White Oak Lavender Farm

White Oak Lavender Farm has 9,000 lavender plants along with horses, goats, sheep, rabbits, chickens, and  George the Turkey.

They need 12-15 thousand plants to fill all of their orders. The oldest lavender on the farm is 9 years old and they started the agro-tourism 5 years ago. Normally they do not lose over 10 plants a year, however this past year is much different because of the weather (lost 1,000 plants). There is no crop insurance available for lavender crops. The flowers are harvested in the summer.

The lavender therapy products are dried, some products are distilled to remove the essential oil. They make over 100 bath and body products so they use a lot of essential oil. Lavender comes in different size shrubs and in different colors. It can live for as long as 20 years and reaches maturity by the 3rd year. The shrubs can vary in size from 1 foot to 4.5 feet. They also take cuttings from the larger plants to make plants to sell for retail crops as well as plant new crops for themselves. They can get 200 cuttings from a single mother plant. The plants are pruned in the fall and in the spring any dead material from the winter is cut away. The plants do the best in full sun with good drainage and a pH of 7-7.25. The retail store has bouquets, single blooms, bath and body products, lavender flavored water and ice cream, actual plants, and u-pick. George the Turkey was a turkey that was pardoned by President Obama and is now 2.5 years old and over 50 pounds. They have a labryinth that many cancer patients use as well as people that have anxiety.

The company keeps records of the lavender for the products that are used as culinary. They have a debudding machine that is the 3rd proto type of any debudding machine.

When distilling the best oil is accumulated in the first 30 minutes. Essential oil should be stored in a dark glass at room temperature.

This is very meaningful to me because my aunt battled cancer and lavender really helped her through her hardest times. Seeing all of the calming effects of the farm was amazing.