Our Ethos - Part I: FARMED NATURALLY

Our ethos at Lavender & Black is:

FARMED NATURALLY – ARTISAN DISTILLED – HAND CRAFTED

These beliefs guide how we farm, process, and produce healthy products.   In this first of three Journal articles, we’re going to examine what FARMED NATURALLY means to us.

Natural Farming was first championed by Masanobu Fukuoka.  His 1975 book, “The One-Straw Revolution” - part manifesto, part memoir, chronicles decades spent learning to farm with nature.  His two most important principles were: don’t disturb (till) the soil, and don’t use fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides.  This went against what were, and largely still are, the prevailing methods of industrial farming.  He tirelessly advocated for a more natural approach – and subsequently influenced a raft of new farming movements - organic, regenerative, sustainable, permaculture, agroforestry, and many more.   

At Lavender & Black, FARMED NATURALLY is central to healthy soil, plants, products and our lifestyle as farmers & makers.  The land here has a palpable energy.  We believe this is a direct result of natural farming methods and our mindful interweaving of cultivated rows with areas of native trees.  The large trees diffuse intense summer sun and make us feel the farm is merely an extension of nature – not imposed on it.  

Growing mainly perennials, we rarely disturb our soil. Our soil breathes because we use a minimum amount of weed cloth.  And we embrace the clover, grass, wild daisies and weeds that appear between our cultivated rows and in the natural areas.  This fosters a vast mycorrhizal network that connects our farm to the forest.  The resulting biodiversity provides habitat for native bees, butterflies, lizards, birds, and more. 

As days lengthen early in Spring, the farm comes to life.  Native flora and cultivated plants jointly create their beautiful aromatic compounds.  Rains taper away, and longer dry periods nudge plants to rely on less water. 

Conserving water is important on our island.  Our practice of mulching everything we trim and prune, along with the straw left after distilling, reduces the need to irrigate and at the same time adds organic matter to the soil.  When we do water (usually only twice a season), it’s carefully portioned out by a drip irrigation system. 

Nurtured by ideal conditions, plant growth surges in May.  Through their sub-surface connections, the mature trees exert their influence on the essential oils building in the lavenders, helichrysum, sage and rosemary.

Industrial scale farms harvest with machines that are fast, but indiscriminately cut everything the same - even though individual plants vary considerably in size and shape.  This kind of harvesting often ends up with woody portions of the plant plus any grass or weeds that were growing amongst the flowers.  (As every gardener knows, there are always other things that want to grow up through the middle of your flowers!)  Essential oils and other products derived from botanicals harvested this way will be influenced by this contamination.

We harvest by hand with sickles and secateurs.  Only the right parts of each plant are collected – resulting in pure and potent products.  And the very act of touching each plant several times a year has a noticeably positive effect on our own well-being as farmers.  Foraged botanicals (such as lichens & mosses) are sustainably collected year-round.  For the botanicals we don’t grow or forage, we work with producers who share our belief in quality and purity.  Over the years, we have assembled a carefully curated palette of beautiful farm and forest ingredients from which to create our products.

One season inexorably flows into the next.  Day shortens, summer heat wanes. 

In September, our attention turns to pruning.  Contributing to the health, longevity and productivity of most flowers and herbs, pruning also prepares plants for the vagaries of a West Coast winter – reducing damage if they get blanketed by wet, heavy snow.

By October, nature is expressing a moody side.  Mist drifts quietly through the forest – water droplets appear on everything it touches.  Beads merge and slide toward the conifer needle tips. There, they reflect the weak ambient light and shine like pearls.  When the sun breaks through the clouds, they become diamonds.  One by one, they fall to the forest floor – to slowly rejuvenate tree roots.  The forest breathes freely again. 

Storms arrive in November to lash the Pacific Coast - only 80km to the west. Mountains along the spine of Vancouver Island and the Olympic Peninsula mostly intervene, allowing just tattered remnants to pass.  But the persistent rain replenishes our meagre aquifers.

Farm & forest move into winter – the months of rest.  The farmers who tend the plants from spring, through summer, and into autumn, welcome rest as well.  Before winters end, nature still has its harshest weather to send from the North.  From this direction, the farm is unprotected, and experiences weathers full force.   But that’s a story for another time.  The first stirrings of spring are three months away.  Rain and mist will retreat, the sun will return, and the cycle of natural farming will continue.

Like Fukuoka, we understand that farming is a long-term relationship.  Not everything we’ve tried on the land has worked.  But when we have taken time to look deeply, nature shows the way. 

We are just temporary stewards of this land – and will leave it better for being here.

In the next part of this Journal series, we will examine our 2^nd principle - ARTISAN DISTILLED.