We're having a great time here today at the Woodstock Lavender Company.

This is Allison Horseman.

Allison, thanks so much for letting us be here today.

Absolutely, thanks for coming.

Your family's history here, you all have been here a long time.

Tell me about that.

Yeah.

So, I'm actually the fourth generation, so my kids are the fifth generation to live on this farm.

It was definitely not something that I had planned.

But through a series of events brought us back to the farm, and we couldn't be happier to be having our hands in agriculture in some way, just like my ancestors did, but we're just sort of forging our own path and doing our own thing with the lavender.

So why lavender?

Of all things in the world, why was it lavender that you all decided to do here?

Well, I was looking for something to do that I could be a part of agriculture, a part of the farming community without being a traditional farmer, and Mom actually saw the idea to grow lavender in a cookbook, and we decided to just go for it.

We didn't know anything about it 13 years ago.

We definitely learned a lot since then.

We just knew it was pretty.

We knew it was an herb, and we thought it was easy to grow.

We did not know it was not so easy to grow in Kentucky, but we learned a lot along the way.

So, that was my next question.

How tough is it to grow lavender here in Kentucky?

It's very tough to grow lavender in Kentucky.

[laughs] We have the complete opposite climate of the Mediterranean, which is where lavender thrives.

So, our soil is too good.

We have much too high humidity, and typically a lot of lavender dies because of root rot.

We just get too much rain.

So, to that point, if somebody wanted to grow this at home, what advice would you give them?

We tell them to focus on drainage.

They absolutely should have very good drainage.

We should have some rock and some sand and maybe some soil mixed in together.

And then we tell them to only water the plant until it's established.

And then, at that point, we get enough rain that it will take care of itself.

And then, how do you harvest it?

What does the actual harvest look like?

We actually have sickles, and we use sickles to hand-harvest each bundle that's left at the end of the season.

Then, we rubber-band it.

We hang it up in the top of the horse barn.

We let it dry out, and then we de-bud it and use it in all of our products.

So, when you talk about products, some uses of lavender, what would those be?

So, lavender is wonderful for helping people sleep, for reducing some anxiety, and it's one of the safest herbs and essential oils that you can use.

And so, that's really what a lot of people just find it so comforting, and real lavender smells really sweet.

And so, a lot of people use it just for stress relief, anxiety, headache relief, small cuts and burns, bruises.

It helps with healing for all of that.

Well, it's a remarkable place that you all have built up here, the fourth generation, and that really is something in and of itself.

Allison, thanks so much for letting us be here today.

Absolutely.

Thank you so much for coming.

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