Like any good beginning, our story began with a vision, or maybe more like a hair-brained idea, that we could grow lavender and make a living out of it. Actually, the story is a little more in depth than that. In 2014 we moved our family across several states, sold our business and our home, said goodbye to good friends, and started over. It was a less than ideal time for our family, one of brokenness. Funny that’s where many hair-brained ideas are born.  Amidst all the brokenness and pain for our family, I came across this breath-taking photo of a lavender field and had this surreal sense of peace. I had felt something I hadn’t in a while: JOY in the middle of pain!  We knew in that moment, that God had met us here, in the deep utter places of darkness, pain, and brokenness. We knew if God could do that for us, He could do that for anyone.  So we set out on a journey to create a place where people can come, breathe in the sweet aroma of lavender, and reconnect with each other again, despite all life’s distractions.

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Who knew this journey  would develop into a two year process that involved loads of research, hard work, and healing.  But that is what we wanted, something our whole family could invest in, that we could do with our kids, teach them about agriculture and sustainability, and share the beauty of creation with anyone who comes to visit.

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The more we researched, the more we fell in love with this idea that we could start a lavender farm. We began searching property to purchase, and in August 2015, became the proud owners of 40 acres of land, and an adorable cute abandoned farmhouse! We salvaged what we could because I wanted to savor as much history to the property as we could, but eventually had to bulldoze the home down.  We started building our farm store in winter 2016 and work continued all winter.

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Since we owned 40 acres, we were inspired  to grow cherry trees with our lavender, which we think is a pair matched in heaven, and with the help of family and a good friend, we planted 600 cherry trees, (7 different  varieties) and our oldest son started a new beekeeping hobby in April 2016.  May brought us over 4000 lavender plants which we, (along with family), planted-all by hand.   Work continued all summer long in the fields and with the farm store.  We built a sheep pen for our 2nd oldest son also in the summer.   In the Fall we were landscaping and working in the farm store, preparing to open the following year.

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2017 rolled around and brought loads of work inside the farm store, and making products for our store.  We planted 200 more cherry trees and over 1,000 more lavender plants.   We now have 21 different varieties of Lavender, each with a unique use or purpose.  

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2018 Brought our 2nd season open to the public with great success. We continually plant more lavender and more cherry trees, and expanding the variety of goods offered in our farm store. We quickly realized we needed more space so we spent the fall &  winter months expanding our farm store area to make room for our farm tours and bus tours.

 

2019-We've successfully completed another wonderful season of hard work and welcoming all our new guests to the farm. We loved seeing all our cherished returning friends of the farm! We now have over 25+ varieties of lavender, 10,000 lavender plants, 5 acres of wildflower Sanctuary for bees & monarchs in addition to the lavender plants. Our cherry trees took another growing season to develop. They are on their own timetable and as farmers, we have to be patient! Many exciting things happened this summer that we have seen growth through! We were invited to air LIVE on FOX6 Milwaukee where I did my own little cooking segment! We all joked that now we have to start calling me "Cooking with Laura LaVenTE!" It was a wonderful & FUN opportunity! We also had another TV crew at our farm for FOX Sports out of Milwaukee and aired on a Pregame and Postgame Brewers Game! And many wonderful magazine articles were written by prestigious journalists through Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Experience Wisconsin, & Growing Wisconsin. We had another Film Crew at our farm to shoot for Travel Wisconsin. So many great things are happening, we're beginning to get such good press coverage! Yet with all that, we are humbled by the love and support we have from all our guests and faithful patrons daily. Our goal and motto has always been the same, to do everything we do to our best and fullest to honor God, and to create a space that is warm and inviting for others to enjoy! We are looking forward to dreaming, planning, and developing new ideas and products for the upcoming 2020 season! But rest first.

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2020-Amidst all the fears of COVID-19, we were blessed to be able to safely open our farm. It became a place of rest for the soul for many who came as they breathed in fresh air, and strolled along our 12,000 lavender plants and 8 acres of wildflowers. It became a place of hope and a safe place where people could still gather outdoors and enjoy the beauty of nature. We are grateful to be able to serve the thousands of people who came, as we safely navigated the crowds of people through an online reservation system that limited the number of people in our store at once, a system that our 16 year old son developed during the first quarantine in March and a system that became successful for us that he decided to offer his system to any other business who found themselves in a similar position needing to navigate through COVID. He created his own business called Ag-Reserve. You can read more on his website: ag-reserve.com. 

 

2021- We celebrated our 5th season this year! With over 25 varieties and 14,000 it has been a labor of love. We've seen our staff grow this year to accommodate new growth, and seen our kids grow in so many ways. We are so proud of each of them. This year also brought an end to the "Cherry" part of our farm. As we have planted thousands of trees, each year, more and more died and finally, we pulled the last of the cherry trees out. But as sad as this makes us, as a farmer, we understood the risks involved that sometimes things do not always work out as we planned, no matter the effort, and this gives way to try something else in the future. We are currently making plans for a "new" offering next summer! 

 

We are grateful for beautiful lavender plants that have  survived each winter, which, if you're a lavender farmer, you understand that statement; and healthy children and family. We look forward to creating a beautiful oasis for next summer for everyone to enjoy. 

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2022-We have now concluded our 6th Lavender Season! Thank you to everyone who has supported us throughout the years-we are truly grateful to you! We decided to extend our season til mid-October and have heard from many of you that was appreciated. This year has brought challenges of inflation, a tumbling economy and fears of the unknown from a financial standpoint. But our trust remains in the Lord, who is a faithful provider in every way. We remain optimistic & hopeful that things will level out in the years to come. PBS "Wisconsin Life" came to our farm last summer to film a story about how our farm began and aired October 17, 2022. It will air again Nov 4, at 6:00 pm, Nov 6 at 6:30 pm, Nov 7 at 4 pm. Thank you to Joel Waldinger for coming out with your crew and sharing about our farm.   

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2023-We are overwhelmed by your support of our farm, words cannot express enough THANKS! Truly, we are humbled by your support of our farm for our 7th Lavender Season, our best yet. We have grown, expanded our farm building--much needed storage space so I can be better organized--to not have to carry a van load of boxes everyday to restock! HA! We added an employee bathroom as well so our employees don't have to wait 30 minutes to use the restroom. We definitely have felt growing pains over the years as you can tell.  But all good! We had over 30,000 visitors this year, as social media influencers come and help spread the word about our vision and our farm. We are so GRATEFUL! Our family has changed over the course of the years, some things are natural and good, others are not what one might expect. We are currently wading the waters of divorce and managing a business at the same time, but it is something that I still believe that God is not done with the purpose of this land, despite our family brokenness and mess, and so we find healing in different ways. But one thing that remains the same, is that our vision for our lavender farm continues to be a safe place, a refuge of hope, peace and rest for the weary soul. 

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