Spring 2021

2020 was a challenging year for everyone and Glacier View Farm was no exception. Our plans to plant our first acre were dashed by not being able to get the plants we ordered from the supplier. We scrambled and were able to source about 500 plugs which we put in the ground and hoped for the best. We were rewarded with several rows of healthy and happily growing lavender this spring! So while we don’t yet have the field of purple we hoped for, we at least have a start.

Mary was able to make several products for the retail line and made a few internet sales. She will continue to refine what seems to sell well and what our customers want. The house looked a bit like a chemistry lab at times and smelled wonderfully of lavender all summer as she experimented with soaps, lotions, salves and linen sprays.

Another success was our first efforts at distilling our own essential oil from locally sourced lavender. After a failed first attempt, Alex perfected the process and we produced our first batch of pure essential oil.

We all breathed a sigh of relief when the calendar turned over to 2021 but this year has continued to present challenges to overcome. We were unable to get the plant order from last year filled again so we found ourselves again searching for plants and anew supplier. Luckily we were able to find about 1500 plants that will be ready to put in the ground near the end of June.

Perhaps the biggest challenge we are facing was Mary’s diagnosis of ALS or Lou Gehrig’s Disease this February. Thanks to The Independence Fund who donated a tracked outdoor wheelchair she is still able to get out in the fields every day and admire the growing young plants. We are not sure if we will continue our retail line as a result of her illness. We definitely will be pursuing distilling our own lavender right here on the farm as Alex seems to have the magic touch!

We had a lot of positives happen on the farm as well. We greeted a second grandchild, celebrated our daughter’s engagement and made some great new friends while rekindling old friendships. Every day we are grateful for our amazing family and friend support network who have really pulled some heavy lifting on the farm this spring as we scramble to make the house and farm more user friendly for a wheelchair. We look at Mt.Hood and Mt.Adams and smile, knowing we are living our best life in our favorite place on earth.

Here’s to a great year and we will post pictures of our progress on Facebook and Instagram. We look forward to welcoming visitors to the farm possibly later this summer when the planting is complete and life settles down a bit.

Cheers!

Glacier View Lavender