The kind folks at Earthbox Inn & Spa wrote about their recent visit to our Gatehouse Farm Store and production center this fall. They graciously gave us permission to share their musings with you. We hope you enjoy reading about their behind-the-scenes experience as much as we did!
Behind the Scenes - Visiting Pelindaba Lavender Farm
I recently had the absolute pleasure to get a private tour of the production facility at the Pelindaba Lavender Farm on gorgeous San Juan Island. The farm, its lovely farm store and visitor’s center are one of the main tourist attractions on San Juan Island in the Summer, however the production facility on site is not open to the general public. We here at the Earthbox Inn & Spa source all of our body care products for our guest rooms from Pelindaba, because they are amazing, local, certified organic and a big plus--dispensing them in bulk cuts down on a lot of waste. Especially important on a little island. So I got to go see how all the good, purple stuff is made.
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The Gatehouse Farm Store and Visitor's Center at the Pelindaba Lavender Farm |
Behind the Scenes: Pelindaba's Production Facilities
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Packaging Day in Production |
Amelia, Pelindaba’s Director of Marketing and Sales and my “behind the scenes” escort, guided me through the same route the lavender would enter the production facility: through a large roll-up door in front. Here the purple crop can go one of three ways: drying, distilling or hydrosol, the three bases for all products made here. The raw material is then divided into culinary and non-culinary sections, since different laws govern the two.
We visited the non-culinary side first. A large, light room with big tables in the middle with product stacked high along the walls. Women face each other while putting perfect bows on little purple (handmade) packages, stickers on bottles and a sprig of lavender through a ribbon. Everything here is made by hand and in house, from research and design to manufacturing. There are days when body care products are made, some when bottles are being filled and others when ribbons and stickers are placed on the bottles. Some work is outsourced to other local crafters, like the woman who sews lovely little purple pouches.
Pelindaba integrates art from local artists into their impressive line-up, like lavender-themed ceramics. Those gems are often only available at the Gatehouse Farm Store at the Farm.
75% of all lavender products made here are made from the Grosso variety of lavender. Its essential oil gets better with age – like wine. Right now, the oils from 2014 are being processed. It takes two lavender plants to make one ounce of essential oil. A lavender plant usually produces for about 15 years and virtually nothing, no weather, no vermin, no drought, can destroy a crop.
Behind the Scenes: A Guided Tour Through Pelindaba's Certified Kitchen
The next step in my guided tour, gave me a peek at the culinary side of things in the huge and airy commercial kitchen. This is where lavender cookies, chutney, chocolate and coffee are made. The lavender coffee is very popular at the moment. Pelindaba sources its coffee from the local San Juan Coffee Roasting Company, who in turn source their coffee from small family farms, who grow their crop in the shade and without the harmful use of pesticides.
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Lavender Chutney and Honey and Coffee, Oh My! |
Lavender used to be a very popular herb before WWII, especially in Europe. Sadly in England virtually all the lavender fields burned during the war. Thereafter, most of the needs that the versatile herb had previously filled, were replaced with chemicals. This is finally beginning to change! Learn some fun facts about lavender, like Why Tanners didn’t get the Plaque, here.
Returning to the tour: in the back of the large warehouse in the inventory area, the culinary and non-culinary goods come together. All orders, from individual customers ordering online to big orders to retail stores as far away as Florida, Colorado and Ashland, OR, and as near as La Connor, Bainbridge and Edmonds are put together and shipped from here. Voila!
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Pelindaba's Fields in Full Bloom |
Contributed by: Earthbox Inn & Spa
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