A Guest Blog from Ari Katz on Soleado Lavender Farm
I have always loved lavender. When I was a little girl, my father grew it in his very sunny garden in Nutley, New Jersey. And when I had a garden of my own, it was one of the first things I planted. Lavender, Lavendula, is prized for its richly fragrant flowers and aromatic foliage. It is wonderful to bundle up, dry, and give away as gifts, or to use in sachets for drawers and closets. My friend, Ari Katz, and his family live near a special lavender farm. Enjoy his story and photos.
Several weeks ago after speaking with my neighbors, Sophia Watkins and Kevin Salmeron, I realized that their lavender farm had supplied the lavender once featured in "Martha Stewart Weddings". Excited, I called Martha and told her that my neighbors had contributed to a Martha Stewart production. Martha and I decided it would be a great use of my "newly found" copious amounts of time to do a blog on Sophia and Kevin’s lavender farm, Soleado Lavender Farm - one of the true gems in the Montgomery County, Maryland Agricultural Reserve.
Sophia is the fourth generation of her family to continue farming in Maryland. The land that Sophia and Kevin’s lavender grows on was handed down from Sophia’s grandmother and her father. Sophia and her family’s passion was to be stewards of the land along with farming the land. Although not organically certified by the USDA, Soleado Lavender is one of the oldest organically managed farms in the region and has never used pesticides. Sophia and Kevin were practical in their decision to grow lavender. Their farm is where artists can visit and work and individuals could come cut their own flowers.
-
- Here is a picture of Sophia and Kevin’s house and farm. Soleado Lavender Farm is located in Dickerson, Maryland – about 30 minutes north of Washington, D.C., and just minutes away from my family’s farm. Sophia and Kevin have meticulously designed their gardens and taken great care of the land.
-
- Here is a picture of the market at Soleado Lavender where visitors can buy all types of products handmade from lavender on the farm. During the summers, the market at Soleado is hustling and bustling with people from all over Maryland and Washington, D.C.
-
- Here is a photo Kevin took of one of their lavender fields after a summer shower. While lavender is often considered an herb, it is actually a herbaceous perennial with up to 400 different varieties. Kevin and Sophia grow seven of them. The first variety Kevin and Sophia planted was “Provence,” a French cultivar developed in the United States. Striking a balance between English and French cultivars has produced the best results for the farm. Kevin and Sophia also grow a very rare yellow North African variety of lavender.
-
- Here is a picture of “Melissa English,” a white lavender field. Some of the customers of Soleado Lavender are prominent chefs from Washington, D.C. who travel to the farm to cut their own lavender to use in their restaurants. Sophia tells me that many people cut their own lavender to steep in vodka.
-
- Here are interns from the University of Maryland collecting data from a Soleado Lavender field. As a fellow gardener, I admire how uniformed their rows are and how neat they keep their fields. Using a black tarp or WeedBlock to prevent weeds is a fantastic way to keep rows of cut flowers safe from weed growth. I use WeedBlock under the mulch in my cut peony, lily, rose, and double bearded iris beds.
-
- Here are some of the customers arriving for Soleado Lavender Farm Day 2019. The annual event allows customers and vendors to gather together and admire the perennials, buy products, and meet one another.
-
- Here is a 2019 meeting lead by herbalist, Jennifer Naqvi, in front of the market.
-
- This is one of Soleado Farm’s greatest sellers: cut and dried lavender. I gave Jude, Martha’s granddaughter, a small cutting from Kevin and Sophia – she loved the smell of these dried flowers.
-
- These are some more bestsellers from Soleado’s market. The lip balm is smooth and works quite well. My family uses their bars of soap in the bathrooms in our farmhouse and I keep a small pouch of lavender petals in my bedroom in my D.C. apartment where I enjoy its fragrance.
-
- This is probably the most exciting – and desirable product – during these scary and unprecedented times. Kevin and Sophia have created a hand sanitizer that has a refreshing lavender scent.
-
- Here are some candles made out of the wax from bees living on Kevin and Sophia’s farm. A few years ago, Kevin and Sophia teamed up with a local beekeeper to make candles and delicious lavender honey that I highly recommend.
-
- Here is a picture of people who have traveled from all over to come cut their own lavender. Typically, cut lavender lasts more than a week when kept in fresh, clean water. Kevin and his family have given my family many bouquets of fragrant lavender – they are beautiful and last quite a while.
-
- What makes Soleado Lavender so successful and contributes to its high crop yields is the innovative aquaponics system. Kevin is the first person known to propagate lavender using aquaponics and has successfully cut down rooting time, which is the amount of time it takes cuttings to root, from eight weeks to just two weeks. Here is a picture of three generations of Kevin’s family – Kevin, his mother, and his son.
-
- Here is a picture of baby lavender growing in Soleado’s innovative aquaponics system.
-
- This is the grow bed where the lavender plants are first rooted.
-
- Here is Kevin next to one of his baby lavender trays in the aquaponics greenhouse. He is getting ready to move them into the dirt.
-
- Here, Sophia begins moving the baby lavenders into dirt pots. Look at how long and healthy their roots are.
-
- And here is a photo of Kevin, Sophia, and their son. Because of the pandemic, Soleado Lavender Farm is closed until further notice, but when it is safe to do so, I recommend anyone looking for a summer excursion or activity go to Soleado Lavender Farm – you’ll love it.
Martha Pins
Martha Tweets
