as it was the freezing winds they get).  Gene and I hope to build the same trust that L&S Nursery has with its customers:  that is one of the reasons we are leaning towards cold hardier varieties of lavender.  I cannot imagine everyone not having at least one lavender plant in their garden, no matter what the climate!

During the day, we would check on the three little ones in the toy hauler.  Toby couldn't stand Foxie to even look at him, Foxie picked on Molly--normal behavior of children on a vacation.  We took them on their walks, made sure there was plenty of water and food and told them to behave--normal parenting on a vacation with children.  About midday, I brought Molly to the booth with me.  She sat in the chair next to mine and listened to the band.  Only once did she leave her chair and that was when a couple brought their Cavalier English Spaniel--three months old--over to our booth.  I loved the people who came by the booth and talked to me about Molly and the cocker spaniels they had had as children.  "You don't see them very much any more."--I heard this quite frequently and that is true.  I don't know why because they are such a sweet-tempered, gentle little dog.

Going to these shows has enhanced our lives tremendously.  We meet such interesting people:  all walks of life stop by and we learn so very much from each one of them.  I love watching the children when they smell the lavender--most of them like its scent--but once in a while, you'll get that little one where the nose wrinkles up and they might as well be chucking down a bottle of castor oil.  Every once in a while, someone will walk by and immediately start sneezing because of allergies.  But everyone, to date, has been so positive in their response that, when Gene and I come home from these little forays tired to the bone, we feel encouraged and strengthened by those who stop by our booth.

The Festival ended at 4p and we packed up.  Coming home, we were signaled down by a pickup from Arizona:  we had a flat tire on the toy hauler.  In the long run, we think that's a good thing to know before Gene and Nick head out in August some time for the Steens Mountains before school starts.  At the time, it was a little nerve racking as we wondered if we'd make it the next five miles home.  We were grateful to the two young people in the pickup truck for letting us know:  Gene said he didn't feel anything in the steering wheel--no pull, nothing, from the flat tire.

All in all, learned a lot, met good people, got to eat out, came home tired and, according to Gene, successful trip!  What more could one ask for!

THERE IS A SPECIAL PLACE IN HELL FOR WEEDS... OR IS THERE?

Weeding!  That is what Gene and I have been doing since April 12, 2014.  My journal reads "Test Block:  one row of 'Grosso" weeded.  My final entry thus far, May 26, reads "finished weeding"... Only, I'm not finished weeding.  The Test Block is being overrun again with weeds!  Noxious weeds, obnoxious weeds; long taproot, spreading, flowering, "growing like weeds" weeds.  Those weeds that take a hole three feet deep and five feet across to extricate the weed along with its roots and those weeds that, if you break off one little microcosm of a branch will spread like wildfire.   There are those weeds who, when you are removing it, spread thousands of little winged replicas of itself and those who, when you barely touch it, will shake loose its thousands of seeds.  God did say to go forth and multiply but.... weeds!  (God, we need to talk:  why all of them growing in my lavender!)

Gene and I get up between 5:30a.-6a; drink our coffee and plan our day--as if we don't know what we already know we are going to be doing--which is weeding!  We come in around 7p and look at what was accomplished.  We smile with what strength is left at each other, compliment each other for a job well done, take a shower, eat, take in the weather and "hit the hay" (go to bed)... and start all over in the morning.  Weeding did bring back wonderful memories, though, of when I was a little girl and my mom's family would bring in the hay from Grandpa McKenna's field.  Grandpa would rake the hay into rows when the time was right; then, his children and their children--family--would go up to the hayfield and help bring the hay into the barn.  I remember when I was finally old enough to rake the hay into shocks and dad giving me instructions:  go about 1/3 way down the raked row of fresh smelling hay, take the pitchfork and put it into a small pile of hay, then put another pile on top of that--careful not to leave any of the hay--until a nice, rounded shock of hay was created.  Then, finish each row and start on the next row until the work was done.  As the hay was being shocked, Grandpa and the men loaded the hay onto a trailer and hauled to the barn.  If we did a good job, we were allowed to sleep in the barn on the loose hay.  (I don't ever remember not being able--the whole family--to sleep in the hay.)  I loved sleeping in the hay when it was loose.  Nothing smelled as sweet as newly-mown hay.  We kids could play hide n' seek, make tunnels, slide down mounds.  It was the best place to be in the whole world.  (It was Gene raking the weeds from between the rows and me loading it with a pitchfork onto the bucket of the tractor that somehow reminded me of haying). Gene then piled the weeds into quite a stack and, hopefully, this winter we will be able to burn it; right now,the weather is too dry to burn.  The weeds have a sicky smell to them when you walk by them... not at all like the wonderful smell I remember inside Grandpa's barn.

"Test Block"after weeding the first time looking west towards "Block A" and "Block B"

"Test Block" with more weeds about 2-1/2 weeks after weeding.

While I was grumping and groaning about the weeds and having to start again in the Test Block, a beautiful doe came silently into the Test Block and started munching on the weeds.  O.K., God, I guess we don't have to have our talk after all.  A picture is worth a thousand words... and I just got the picture.

...and this is why God made weeds...

READY, SET, GO... (No Wait! I'm Not Ready) COBA Home and Garden Show

The Central Oregon Builders Association held their Home and Garden Show at the Deschutes County Fairgrounds on May 2-4, 2014.  The inventory had been done on the products, the boxes of products were placed in the hallway ready to be loaded into the pickup, lists were complied and memos to ourselves were placed everywhere!  We wanted to make sure we were ready.  The well laid plans of mice and men... I won't tell you how many trips we made back home and then get to the show just to turn around again... thankful we were that we lived just a few miles from the Fairgrounds.

SET UP began on May 1.  We arranged, then rearranged, then re-rearranged.  We had so much stuff!  We were offering coffee with scones this time.  People waived the coffee but, oh, those white chocolate lavender scones... people asked for the recipe, wanted to order them to put in their gift packs and bought them 3-4 at a time.  We had one fellow who, at the end of the day and after the doors closed, would come to the booth, buy one of these delectable scones and waltz his way to another booth.  He then would gently hand this most delicious of gifts to the woman at this booth.   Thank you, Kylie Stalter from "Sweetly Baked".  The scones were mouth watering, well received by everyone and were as good as they look (please don't ask how I know)....and they can be used in the lovely art of old fashioned courting...

We  joined with Hearth Cricket Farm and sold lavender together:  We are leaning towards cold hardiness plants and researched over the internet this past winter, talked with people back east (Wisconsin, Iowa, Ohio, New York and Pennsylvania in particular) and read as much as we could on the cold hardiness of the different varieties.  We came up with four varieties for cold hardiness but only had two to offer at this show--L. angustifolia 'Munstead' and L. intermedia 'Phenomenal'.  We brought a third offering, L. intermedia 'Grosso', as well.  'Grosso' grows in zone 5 (-20 to -10 degrees) and has long,  beautiful stems and a wonderful fragrance. ( It seems everyone is thinking of 'Grosso' when they describe lavender.)  'Munstead' and 'Phenomenal' grow in zone 4 (-30 to -20).  'Munstead' is considered a "true, common or English" lavender.  The plant is 20-24 inches at maturity with a flower stem of approximately 6-8 inches.  It blooms twice a 

year and originated in England in 1902.  'Phenomenal' is a relatively new variety of lavender and is still under patent so only the plant and its buds can be sold; this particular lavender can be propagated only by its owner.   Besides the 'Munstead' and the 'Phenomenal', Still Waters Lavender purchased two other varieties of cold hardiness plants (zone 4) this winter and will be planting them this spring.

READY?  Oh my goodness!  How do you ready yourself for thousands of people hurling themselves in your direction!  May 2, 2014, the doors opened and the people poured in.  It was so much fun--nonstop talking and laughing--learning and explaining.  For cooking, we offered lavender syrup, lavender-infused honey, lavender blackberry preserves and lavender dark chocolate.  Yes!  I have

tasted everything and can vouch for its yumminess.  In fact, I have been ordered specifically to stay away from the lavender-infused honey because I ate 9/10ths of the last order and so we did not receive any money for the product, let alone make a profit.  (I disagreed in that I profitted greatly from eating honey but to no avail... I am to stay away from this order of lavender-infused honey.)  We also have "I Love Lavender" Ashdene China which I reasoned that I should have one of every piece for myself.  Unfortunately, the husband didn't accept the reasoning behind "we should try the product before offering it so that we'll be able to personally vouch for each item."  It was worth the try:  I have one beautiful cup...and I love the little bee that I see every time I tip my cup for a sip of tea. 

SET... we are set!  Everything is in its place!  We have plants, we have foodstuffs, we have china.  We also have homemade products.  Hearth Cricket Farm is starting a line of beauty products:  lip balm is its first product in this field.  It's wonderfully soothing for the lips.  It comes in clear, blush and bronze.  The first day we almost sold out and had to restock.  (I look forward to her body butter which she is currently experimenting with.)  

Other items are Lavender Goat Milk Soap (the goat milk comes from Hearth Cricket Farm) and Oats'n Honey Soap (no goat milk but the orange and clove essential oils make it delicious smelling, and the honey and oatmeal make it an excellent soap for dry skin).  Lavender and rice filled chicken door stops and sachets by the score.   Lavender hydrosol to spray on linens or by your computer to freshen the air, lavender buds to make your own sachets and lavender essential oil to put on your temple if you have a headache, or on a cotton ball and placed in your pillow case to aid in getting a good night of rest.  

There were also gift packs:  each one different and unique--one filled with a lavender filled sachet pillow with an embroidered bee, two guest bar oats n' honey soap and a bottle of lavender essential oil or....

a gift pack that has a lavender-filled sachet pillow with an embroidered bee and three guest bar oat's n' honey soap.

Amulet pouches, crochet dolls with stems for skirts, pomander balls and lavender-filled chicken moth repellents were placed on the end of the booth.   These items exuded all kinds of questions, a myriad of suggestions and lots of good old-fashioned visiting.  I enjoyed two women, hunched over the crochet dolls with stems for skirts, talking as they examined how they were made.  I smiled because I have done the same thing.  I think that "look" is universal with those of us who like to make things with our hands and wonder how things are made when something new comes to town.  I wasn't able to talk with them and let them know that I've put the instructions online.  Maybe next time...

GO:  The show ended on May 5, 2014 at 5 p.m.  We are so grateful to all the people who stopped by our booth and made our time at the Home and Garden Show such a success.  Thank you!

The next show is June 14, 2014.  Until then, I hear the weeds calling my name!  

Goodbye, Old Friend

Gunner

Goodbye, old friend. I will miss tripping over you when I come down the stairs at night, having you "talk" as no other lab ever did, hearing the thump of your tail when I reached out to touch you and knowing you would always be there for me. You were the kindest, gentlest friend a person could ever hope to have. Your journey here is over but your lessons on life and love will live on. Goodbye, my friend.

APRIL 21, 2014 FACEBOOK SMALL BUSINESS SEMINAR

Thank you, Bend Chamber of Commerce and Facebook, for putting on an excellent seminar for small businesses.  I was unprepared--I went with my little tablet and pencil and all around me were computers (duh), I was in awe--the lady who taught the course and the local small business team she assembled to field questions from the audience with practical answers was perfect--and I now know what direction to go to grow Still Waters Lavender.  Of course, I didn't understand most of it but it opened the door for me to learn.  It is always good to stretch those little gray cells.  Now... onward and upward!  Or... out into the great unknown!  Going where this woman has never gone before!  (These are all encouragement remarks because it's the great unknown, going where I've never gone before is a little bit scary.)

NAME DROPPER

Saturday, April 19, 2014 Gene and I participated in the Central Oregon Master Gardener Show.  We were there at 7 a.m. setting up.  We were welcomed at the door by helping hands and, before we knew it, we were ready for customers... and they came.   

On the front table we had plants:  lavender--Grosso and Munstead and herbs--Sage and Oregano.  We also had the Oregon Lavender Association "Lavender Festival" sign and the lavender scythes on the table.  On the front of the table, we put up a sign about upcoming events:  The May 2-4 Deschutes County Home and Garden Show when HearthCricket Farm will participate along with us, and the July 12-13 Oregon Lavender Association's Lavender Festival in which lavender farms across the state open their farms to visitors.  This will be our first year involved in the lavender festival and the first year we will be open to the public:  July 1-August 31; Tuesday - Saturday; 10a-6p.

People asked many questions... good questions... about the lavender.  We referred them to Sarah Bader's book "The Lavender Lover's Handbook" when asked about specific plants.  We invited people out to Still Waters Lavender to walk among the lavender, to choose what they preferred and to observe which plants did well and which ones do not.   People asked about the Oregon Lavender Association's (OLA) Festival and we gave out hundreds of the beautiful brochures prepared by the OLA.  People asked about the scythes--how do you use them--and we referred them to Susan Harrington's minute video on her webpage "Labyrinth Hill Lavender".   

The vendor behind us (in the next aisle) was Paulina Springs Bookstore.  Gene was apprehensive about being next to a bookstore--he thought he might lose me for the day.  There were so many good books about gardening, composting, small land farmers (as I said, so many good books).  I understood his concern but it all worked out well.  We--Gene and I--decided that two books were paramount for us:  "The Lavender Lover's Handbook" by Sarah Berringer Bader and "Discover Cooking with Lavender" by Kathy Gehrt.  I did not have any culinary lavender buds--Miss Katherine which is sweet and Folgate which is subtle--with me because they all sold in 2013; however, that does not mean we cannot talk about cooking with lavender with our customers.  Even though lavender has been used for centuries in cooking, people were surprised to hear about using lavender in their everyday cooking and seemed eager to learn.  Every time we talked about using lavender in our food or were asked about specific plants, we would let people know that Paulina Springs Bookstore could order those two books and delivery would be in just a few days.

The book "The Lavender Lover's Handbook" is on top of the shelf containing the lavender-infused honey and the lavender-infused preserves.  Just because I didn't have any culinary lavender buds for sale was no excuse for not having "Discover Cooking with Lavender" so, for our next show on May 2-4 at the Deschutes Country Fair and Expo Center's "Home and Garden Show", "Discover Cooking with Lavender" will be displayed so that people will be able to see recipes using this wonderful culinary herb.  Also at the May 2-4 show, HearthCricket Farm will be participating.  We sell their lip balm beauty product.  We use them, we like them and we think you will like them, too.  Another culinary delight is the lavender syrup... People try; people buy.  Another bath/beauty product is our handcrafted soap:  honey n' oatmeal and the ever popular goats milk lavender soap made from the Saanan goat milk from HearthCricket Farm.  There is also lavender essential oil and lavender hydrosol.   Many handcrafted items using WITM Enterprise's beautiful fabric is for sale:  a variety of lavender-filled sachets as well as lavender/rice-filled chicken doorstops.  A new item, lavender spheres, are also for sale.  When children came by our booth, we explained how to make the spheres:  four ingredients--styrofoam ball, paint (to seal the ball), white glue and lavender.  Place the spheres in a vase or bowl on a table and, when the sun hits the lavender spheres, the oils will be released from the lavender buds and will make your home smell lavenderly wonderful.  Still Waters Lavender buds are available for this project, although in a limited quantity.

At the end of the main table we put up a rack containing lavender-filled chicken moth repellents, lavender pomanders, lavender stemmed crochet doll ornaments and amulet pouches.  

At the end of the day, we were tired but thrilled with the response of this first show of the season for us.  Central Oregon Master Gardeners were wonderful hosts and we were honored to be asked to return... and, if the Good Lord is willing and the creek don't rise, we will be there in 2015.  Now, it's home and preparing for the May 2-4 Deschutes County Home and Garden Show.  New products--and the introduction of LongBottom Coffee!  We hope to see you there!

BACK TO THE HOUSE--EVOLUTION OF GREENHOUSES

April 2, 2014

(Something old--wooden box from mom and dad's place, 
something older--milk stool from my grandpa's barn
 and something from last year--dried lavender from our 2013 Harvest)

It's been a month since the last posting.  My, how times change!  In just a short 30+ days, the two greenhouses are up.  The snow has come and gone... and come again; along with sunshine and biting wind and rain...A joke in Oregon goes something like "it's sunshining right now but, give it a few minutes, and it'll start snowing."

Last Sunday, our greenhouses had their shells put on.  My husband and I go into the greenhouses and just stare in amazement.  We giggle, hug each other and giggle some more.  A dream... everyone should have a dream come true.  And it all started with a telephone call from a friend ..."there's some greenhouses you might be interested in."

Gene and I drove to Madras, looked and purchased.  That fast!  We (translate that to Gene) got busy clearing the land and marking the space out.  "Both of them won't fit in that spot," I told him.  I had "eyeballed" the spot and we were lucky that one would fit it the space, let alone two greenhouses.  Gene smiled-that irritating all knowing husband smile--and he just kept measuring and pounding those stakes into the ground. Mumbling, I went back to the house.  

So, measuring and staking for two greenhouses--30' x 48' each-- the gravel was delivered and the base for the two greenhouses was spread and leveled by the fellow who put in our drip irrigation.  The two greenhouses would fit perfectly in the spot Gene measured.  Eyeballing is neither a science nor a commonsense approach to deciding if a building can go into a specific space.  Let's move on...


 
Then, came the greenhouses... the parts just came, and came... and continued to come.  It looked like an enormous Lego, Tinkertoy, Erecto set outside:  similar parts stacked together--all with marks and codes and strangle little doodlings.  I decided I'd stick to my 1000-piece puzzles that fit on my table.  These particular "puzzle pieces" with their foreign markings belonged to the experts!  I went back to the house...again.

Every now and then, I would peek outside towards the greenhouses and see the builders measuring and measuring again, talking a strange language that only they seemed to comprehend.  It's comforting when professionals are building your dream. With skill and determination combined with a good work ethic, they would get about the task set before them with great zeal.  Then the -30 degrees with snow....  They came out one day and the equipment didn't function very well in freezing temperatures.  While the skeletons of the greenhouses stood all forlorn, we went back to the house for our skis, sled and hot chocolate... 

When the snow stopped falling, the freezing winds came, followed by rain and then the pretty days--cold and windy--but the sun did shine.  Progression was made on the greenhouses until, at last, they were mostly up. There are still a few minor items that need finishing but, for all intents and purposes, they are up.  

Joy! Joy!  Joy! Joy!  ("Ode to Joy"--I don't know the words so I just sing "joy"...that explains pretty closely how we feel).  "A dream is a wish your heart makes... when you're fast asleep."  This dream is now a reality and I am humbled that we have been allowed to have these beautiful structures, worked with extremely talented, gifted people who helped to make this dream come true.  I thank you... from the bottom of my heart... I/we--Gene and I--thank you.



The other morning I glanced out my bedroom window and saw this image.  The sun was coming down the trees, over the lavender fields all white with frost, when its rays suddenly hit the greenhouses and made them glow.  It captured the essence of a new morning, a new beginning...

Now--Plants!  Another Saga in the Life of a Lavender Farmer!  They should be coming in about ten days--TEN DAYS!  Oh my goodness!  The cycle of life is pretty amazing!  Keeps us busy (and out of trouble:  "Idle hands are the devil's handiwork") and our fingers in the dirt... I like that!