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!