Lavender picking in Carterton
I’m always amazed where all the visitors come from for our lavender picking events. Year after year, men, women, kids and doggies flock in to see the lavender. They take family and friendship photos of each other as a keepsake, memory of their time together, Instagram or Facebook pages.
People have a great time and love what we do – ‘open our gates for the lavender experience’.
This year we were delighted to make a donation to Epilepsy First Aid – Krystle said, “Thank you very much for your support. Your donation will go towards printing costs plus advocacy and awareness of Epilepsy and first aid for the different seizures”. So, thank you visitors for your PYO lavender entry fees.
Lavender Harvesting 2020
We harvested our English lavender on Wellington Anniversary day. This year we chose to bring in some help. When harvesting the English lavender, we take the harvester off the sulky which means the machine needs to be carried up and down the rows, it’s heavy, so extra muscle was required.
The boys, Stu and Julian did a great job harvesting, while I carried the bag behind. I was of course, the quality control person and kept them on their toes. A few hours later the Violet Intrigue was harvested.
Stu and I harvested our French lavender a couple of weekends ago. A full day, started harvest at 8am, finished and packed up ready to go at 12pm. Drove to the distillers in Kapiti, arrived 2.30pm, then spend the next 6 hours distilling a huge amount of lavender flowers. Our flowers were profuse this year and our yield was up, we were stoked with the outcome. Hoping for another great year for our multi award-winning lavender oils.
Markets 2019-20
We have completed 24 of our 28 markets for the 2019-2020 season. We have Martinborough, Newtown, March Madness (Upper Hutt) and Waikanae Easter fairs still to go. It’s been lovely to see our customers and meet new customers this season, thanks for all your support of our small business, we couldn’t do what we love without your support.
Events
It was exciting to have our first ‘meditation in the lavender’ this year and the weather throughout the whole season was kind to us for all of open days too. We will be doing other events later in the year so keep your eyes peeled on our Facebook page. If you have any amazing ideas you’d like to see happen in the lavender, email me on lavenderabbey@xtra.co.nz, I’d love to hear from you.
Till next time – Keep calm and smell the lavender x