Cedarbrook Lavender
& Herb Farm
Garden Cafe’
#E on Farm Tour Map
Farm Tour Bus Route C
Gary and Marcella Stachurski
1345 S. Sequim Ave.
Sequim, WA 98382
360-683-7733 or 1-800-470-8423
café: 360-683-4541
cedbrook@olypen.com
www.cedarbrooklavender.com
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We welcome you to Washington State’s oldest herb farm. Stroll our unique display gardens and discover the many nuances of lavender colors, scents and varieties. Choose from hundreds of lavender plants. Visit the historic Bell House gift shop and meet owners Gary and Marcella Stachurski who will help you select just the right plant or gift. Enjoy the music, food, the wonderful view, and much more at Cedarbrook during the festival weekend and all year long.
Farm Activities
This is the schedule for 2009. The 2010 schedule will update in June.
Daily
10 a.m.-6 p.m. U-pick fresh lavender from Cedarbrook’s
lavender fields. $5.00 bunch
10 a.m.-6 p.m. Help name our Garden Lady, the
name chosen will win a $25 farm gift certificate
10 a.m.-6 p.m Lavender
Identification Game - test your
identification skills, see how many you recognize. - daily prizes
10 a.m.-6 p.m Spinning
Demonstration by Rachel - unique use of silk, wool and other fibers spun into
yarn for your favorite knitting or crochet projects
10 a.m. - 6 p.m. The gardens beckon you to see the newest 2009 additions
10 a.m. - 6 p.m. - Lavender Guessing Game - Guess how many lavender bud
fill our herb jar - daily prizes
10 a.m.-6 p.m. Relax and refresh at one
of our rest stations –
10 a.m.-6 p.m. Decorate your own muslin lavender sachet bag -
$2. -choose from an assortment of lavender stamps
10 a.m.-6 p.m. Create your own Lavender halo with flowing
ribbons - $10.00
10 a.m.- 6 p.m. Linen sachet just like grandma's hankie - decorate
and fill with lavender bud $3.00
10 a.m.- 6 p.m. Make your own
decorative lavender floral design with our fresh hand picked lavender
10 a.m.- 5 p.m. Paint your
own lavender mini-watercolor workshop by Street Art - $8.00
10 a.m.-6 p.m. From Garden to kitchen - U-pick fresh herbs from
Cedarbrook’s gardens. $10.00
10:30 a.m. Royal Velvet Lavender Vinegar
Workshop First workshop begins and is offered several times daily.
Fee includes Royal Velvet lavender, vinegar, vinegar bottle and cork, $6.
10:30 a.m. Farm Fresh Herbs Vinegar
Workshop First workshop begins and is offered several times daily.
Fee includes fresh herbs, vinegar, vinegar bottle and cork, $6.
11 a.m. Meet the farmer — “Learn about the
history of our 100 year old farm and the basics for growing lavender”
11 a.m. – 5 p.m. Relaxing Upper Body Chair Massages – on availability
basis
11:45 a.m. Beekeeping
basics with equipment display and question and answer session
1 p.m. Question and
answer session about our Signature Cedarbrook bath and body products.
2 p.m. Make your own
lavender floral design.
2 p.m. Beekeeping basics with equipment display and
question and answer session
Saturday Only
10 a.m.-6 p.m. over 20 Harleys on display from Eastside Harley Davidson Owners Group of Bellevue, WA
11:30 am Create a Four
Course Lavender Meal on the Garden Grill - Cooking Demo with Christine, who is
our Garden Cafe’ dessert, pastry and High Tea cook. Come enjoy her
demonstration and learn some of her cooking secrets and tips for cooking with
Lavender and herbs. Best of all you get to sample her wonderful cooking.
10:30 a.m.-11 a.m. How to be a Cedarbrook Lavender Flower Fairy. Ages:
3-12 or any flower fairy young at heart. Our storyteller will read from a
“Flower Fairy” book. Workshop includes flower fairy kit and book, make your own
lavender crown $16, pre registration encouraged, 800-470-8423
12:30-1 p.m. Laughing Lavender Field Story Time. Festival feature. Coloring book available for purchase, with
free crayons $5.
2:30-3 p.m. Cedarbrook and Lavender Fairy
Story Time. Lavender Fairy book available for purchase, $6. Create
your own muslin lavender sachet bag, $2.
Cedarbrook Garden Café
Dine inside, on the patio or out in the gardens on a blanket. Lavender
cheesecake, baked lavender goodies, lavender ice cream, lavender lemonade,
lavender espresso items, lavender chocolate iced tea .
Our Garden Cafe Outdoor
Booth - Espresso just the way you like it, Lavender Lemonade, Lavender
Chocolate Mint Tea, Lavender Ice Cream, Box Lunches, Fresh Pastries and
Lavender Desserts.
Friday
11:30 a.m. - Noon Easy listening music
2:30 p.m. – 5:30
p.m. Bronn Journey – Well known local harpist with beautiful melodies for a gentle,
sweet world of glorious sound.
NEW - 7 - 9 pm ~ Dinner and Concert with Bronn Journey in our
farm’s garden cafe’ - to make
reservations 360-683-4541
11 a.m.-2 p.m. Brad Savage - Good Ole’ Country Gospel
2:30 p.m. -5:30 p.m. Half Pack Live - Pop Jazz music reminiscent of
Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin
11:30 a.m. - Noon Easy listening music
11:30 a.m. – 2 p.m. Hot Club Sandwich - Hot String Band
Come see
the new location for our vendors, nestled among our newest lavender fields
Bath and Body products
from “the bunch(Cedarbrook Lavender and Herb Farm); Elwha Apiary – Beekeeping Basics;
Street Art Watercolors by Cathy and Lucy Street; Fused Glass by Marcia
Hildebrandt, Oopsie Daisy Design, Photography by Leslie Diane Smith, Handspun
Art Yarn by Rachel, Mooney Multimedia.
Couple takes Washington’s First Herb Farm into the new century
Story by Betty Oppenheimer
Marcella and Gary Stachurski, owners of Cedarbrook Lavender and Herb Farm since February 2005, are proud to carry on the legacy of Washington State’s oldest herb farm. Marcella, a Master Gardener, gets a bit teary-eyed when she talks about the history of the land she and Gary now own.
“The peonies are more than 30 years old. I’m excited about propagating the bay trees and other old cultivars I’m discovering on the grounds. I just found a stack of old recipe sheets from the 1970s. I walk around the farm with people who point nostalgically at old fashioned flowers they remember from their childhoods.”
Opened by Karman McReynolds in 1967, Cedarbrook Herb Farm’s business catapulted forward with a three-fold increase in sales when she invested money in getting brochures on the ferry system in 1982, enticing tourists to her homegrown plants and gift shop in the historic Bell Farmhouse. In 1987, after working alongside her mother for 14 years, Toni Anderson and her husband Terry bought the farm. Involved in Sequim’s lavender vision from the very beginning, they continued to grow the farm’s inventory and reputation, adding lavender fields to the herbal mix (which had always included lavender, some of it from very old starts planted in the area in the 1930s, when L. J. Wyckoff had tried to grow lavender in Port Townsend and Yelm, Washington) and Petal’s Garden Restaurant, until they retired to the Southwest in 2005.
“I took the baton from Toni that she took from her Mom. I want to use all of my power and might to continue what they began, and then enhance it,” said Marcella.
An educator by trade, Marcella loves gardening. Gary, a Network Analyst, spent time as a child on his uncle’s orange grove.
“Owning a farm was a vision of ours when we got married,” said Gary. “I have great memories of smelling the blossoms in spring, the smudge pots in fall, and of spending time at the old farmhouse.”
Marcella wasn’t quite able to define what that vision would look like until she completed an entrepreneur class at Bellevue Community College in 2003. Then it became clear – a specialty nursery and gift shop would satisfy her four loves - gardening, crafts, education and people.
“This farm found us,” she said of Cedarbrook Lavender and Herb Farm. “We visited Sequim after reading an article in Better Homes and Gardens about Jardin du Soleil, and discovered that Cedarbrook was for sale.”
Immediately following their first Lavender Festival Cedarbrook was contacted by a French bodycare firm, in need of 5,000 perfect bundles of lavender for a huge promotional celebration. The Stachurskis amazed themselves (and almost overwhelmed the folks at the Sequim Post Office) when they managed to safely ship the 200 cartons of lavender, and then saw their lavender transformed into a “field” of blossoms in New York’s Rockefeller Center. (Photo on display in shop.)
Clearly, the new business is exciting, and at times overwhelming. But that stress is mitigated with help from Adam Scholze, farm manager, and members of their blended family; her son Keith lives and works on site, and daughter Tracie makes the goat’s milk soap. His daughter landscape architect Emily, designed the new patio, while Gary does the bookkeeping for the new business venture. Marcella, a crafter since her teenage years, and Tracie make many of Cedarbrook’s signature products, including candles, massage cream, body spritzer, linen spray and culinary goods. Lavender starts are grown on site, and other herbs are propagated by Kate Dushane.
Beyond the farm, Marcella looks forward to being involved in the Sequim community, and hopes to connect through educational channels. Throughout her career, she was involved with high school students, and often with foreign exchange students.
The Stachurskis strive to make the focus of the festival educational for adults and children. Last year’s crafting booths and storytelling sessions proved that such offerings are popular.
To Marcella and Gary, this new venture in their lives feels like it was meant to be.
“I’m not related to the original owners, but it’s really neat to carry it on. History, family and tradition are very important to me,” she said.