FINALLY!! The farmhouse rental is up and running and we are now taking reservations on our online availability calendar. It took a lot of work getting the house ready; mostly ALL new furnishings including new beds and fine linens, a flat panel tv and dvd…

OK, we’ve got some good news and we’ve got some bad news. First, the bad news; we have purchased the house across the street from the farm and will be moving into it soon. After 12 years in our beautiful little farmhouse, we will miss…

We’ve marked all of our lavender plants down by 25% and they are going fast at the farm. We do this every year as we don’t want to keep them through the winter in the greenhouse. So come on down and get some plants to…

FINALLY we were able to finish distilling the Helichrysum yesterday and now will start on the fields of Grosso lavender. This process will take a couple of weeks working about 8-10 hours a day. It’s really kind of fun as the visitors to the farm…

Everyday now is spent harvesting helichrysum and distilling it. The yellow streaks of it in the fields are disappearing as Jose and his crew take the sickles to it. I love the earthy fragrance of it almost as much as the scent of lavender essential…

….and we made it fairly unscathed. Even with the rain all three days people turned out in droves to enjoy the food and music, the ice cream and lavender margueritas. Out of six bands, Geoffrey Castle was our headliner at Purple Haze and he just…

Just about all the drying barns are full now and the distiller is going all day long. It looks like we will distill the helichrysum this week so the yellow stripes in the fields will be going away. We are still reeling from the impact…

This final week before the annual festival finds us all in a dead run as tourists are showing up early and staying late. Our U-pick fields were packed with eager pickers this past week and the colors of the different varieties of lavenders are just…

The farm is up and running now and open Friday through Monday for the rest of the month. We then go to 7 days a week starting Memorial Weekend. The hours for now are 10-4. Our new webcam is getting a lot of attention. It’s…

Word from Aveda’s Seattle downtown store is that the “Save Clean Water” fundraiser is a big success. All of our lavender bundles we donated are going fast and all proceeds go to preserving clean water in our Columbia River. They have created a beautiful display…

With the warmer, drier weather we experienced this past week, Jose and his crew have been transplanting mature lavender plants into the areas where we pulled out old, nonproductive plants last month. All varieties of lavenders are now starting to “green up” as we move…

With the farm opening this next weekend, everyone is scrambling around making sure everything is in it’s place and the Drying Shed is clean, clean, clean. After sitting all winter it is quite the project readying the Shed and surrounding area. Jose and I are…

We were fortunate this past week to partner with salon/spa giant Aveda. In a move to raise money to insure clean water in our Columbia River System, Aveda is ramping up a fund raising campaign by selling our lavender bundles in their downtown Seattle store.…

We’ve installed a new web cam here at the farm. We’re gonna call it “lavcam” and hope to get it on many sites around the NW. It should be installed on our site in a week or so…now the public can watch the lavender grow…

Jose has been planting like crazy between rainstorms and has this past week, stuck over 500 new one gallon Grosso plants in the ground. We’re seeing just the very first flush of green-grey in the plants now and in two weeks should see a full…

Purple Haze Lavender Farm Originally uploaded by pattieky. Wow this is a great photo of our farm.

Everything seems to be in order at the farm due to my WONDERFUL staff…so…off I head to my casa in Mexico for more rebuilding. I will return next month for the season but would love to get this house in order down there; the first…

We wish you a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!…the Purple Haze Crew

Today we just shut down operations for a time and enjoyed each others company without the interruption of work; shut and locked the door of the downtown store, pulled Jose off the farm and feasted!…All this food!…no wonder I put on soooo much weight during…

I might have made a mistake coming home from Mexico for Christmas this year…might have?…no…It was a huge mistake. The day I arrived, after leaving 90 degrees and the sand and surf of Baja, a huge snowstorm hit our area. The drive from Olympia, just…

Tomorrow is a HUGE day at Purple Haze. We will celebrate this day for AT LEAST 24 hours. This day only comes once a year but we all look forward to it. Tomorrow, folks is our General Manager, Vickie Oen’s, birthday…Wow!…Vickie has been with Purple…

The dry weather continues at the farm….just a long, long time without any measureable amounts of rain. I sure am glad we raise a drought tolerant herb here…..We are busy winterizing the irrigation system as the valley wide water has been shut down for the…

With the onset of Fall, it’s now time to start considering the pruning of our lavender plants…all 40,000 of them. Jose does all the pruning ,by hand, with a plain old weedeater…it’s like watching an artist at work, as he shapes and forms the plants.…