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Lavender Wind Farm Newsletter
Welcome the New Year
January & February 2009
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Greetings!
If you've been missing our supposedly monthly email, I want to let you know what has been happening. In late December I went to Connecticut to my father's home where he lay dying. My sister and I stayed there with him, my step-mother, and their caretaker. My brother came often. We helped in taking care of him, reading to him, letting people he cared about come and see him, and just sitting silently with him. He died on January 11, 2009. A month later we had his memorial service. I did manage to get back to the farm for a couple of weeks between those trips back east, but did not have time to write you the news at the farm.
While I always believed family to be important, it has a new meaning now. Farming is a way of life that includes family by necessity. It is a hard-working life-style, but it's also pleasing. I get to see every day the results of our hard work. We are challenged by the weather and other local conditions, We are challenged by the local culture and it's desires and various ways of interacting with the farm. It is demanding in an unforgiving way, for instance,if we miss the harvest window we are simply out of luck for the entire year. That means getting away to visit family living in other states is difficult at best. But, I'm so glad I did carve out the time to get away. I'm so lucky to have fabulous people working here who kept things going while I was gone, so that you continued to receive your orders and so that the lavender and herbs were tended for the next growing season.
What is best at our farm is that we get lots of visitors which enlivens our lives and allows us to share the gift of this place with people who come. My father didn't farm, but he deeply understood sharing - and that is one of his traditions that I have been able to continue, so far. You all help make that happen, too, because when you buy our farm products you give us the life-blood of a business, the money to pay our staff and to take care of other expenses such as maintenance of our gardens for your pleasure. You also bring cheerfulness when you come up and say "Oh, it smells so good here!"
I brought some lavender with me. Some shampoo in those tiny travel bottles, a lavender pillow to remind me of home that I gave to my sister when I left, then a couple of sachets, some essential oil, and some Helichrysum Hydrosol and our lavender Lotion for my skin. It's amazing how much I rely on the qualities of lavender to get me through the day. I'm sorry I couldn't write a letter about what is going on at the farm until now, but I know you'll understand.
 Who is this guy? He's my Dad, Fred Richards. He was a scientist working in molecular biophysics. He was also a sailor and sailed many places, including across the Atlantic Ocean a couple of times. He had a great life, and I miss him. |
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| Our New Cold Frame
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The reason "Wind" is in our name is because the winds get fierce here. They can blow at more than 70 miles per hour often during the winter. We've been wanting to build a greenhouse to grow starts and other plants protected from the cold and wind, but haven't been able to do it yet. So, this winter we built our first cold-frame. Mare and Leslie took on the project. You have to realize that non of us is a carpenter (we sure could have used Dad's expertise!) but we managed to make it work through trial and error. It is 4'x8' and is removable s we can use that space for display and propagation during the warmer months. It's full of starts for various herbs and a few vegetables, and already we are out of space.  Sarah
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All New - Look!
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All our products will look new! Stacy has been working on a new design for our labels that we think look really nice.
We've got a new product in the pipeline - a lavender extract to cook with. It isn't as simple as we had hoped (is anything?). We'll be putting the finishing touches on it in the next few weeks. Speaking of food, let us know if you have any lavender ice cream flavor preferences. We're about to make orders for this summer and we'll try our best to get your favorites.
We went to the Seattle Farmer Chef Connection to promote the use of
lavender in dishes and recipes used by restaurants and producers. I
just made a great batch of Lavender Thumb-Print Cookies, with the
extract in the cookie dough and our lavender jams in the holes. I just
used a basic Sugar Cookie recipe and substituted the Lavender Extract
for the Vanilla (2 Lavenders for 1 Vanilla).
Another thing we've been trying to do is find an organic bubble bath base. It is really hard to find a base that has lots of suds that don't have some of the preservatives and chemicals that our customers are letting us know they'd like to eliminate from their lives. Keep tuned for more developments, and if you have suggestions please tell us!
The most fun of our new things has been our discovery that there is a lavender that will grow indoors. It's called Goodwin Creek Grey. It's got beautiful tooth-edge leaves and nice lavender blossoms. Inside, it doesn't smell quite as much as when it's outside. It's a great lavender refuge when it's too icky to go outside and when you're waiting and waiting for the lavender in your yard to bloom in the summer.
We got a bunch of cute pots, lots of different colors and shapes and planted up a flat of them for you local folks who need your winter lavender fix.
The Goodwin Creek Lavender pots are available at the shop only.
Browse our store online or call us (877) 242-7716.
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Quick Links...
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Contact Information
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phone: 877-242-7716
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 Save 10% |
When you purchase $25 or more from our online store or when you visit our Farm Shop. Use this coupon code when you place your online order: LateWinter09. Or, you may print this coupon and present it in person. Share this coupon with friends and family to spread good scents!
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Offer Expires: 3/31/09
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