Lost Mountain Lavender
#A on Farm Tour Map
Farm Tour Bus Route A
Barbara and Gary Hanna
1541 Taylor Cutoff
Rd.
Sequim, WA 98382
360-681-2782 or 888-507-7481
garybarb@olypen.com
www.lostmountainlavender.com
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A unique lavender experience!
Visit our specialty farm and see over 100 cultivars of lavender. Take a guided tour with farm owner, Barbara Hanna and learn about many of the different varieties and their uses.
Pick your own fragrant bouquet, learn to make lavender crafts, visit our Cottage Gift Shop for the perfect lavender item and plant, or just relax in the shade of our beautiful orchard. We'll have music and food all weekend for your ultimate lavender experience.
Farm Activities
This is the schedule for 2009. The 2010 schedule will update in June.
Daily:
10 a.m.-6 p.m. U-pick your own sweet bouquet of lavender
10 a.m.-6 p.m. Learn to make lavender wands and lavender
basket ornaments
10 a.m.-6 p.m. Paint a souvenir tile or mug, we’ll glaze and
fire it and send it to you
10 a.m.-6 p.m. Lynda Pollard — Learn about the Raku firing process
11 a.m. Meet the Farmer — Guided farm tours by farm owner
Barbara Hanna. Learn about the large variety of lavender we have on our farm
and some of the best uses for many of the cultivars. We’ll talk about planting,
harvesting and pruning followed by your questions and answers.
Throughout the
festival — Wheel-thrown
pottery demonstrations with Jennifer Duncan-Taylor
Yarn spinning
demonstrations with Randi Cox
10 a.m – 6 p.m. Chair Massages with Candis Conley
10 a.m. - 6 p.m. Nationally recognized children’s book author, Sally
Harris will be here to sign copies of her beloved book “The Caterpillar’s
Dream,” which has been featured on Business Week TV, MaggieTales.com and at the
International Toy Fair and her new book “Color Me Happy.”
2 p.m. Sally Harris will read from “Color Me Happy.”
3 p.m. Meet the Farmer — Guided farm tours by farm owner
Barbara Hanna. Learn about the large variety of lavender we have on our farm
and some of the best uses for many of the cultivars. We’ll talk about planting,
harvesting and pruning followed by your questions and answers.
10 a.m – 6 p.m. Chair Massages with Candis Conley
10 a.m. -6 p.m. Nationally recognized children’s book author, Sally
Harris will be here to sign copies of her beloved book “The Caterpillar’s
Dream,” which has been featured on Business Week TV, MaggieTales.com and at the
International Toy Fair and her new book “Color Me Happy.”
2 p.m. Sally Harris will read from “Color Me Happy.”
3 p.m. Meet the Farmer — Guided farm tours by farm owner
Barbara Hanna. Learn about the large variety of lavender we have on our farm
and some of the best uses for many of the cultivars. We’ll talk about planting,
harvesting and pruning followed by your questions and answers.
11:00 a.m. Learn to make your own living wreath using sedum and
hens and chicks with Tami Tegman from You-See-Dum. Pre-registration required.
Contact Tegman at 360- 683-4772 or tamisan93@msn.com
2 p.m. Please join Bell Street Bakery’s Head Baker Roger
Stuckey for a discussion on baking bread with Herbs de Provence. He will explain how to make your own herb
blends and provide some great baking tips. The Bell Street Bakery will provide samples of bread using fresh milled
organic grain flour and Herbs de Provence.
Cedar Creek Restaurant:Panini from the Wood Fired Grill, served on Bell
Street Bakery bread and rolls. Garlic, lavender and thyme chicken with wild mushrooms
Sweet Italian sausage with
bell pepper, onions and lavender mustard.Lavender peppered wild salmon with
pesto and oven dried tomatoes. Grilled, roasted and marinated vegetables with
lavender goat cheese. Traditional
Caesar salad, add garlic, lavender and thyme chicken or lavender peppered wild
salmon
From the Bell Street
Bakery: Lavender white chocolate chip cookies, lavender and vanilla
bean cupcakes
Beer and Wine Garden — Proudly features local Northwest
beer and wines.
Music &
Entertainment Schedule
Friday
11 a.m.-2 p.m. Howlie Slim – Singer/Songwriter performs acoustic
folk music
2:30-5:30 p.m. Kevin Magner — Ballads, love songs and traditional
acoustic blues
Saturday
11 a.m.-2 p.m. Singer/SongwriterLee Tyler Post will be playing his own original acoustic music..
2:30-5:30 p.m. Deadwood Revival — Innovative old-time/folk music
with Jason Mogi and Kim Trennery.
Sunday
11 a.m.-2 p.m. Kristin Connell — Contemporary folk music
beautifully played with pure vocals
3-6 p.m. Deadwood Revival — Innovative old-time/folk music
with Jason Mogi and Kim Trennery,
Vendors
Bill’s Custom Scroll Saw
Creations, Charitable Art, Chimacum Jewelry, Donna Lee’s, Gifts of Mother
Earth, JoAnn’s Glasworks, Kitchen Cottage, Mug Shots Photo Imaging, Pampered
Chef, Metal Wood and Fire, The Caterpillar’s Dream, Tiarani Studio, You-See-Dum
and WITM Enterprises, Inc.
Variety is the Spice of Lavender Life!
Story by Betty Oppenheimer- Barbara and Gary Hanna
At Lost Mountain Lavender, it’s all about variety. Bold, spiky Grosso, pink, peppery Melissa, the sweet scent of Folgate, and Hidcote’s deep purple color. In all, over 100 varieties of lavender plants and a wide variety of signature bath and body products mark Lost Mountain’s success.
The grounds even boast a variety of well-established trees. “We have larch trees, which are deciduous pines, a burgundy smoke tree, corkscrew willow, two huge sequoia, a large ginkgo and other unlikely varieties in the gardens,” said Barbara Hanna, co-owner of the farm with her husband Gary since 2003. “There is a quaintness to this farm that makes people comfortable. It really feels like you’re in the country.”
Located 1.5 miles up Lost Mountain Road off Highway 101, the lavender farm is dotted with old fruit trees, a healthy row of tayberries, and wildflowers along the road that draw people in. It’s not a large farm – a little over 3 acres total, one full acre planted in lavender, but that allows Barbara the time to enjoy what she loves about it.
“I love the variety of work I get to do,” said Barbara, mentioning the field and propagation work in two greenhouses, the manufacturing of soaps, lotions, Lost Mountain’s famous fizzy bath balls, vegetable-based body powder, and the products she sews, including lavender-filled drawer liners, sleep pillows and more. “It’s a great balance of product, retail and gardening.”
Barbara knew coming into this venture that it was important for her to find a niche and build on it.
“For us, it’s the large variety of lavender we grow that makes us a specialty farm. The quality of our products and the fact that we offer a personal, hands-on experience encourages visitors to return year after year” she said.
Barbara sells to boutiques across the country, but has had to pick carefully, scattering locations geographically and always choosing quality vendors. “I’ve had to be realistic about the amount of production I can do, and sell accordingly,” she explained, so that the quality of the product can be maintained.
A couple of years ago, the Hannas began learning the art of plant propagation. Both of their hoop houses are filled with plants – some tiny starts and some intentionally allowed to grow to gallon size since last year – with newly propagated plugs warmed by water pipes submerged in the soil below their delicate roots. “This is a very rewarding aspect of the farm,” said Barbara, a Master Gardener. “I love watching the plants grow and develop.”
Barbara and Gary Hanna left high-tech lives in the computer gaming field in the Seattle metropolitan area four years ago. She brought her sales, public relations, advertising and art skills along with a love of gardening and crafts, and he brought his portfolio. Now, four years later, illustrator Gary is successfully freelancing from his home studio, while Barbara manages the farm.
When Lost Mountain Lavender Farm was first planted by Dennis and Jennifer Taylor in October 1998, they traded lumber for their first 500 plants from Kenmarry Moor Lavender Farm, originally nurtured into maturity by Mary Lofstrom, the very first lavender farmer in the Sequim-Dungeness Valley. The Taylors developed a clientele loyal to their bath and body products and to Jennifer’s ceramics, which are still sold in the on-site Cottage Gift Shop.
“I have been building onto the foundation that the Taylors set,” said Barbara of the inventory in the shop, a remodeled moonshiners shed with walls stenciled with the names of lavender varieties.
Gary’s father, Joe, who came from a farming community in South Carolina, and his mother Marilyn are essential to the success of the farm. Joe is the field manager, roto-tilling the weeds from the fields in spring and fall. Marilyn is Barbara’s right hand in the store and with community contact. In spring, we load up her car with rack cards, and she hits the road from Port Townsend to Port Angeles, stopping at all of the hotels and bed and breakfasts for us,” said Barbara.
Harvest is always hard work, but a fun event.
“We have a great crew of local high school kids. We harvest completely by hand, in three different drying sessions. We have limited room to hang the lavender to dry - the garage, and the pumphouse – so we harvest before, during and after the festival, depending on the weather and how far along each variety is. It’s the mix of so many varieties that gives us that flexibility,” explained Barbara.
The farm is open from 10-6 daily in June, July and August, set up with tables in the front yard to encourage folks to come, relax, and bring a picnic. “We love having guests at our farm, and enabling them to enjoy this small slice of paradise.