Where did the idea for Willowfield Lavender Farm come from?
I tried growing cut flowers, but the idea just didn’t grab me. We both love lavender, and one morning I was watching AgDay on television. They were talking about a young couple who started a lavender farm. I woke Kie up at 5:30 a.m. and said, “Let’s try it.” How did you get started? The first plantings went in the ground in October 2001. We started with 100 plants. We had to go to nurseries everywhere just to find the plants, so we have quite a variety. October was not a good time to look for lavender plants. What was your goal? We wanted to have a field of lavender, but we also needed to learn about the varieties that were best suited for the Indiana climate. We wanted to propagate and share our knowledge. It’s taken us 10 years of growing and lots of research to even begin to feel like experts. Some of what we’ve learned is about the healing properties of lavender — the oil naturally eases burns, and can aid in sleep. What were the setbacks? Well, early on I didn’t look at it as setb
