(upbeat music) - Will you "Consider This"?

I have dressed the part today, lavender.

And if you're wondering what that has to do with these two wonderful people?

They are Steve and Jennifer Manzke, and they know all about lavender.

Probably more than most people around here know.

So, welcome to "Consider This".

And first of all, I wanna know a little bit about the two of you before we get into the lavender part.

- [Steve] Sure.

What would you like to know?

- Well, now you're from nearby, Tuscola.

- Yeah, I grew up in Tuscola, Illinois.

My professional background is information technology.

So, I went to school up in the suburbs of Chicago and I came here to Caterpillar where I started my career out of college.

And I've been in this area for over 25 years.

- [Christine] All right, and you met your beautiful bride here?

- I did.

I did.

- [Christine] And you're from Brimfield?

- I am from Brimfield.

- All right.

- So, I grew up on a farm, have a farming background, and been native to this area my entire life.

And here we stay and now we got a lavender farm today.

- Yep.

- Yeah.

So, I wanna know, so lavender farm, it's called Lavender & Honey Creek Farm.

So obviously, lavender, did you start doing that, because the bees like to, they're good pollinators, or what came first?

The chicken or the egg, but I don't know how to put it in lavender terms.

- Well, I'll say it started years ago when somebody came and gave me a magazine article on lavender.

And they said, "Hey, I thought of you."

So, I took the article home and I read it and I was very intrigued.

And then we found out about this lavender festival out west.

So, we planned a trip and we went out and we went to a small town and they had pots of lavender blooming, just pots.

The whole town got into it.

- [Christine] I bet it smelled wonderful.

- Oh, it did.

The aroma was in the air.

There was about six to eight lavender farms that were part of this festival.

And so, we were able to go out and tour all these farms, and each of the farms had gift shops with lavender goodies.

They sold honey and they had ice cream for sale.

There was music playing.

So, it was really a sight to see, but then you could actually go out and walk through the fields blooming.

And what amazed us is that it wasn't just purple, there were shades of every purple imaginable for the lavender varieties they were growing.

There was pink lavender, there was white lavender.

And so, we looked at each other and said, "Wow," it really was amazing.

And I would say that's probably when the dream was born.

And so, we were talking with one of the experts out there and they mentioned, you know, that they had plants for sale.

And we're like, oh, you know, we gotta take some of this back home.

- [Christine] Let's go home with some plants.

So, you drove out there, I take it.

- No, we actually a flew.

- All right.

- [Jen] And so, we brought some of the plants.

- And where was it out west?

- [Steve] Sequim, Washington's over across from Seattle.

- Okay.

All right.

- So, we brought some of the plants home with us and we planted them in our backyard.

And we were told by the lavender expert out there, "Oh, you know, lavender will die in Illinois.

It won't grow."

- And I was wondering that, right?

- And so, we thought, well, you know, we're gonna try it anyway.

Even if we just had it for the summer, we're gonna try it.

So, we brought it home and it grew.

And they were like, "Whoa, we gotta have more of this."

So, we went to some of the area nurseries and we brought some more plants home, and we planted them, and they died.

- Oh?

Interesting.

- Yeah, hindsight was 20/20.

At that time when we had purchased the plants, we were purchasing varieties that don't grow in this area.

And so, we've learned a lot.

We need to have the right varieties.

So, through a lot of testing, error, killing a lot of lavender, we found the varieties that actually work for us.

- So, are they the same varieties from the Pacific Northwest?

- Not in every case, no.

- Okay.

- So, we've done a lot of testing to get the ones that work for us.

And so, we kept planting, but the back of our yard was very shaded.

So, we were kind of landlocked in terms of what we could do.

- All right.

- Lavender needs six to eight hours of full sun and well draining soil.

- Okay, wow.

- So, we got about 30 plants in and said, "Well, that's as much as you can expand."

So fast forward, we bought some acreage.

- [Christine] How many acres?

- There's about 60 altogether.

- Yep.

- Whoa.

- Not in lavender, of course.

- Okay.

- So, a lot of it's in corn and beans, but about an acre of it's in lavender plants.

So, we have about 1,000 plants and we've been testing the varieties ever since.

But if you fast forward, it was probably 2020, 2021 when Covid hit that we looked at each other and said, "You know, we're gonna stop treating this as a hobby and we're going to give this thing our full attention."

And that's when we started working on our website presence.

- [Christine] Okay.

- And we learned about the shipping and we've effectively shipped to all 50 states, including Alaska and Hawaii a couple times so.

- What a story.

- Yeah.

- So, now you're an IT guy, and exactly how do you fit into this picture?

Because there's a big difference between technology and the Earth.

- Yeah.

Well, I would say that thanks to my wife, I've had the opportunity to get more connected.

She comes from a farming family and actually, I have some farming background, even in my grandparents farmed and things like that.

So, I've always had an interest.

And I would say my area really came in the beekeeping side of it.

- [Christine] All right, tell me about that.

- Yeah, so prior 2011 is when I started, and I just started it kind of like she described, right?

Just interested in it, wanted to learn more about the honeybees.

There was a lot of information in the internet and other places, right?

Talking about the decline of bees and how, you know, it's important, how important they are to pollination to fruits and vegetables and things of that nature.

So, I started with just one hive, went to the local beekeeping association here in the state and took some classes, read some books, and, you know, had some success with my first hive.

Got my first batch of honey, which was great.

And then it just kind of grew from there.

Then I went to two hives and then I just slowly expanded.

- [Christine] And how many hives do you have?

- We run anywhere between 15 and 30, depending on the time of year.

- Holy cow.

All right.

- Yeah.

- And right now they're mostly working on the lavender.

I mean, because I guess bees love lavender, correct?

- They do, they do.

So, the lavender plants bloom between, you know, May, June, July timeframe, and you'll find if you leave them blooming, the bees will be all over them, bumblebees, regular honeybees.

They also like clover's very predominant here in Illinois.

And so, they'll start working that as well.

But they certainly have access to all our flowers, which makes our honey a little unique.

- And Jen, you said that, that there's different colors of lavender, you know?

- Yes.

- I'm pretty basic.

I thought this was it.

So, there's pink and there's white.

And do you also have those varieties that can make it here or not?

- Yes.

So we do, so we have the pink, the white, and the lavender.

So, we have various shades of lavender planted, the purple, but what's unique is when my daughter was four, she was really into pink.

- Oh, good.

- And so we were testing pink at that time, the variety.

And she's like, "Mommy," - What a great mom.

- "I want my own patch of lavender."

So, we put in 100 plants of a variety of pink for her and it's her patch.

And I told her, I said, "When we plant this now you're gonna have to help come out and harvest it."

"Yes, mommy, I can do that."

But she claims it as her patch.

It's about 100 plants and it's a pink variety.

It's beautiful when it blooms and when it dries it's about a grayish white when it dries down.

But that's her variety.

And then my son had to get on the bandwagon and he had to have his patch.

So, right next to it we have a royal velvet patch for him as well.

- Oh, well, that's mighty nice of you.

And you have them, well, as you said, she's taken care of it.

You have them helping out with the business.

You said your son is also a beekeeper?

- Yes.

Yeah.

So, he's enrolled in our local 4-H program, taking some of the beekeeping courses there.

And he's helped me out.

He comes out and we have pictures of us in suits and he comes and he gets real into it.

He has his own hive.

We give him his own hive to manage, and he really gets into it.

So, he's been a big help.

- What's been his biggest challenge?

I mean, have you had a hive die?

Have you have any of those problems?

- Sure.

Yeah.

I mean, it's normal I would say.

We've, you know, had our fair challenges of losing hives here and there for different reasons.

But, you know, but I think it's, and he's also had the experience of swarms.

Where you create new hives or you catch new hives.

And so, we've had both sides of the spectrum and he's, you know, he's very comfortable with it.

- [Christine] So, no fears of being stung?

- Some fears, but, you know, I think like anything, but both of us, we've all been stung.

So, we all know what to expect now.

And no, you know, obviously thankfully, nobody allergic or anything like that.

So, it's been good.

- Okay.

So, you have all this acreage, and all this beautiful, and the air just smells wonderful.

- It does.

So, when it's in bloom, one of the best things about lavender is when you walk through it.

It's the aroma that's in the air.

It just, it's flowing in the wind as it's blooming.

And then when you see all the pollinators, so there's various butterflies on it.

Lots and lots of bumblebees as well as the honeybees that are all over it.

So, we are careful when we go to harvest it, but that's one bad thing about it.

It's so beautiful when it's in bloom, - [Christine] It's so sad.

- But it's sad when you have to go out there and cut it.

But if you don't cut it back and you're just a typical homeowner, it will start to look sprawl.

It'll get sprawled out and it'll start getting woody and it doesn't look good after a few years.

- So, it's a perennial?

- It is a perennial.

- Somebody told me that it wasn't.

Somebody thought that it was just an annual.

It depends on the variety?

- So, we actually, sell plants on the side, especially at some of our shows.

And a lot of people will tell us that they didn't realize it was a perennial.

And that's if you don't get the right variety.

So, if you have the right variety for this zone, and that's why we sell the plants that are basically, clones of what we grow on our farm, that it will grow here.

- [Christine] And we're in zone nine?

- Zone five.

- Zone five, okay.

Zone nine that's probably further south.

- Yeah.

- I don't know.

Maybe I have to stand in my head and get it figured out.

Okay, we're right in the middle.

So, what is the growing season?

When are they in full bloom?

- [Jen] So, the lavender's in full bloom starting May.

- Okay.

- And it will actually, some of our varieties will put on more than one bloom.

So, the second bloom is not as predominant as the first.

And then, so we'll go out, we'll harvest it.

And then in August timeframe is when we actually, get those plants ready for winter.

So, we'll go out, we'll have to trim them back, we'll shape them like a dome shape, and then we do that by September 1st, because if it's not cut back by September 1st, it will, it needs time I guess you could say to heal.

Six to eight weeks to heal before the first frost.

- [Christine] Because you've just cut it, you've just chopped it.

- And you don't wanna kill it.

The risk of killing it.

- [Christine] And how long did it take you to figure that out?

- A few years of trial and error.

- A few years.

- We have tried trimming them a little too late and we found that, if we trim 'em a little too late, they don't always come back.

- They don't make it.

- Their success rate isn't as good.

- Or half the plant will come back.

- And you know, part of the Lavender Growers Association they've a lot of good forums back and forth where people give you feedback on what's working, what's not working.

So, it's, yeah.

- You told me about that, that there is a nationwide association for lavender growers.

- There is.

- And who knew?

And how many lavender growers are there in Illinois, do you know?

- I don't know exact number, but we've counted, we think somewhere between seven to 10 that we know about for sure.

From the northern Chicago, you know, down to the southern tip of Illinois.

So, they just keep popping up as people become interested in it.

But it's definitely, it's not for the faint of heart.

It's a labor-intensive effort, if you wanna grow lavender, 'cause there's a lot of work involved with it.

- Right.

So, what time of day do you have to start to go out when the harvest stops, and you hire people to help with the harvest?

- No.

- It's just you guys?

- It's just us.

- And the two kids.

- [Jen] And the two kids.

- How about other family, friends they don't come around?

- No.

We've had some help.

- You do it.

- We end up doing it.

We know some farms that will go out and they'll get really excited about having a lavender farm and they'll go out and put 5,000 plants in another shot.

- [Christine] Whoa.

- And that sounds like great in theory, but when it comes time to harvest that, we're out there harvesting in the heat of the summer.

And so, we're constantly taking breaks.

Our kids are helping us.

But you know, we break it up and we'll go get ice cream together as a family.

They get to play their music, while we're harvesting.

And when it comes right down to it, you get to plant 100 of harvesting and then you look across the field and 900 more plants yet to go.

- Okay.

So, lengthwise, how long does it take, like five, six weeks to get all that done with just the four of you basically?

- Yeah, and they all don't wanna bloom at the same time, right?

So, different varieties, some will bloom early and some will bloom later.

- All right.

- So, like your longer stem varieties tend to go a little later.

So, you can stagger, you'll know this patch you gotta do first, 'cause it's starting to open up and then these other ones aren't ready yet.

So, by the time you get those done, the rest of them are starting.

- [Christine] So, you can pace yourselves.

- Yeah, you can kind of plan it out a little bit, if you will.

- Right.

What are some of the things that you do then?

You're selling some plants, you can thin 'em out and that way then they can, you know, go ahead and grow some more, you know, they can stretch out a little bit.

What are some of the things you do with the dried lavender that you harvest?

- So, predominantly, we sell a lot of dried lavender at our shows and online.

So, it's one of our bigger sellers.

We also take the lavender and we debud it.

And so, we've created these lavender toss packets.

So, back in the day they used to throw bird seed as the end of a wedding.

- [Christine] Good idea.

Yeah.

- So, now we sell these personalized wedding packets like a Mr. and Mrs. Smith and the wedding date.

And we've shipped those quite a bit across the country and it makes a fantastic photo opportunity.

We've had brides send us pictures after the fact of them throwing the lavender, and the aroma's in the air.

And lavender's a symbol of love and devotion and good luck.

- I like that.

And well, so when you're working with it, because like I know that lavender's supposed to be good for putting you to sleep, you know?

So, you put it in your bath, and anxiety, you know, it kind of helps calm you down and everything.

Do you feel like you're in the Wizard of Oz with the poppies anytime when you're working the fields?

Because you know, I mean, if it's supposed to calm you down, do you wanna just lay down and take a nap?

- Not often.

I think there's too much work to be done at that point when we're harvesting it.

But there is a sense of calm.

When you walk out there,- - Yeah.

- the calming, the relaxation.

You can take a deep breath, because you know, it's just a almost like a happy place, 'cause the bees are all over it.

It's just take a deep breath and it's just a place to relax and connect with nature again.

- Yeah, and you love seeing the kids.

They have their responsibilities.

What other responsibilities do they have other than their patches and then they go out and they help you with the harvest, right?

What else do they do in terms of, well, your son helps with the honey.

- Yep.

- And lavender honey really has a different flavor.

It really does.

It almost, it tastes flowery.

It tastes kinda like lavender smells, go figure.

I mean, am I accurate in that?

To me that's what it is.

- Yeah, and certainly, you know, one of the things we try to do is it's all natural for us.

So, we don't add any, you know, some people can infuse different, you know, flavors, - Oils.

- and honeys and things, right?

But ours is all natural, but it's just the access to the flowers that they have.

So, for us it, you know, we just pride ourselves on the fact that it's just straight honey.

But they have access to all these great lavender plants and they work a lot of 'em.

And so, I think it adds something like you said to it, and the mix of the flowers in your area make your honey different.

So, when you buy from one beekeeper to the next, it's always tastes a little different.

- And you'd never had any ever dream that you would be doing this, either one of you?

- No.

- I mean, because we both went to college, you know, and never thought.

- What did you major in?

- Business computer systems.

- Okay, so that's how you two met with the IT kind of computer thing going on.

- Both had corporate careers for many, many years.

- Yeah.

- Then, you know, life takes you in different journey.

- It really does.

And it's good that you listen to what your calling was.

So, you said that you ship to all 50 states.

You have shipped all 50 states, and some foreign countries I would imagine?

- We do not ship out of the United States.

- Okay.

All right.

Well, that's that's good to know.

So, what's been the most interesting thing or the most interesting request that you've gotten for your product?

- I would say probably the wedding orders.

So, last year we had a lady in New York contact us and we make these mini lavender bundles.

And she needed, I believe it was like 300 of them and she wanted us to ship them to her.

I had never shipped that many mini bundles, because when you ship dried lavender, it can be fragile in nature and it can start to fall off really quick.

So, to put 300 of those into a box and send them out there.

And then she was gonna go ahead and take 'em out to her niece's wedding in Italy.

So, our lavender's made it all the way to Italy.

And then we've shipped some, it's a long story, but to Dubai.

So, we know our lavender's made it to Dubai.

But the wedding orders, that's probably one of the more interesting things that we've done.

- So, when you do the lavender packets, now I know that you have some fabric and things, and so do you buy the little packets and then fill them somehow?

I mean, and you're doing that or are you hiring people to help you out with that?

- So, for the lavender toss packets, they're little plastic bags that we are customizing.

We're filling them and we're sending them out, so all us.

Everything that we do is pretty much us and our family of four.

(Christine chuckling) - Okay.

Well, it keeps you kind of busy.

- It does.

- It does.

- When is your downtime - Right about now I would say.

It starts around the Christmas season, right?

And I would say usually, a lot of the conferences and things for the industry of lavender is in January.

So usually, between now and January, February is kind of our downtime.

- Okay, and then it picks up starting late March would you say?

- March you're planning, you're usually the beekeeping stuff starts to pick up about late mid to late March when the, you know, the weather turns, things start to green up.

- Right, and then when do you do your honey?

- Honey also harvests probably predominantly the honey flow I would say kinda starts in May and goes through about July.

It's about the same as the lavender actually.

- Oh, boy.

- It's very similar.

So, really you're not getting a whole lot of sleep at night.

- Yeah, it's a busy time.

- But it's a good thing it's lavender, because it'll calm you down.

- That's right.

- Can fall asleep.

- Yeah, If we're not harvesting lavender, we're harvesting the honey.

- Yeah, it's true.

- That's just crazy.

That's crazy.

And neither one of you ever had any idea that farming would be in your future?

- No, I don't think it, like she said, when we started 20 some years ago in our corporate careers, we're like we never even had that thought.

But things just the way they've worked out, whether some of the ground that we were able to purchase, you know, and then getting into the lavender and the bees is just, we've kind of fell into it and it's really worked out well.

- So, no real regrets except that, you know, I mean, where do you come up with the ideas of what you're going to do with these things, these little packets and things that you're sending, basically around the world, even though you're not putting the postage on it?

- So, I would say I'm the one who's pretty much doing the orders throughout the day and putting things together.

And as I'm there and you know, making the bouquets, the ideas just come to you.

And as you're working with it, it's like, huh, you know, we should work on doing this.

And then it takes a while, you know, to play with the packaging and figure out what you wanna do or play with the idea and test it out and get family members to, or test it out even with the public.

We take it to some of our shows and say, "You know, try this.

Let us know what you think of it."

- And what is the feedback that you get?

Are you getting any ideas from customers?

- Yeah, we do get ideas from customers, 'cause a lot of people will even say, "Hey, this is good, but do you sell such and such?"

- And you'll go, "Oh, didn't even consider that."

- But no, we don't, yeah.

But you know, one of the common questions we get, "Are you open to the public?"

And at this point in time, we're not open to the public, but we've had a lot of interest- - Yeah.

- of people asking.

- Well, what is the fear being open to the public that the plants would be trampled, people would be careless or obviously.

- No, I would say it's a combination of things.

One is beautification.

There's some investment we would need to make, both from a, you know, just a general safety perspective and also just making sure that the aesthetics of the farm look really good.

And then also just, you know, making sure that, like you said, you know, trying to figure out, okay, what would you come out to do, right?

Do we have enough to keep you busy other than just maybe a you-pick field or taking some pictures.

So, it's thinking about how would you set it up so that there's something that for people to kind of get engaged and stay for a while and really maybe enjoy a few different aspects of the farm.

- So, the Lavender Association, do they have some of these things where they're open to the public at some of the other farms?

- Yeah, so some of the farms are not open to the public like we are.

And a lot of the farms are open to the public.

So, some of them go so far as to have their own festivals, have music playing and the gift shops going and they'll have the you-picks and classes on how to make lavender resales.

Those are some of the things that we're kicking around maybe to expand in the future.

- But you're still pretty young.

You said 2020, or, 2021?

- 2021 is when the business was actually officially formed.

So yeah, we are still pretty young in our career and we're still trying to understand how the public's gonna receive it.

- Well, but for some of the craft shows, which is where I met you, it does pretty well.

I mean, people are very interested.

How tall do lavender plants grow?

Are they really tall?

I don't have any idea.

I've seen them, you know, like around people's yards.

They might be foot and a half maybe, maybe two feet tops.

Maybe that's when they're two leggy.

- So, depending on the variety that you get, there are some varieties.

The shorter varieties will get about like this.

And then the longer stems will come up to above by my waist when they're in full bloom.

- Wow.

- And then when we plant them, it's really interesting to watch, because we'll plant these little plants in the ground and then every year they'll double in size.

So, year three is when they become fully productive.

But some of our plants get, you know, wider than that table there.

- Really?

- Yeah.

So, they get really round, huge.

- How exciting that is.

Those are your babies.

- Those are the babies.

It's like watching your children grow almost.

- So, the future holds the possibility of you having open to the public.

Do you think you would ever just do like a gift shop first, or is that not even a possibility?

You're still young, you haven't had time to think about that?

(Christine laughing) - We would love to have a greenhouse,- - Okay.

- as part of the farm.

We've even talked about having our own gift shop.

Those are all steps that we've taken for the future that we'd like to do.

It's part of the dream.

We're just not there yet.

- Okay, and then you wouldn't be active all winter long, if you had the greenhouse, you'd have that many plants in there?

- Yeah, we would usually, a lot of times when we will take cutlings of plants, we sell plants as well.

So, in the spring and summertime, we'll grow plants and put them out in our shows for sale.

We'll put them online or we talked about maybe even having a plant sale in the future from the farm.

But yeah, we usually try to overwinter at least a handful of them, because when you come into spring, if you lose any of your plants you want have some to replace 'em.

- Right.

All right, so where do people find you, contact you online?

You have like all kinds of fancy little stuff.

You can do a QR code, or something, or yeah.

So, quickly tell us where that is.

- Yep.

So, we're on Lavender & Honey Creek Farm.

So, www.lavenderandhoneycreekfarm.com.

And that's the best way to reach us.

You know, you can purchase online, you can contact us, you know, if you wanna pick up an order, if you'd like us to ship you something, be happy to do it.

- Instagram and Facebook as well.

See, you know what?

We need IT people, computer people to make it easy for everybody, except for people like me.

So, thanks so much for being here and sharing your story.

I'm glad I could dress the part, you know?

- You look great.

- So, I feel like I'm one of you.

And thank you for joining us.

And you have any ideas for any kinda stories too, there's a lot of interesting people out there.

Let me know.

In the meantime, be well.

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