My Father's Pond

10/23/2026

10/23/2026

🌻🌻🌻Combining the sunflowers 🌻🌻🌻

10/23/2026

I wanted to learn which of the 34 different kinds of English and hybrid lavender, grown in North America, I liked best before I planted a whole bunch. I really like Royal Velvet, so next year, I'll have 100 plants at the road. This year for the space, I decided to try sunflowers. I hand spread the sunflower seeds I purchased for Max's Minions charity and it really was incredible and gorgeous to have a field of sunflowers so close to my house!

Tom is my father's agricultural support and drives the combine in the fall, planters in the spring. He's been with the family for many years, helping dad with so much. He and dad tried using the combine for harvesting the sunflowers and we all wondered how it would go.

Much of the seed was eaten by birds in the field as they matured. I particularly loved the bunches of goldfinch hanging out around the house and the field. But there were a lot of sunflowers so a huge amount of seeds. We managed to capture enough to bag up a few seeds for the bird feeders this winter.

I'll continue to plant sunflowers here and there around the farm because this was a fun project. I particular enjoy the mammoth sunflowers so I've saved a bunch of those for next year.

There are still lots of seeds on the ground for the birds 🙂❤️

10/15/2026

Learning lavender distillation

10/14/2026

A new blog post now that I've had some time to sit inside after the end-of-August/September second harvest.

I've written about the developing business for over a year now on my website, and it's exciting to know the property is well-established and on it's way after a really busy summer.

I've experienced a lot in my first full year away from academia and I can honestly say I've never been happier with how life is going.

This blog is about patiently letting insight and ideas arrive for growing the business, from my own experiences blended with the help of others' thoughts, inspirations, and advice.

As the air turns cooler and the leaves fall, I'm looking forward to a cozy winter of planning and writing. I am excited to open the farm for real next year with regular hours and more lavender to sell.

Building an online presence from the feedback of those who have visited the farm and experienced the teahouse puts the focus on quality and experiential growth, where it needs to be.

09/15/2026

I promised myself I'd actually sit in the chair once in a while too! ☺️🧘‍♀️

09/15/2026

Got myself a proper mug ☕️

09/15/2026

Yesterday was perfect for preparing some dried lavender bunches! This is a pretty sweet home office. Always grateful for this space ❤️🦋🐢🌻💞