Lost Mountain Lavender
#A on Farm Tour Map
Farm Tour Bus Route 1
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
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 and Yarn spinning demonstrations with Randi Cox
Friday
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 . Sally will also feature her two new books, “Color Me Happy” and “Rainbow Nights.”
Saturday
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.”
Sunday
11 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
Bella Italia Restaurant:
Grilled Lavender –Pepper Sausage, Lavender Marinated Grilled Prawns, Twilight Mushroom Ravioli, Lavender – Lemon Ice Cream Sandwich, Honey-Lavender Lemonade
Beer and Wine Garden – Lavender-Black Currant Champagne, Washington Wines and Ales
Music &
Entertainment Schedule
Friday
11 a.m.-2 p.m. Deadwood Revival — Innovative old-time/folk music with Jason Mogi and Kim Trennery.
2:30-5:30 p.m. Kevin Magner — Ballads, love songs and traditional acoustic blues
Saturday
11 a.m.-2 p.m. Kristin Connell — Contemporary folk music beautifully played with pure vocals
2:30-5:30 p.m. The Late Bloomers - an acoustic folk-rock band with gutsy vocals, soaring melodies and tight harmonies
Sunday
1
1 a.m.-2 p.m. Kristin Connell — Contemporary folk music beautifully played with pure vocals
3-6 p.m. Howlie Slim – Singer/Songwriter performs acoustic folk music
Vendors
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.