Our Story

My parents bought the farm in October 2020. I began spending a lot of time there helping with repairs and renovations. Most people were keeping to themselves because of covid and I was happy to have something to do.

I asked my mom and dad if I could move to the farm with them for awhile to save money. They said yes and were happy to have me back home with them. It was nice to be in a county setting and I was enjoying the time with my family. As the months rolled by we started discussing the possibility of me living at the farm permanently. 

One of the things I liked best about the farm was that there was room to grow. Horticulture has always been a passion of mine and I enjoy having a garden. On the north side of the property there was an old hops field that was no longer in operation. I thought about what we might grow there if we could figure out how to get the poles and steel cable cleared out.

One fall morning our neighbor Mike Shimek stopped by our house. He told us that he was getting ready to put his bulldozer away for the season and asked if we needed anything done before he did. What a nice guy!

Mike leveled out some ground and pushed over a few dead trees for us. Then he asked if we would like him to try and push one of the hops poles over. He seemed pretty confident so we told him to go ahead. 

The first pole came out easily and Mike agreed to push over all the hops poles with his bulldozer. It took about a week but we got all the poles and steel guide wire out of the field. It was once again a blank canvas.

Shortly after the hops field operation Mike and his wife Mary came over to our house for dinner. They told us about their Bohemian Lavender Farm. We told them that we were thinking about growing lavender in the former hops field and asked them what they thought.

Mike and Mary said the area could support another lavender farm, even right next to theirs, and offered to help us get starter plants and set up our field. This was all starting to feel like it was meant to be.

We are now in our third year growing lavender. It's been a lot of hard work and we couldn't have done it without the help of our neighbors. This project has brought our family together and we are grateful. We look forward to spending our summers in the lavender field!

-Joe Adams, Full Circle Lavender Farmer