Life on a lavender farm

It was a good thing the weekend was fun because the first day on the fields was brutal.

1 - lavender

The rest of the week was spent harvesting lavender, and because of that we had to start the day at 8 a.m. We would all set our alarms at around 7 a.m., and then hit the snooze button once or twice before actually crawling out of our holes to use the bathroom and eat breakfast.

For the most part we ate cereal and/or granola with oats, along with small slices of bread in the mornings. (Bread was typically made by Andrea or Karolyne using the bread machine in the kitchen. We never bought bread from the grocery store.)

Mornings were usually cooler, so I would start the day off with a hoodie over my shirt. But by 10 a.m. the sun would be out and it would be hot.

There were dozens of lavender plants that required harvesting.

3 - lavender

2 - lavender

To harvest the plants, we had to bend at an angle so we could reach the stems and slice them off with a satchel.

1 - satchel

Although the first day was tiring, the second day was worse because when I woke up, it was challenging to roll out of bed and bend to get in and out of the room. Not that it was excruciating or anything, but sudden movements were uncomfortable and sometimes painful.

We all engaged in various tasks throughout the week. Andrea and Karolyne would take turns at the shop sometimes, in addition to harvesting. We also bundled lavender and pruned leaves in the vineyard.

1 - lavenderbundle

1 - vineyard

One highlight of my time at Damali is how we went about making food at lunchtime. Despite how grueling it was to be harvesting in the summer Vancouver Island sun, our lunch meals hardly replaced the calories we must have consumed while working. Lunch hour was typically from noon to 1 p.m., and in that hour we had to cook, eat, and clean up. Every day that we came in for that hour-long break, I was faced with the temptation to just plop down on the chairs or couches and just stay there. I’m almost sure the others felt the same way. Everyone looked so comfortable and at peace when they sat down.

But with such little time for much else except to prep, eat, and clean up our meals, 99 percent of the time we ended up making light dishes like salad or quick pasta.

1 - quinoasalad

2 - quinoasalad

But no matter what we ended up eating, we always had vegetables.

After work hours, much time was spent completing more housework (sweeping, washing dishes, cooking, baking bread, etc.), taking showers, and resting. So days were always busy and productive, even after being out on the field all day.

One afternoon, in addition to dinner prep, Andrea made some filling carrot cake, and I baked some oatmeal cookies.

1 - carrotcake

1 - oatmealcookies

These served as delicious calorie replenishers 🙂

Thursday of that week was a victory at Damali because we finished the harvest!

1 - finishedharvest

We had a celebratory dinner at Dave and Marsha’s house that evening consisting of lamb, veggies, Greek pasta, and wine (although we typically had wine whenever we ate there anyway).

With that physically demanding duty out of the way, we were able to spend Friday completing more relaxing tasks. I got to cut and label lavender soap for the shop.

1 - soap
Lavender soap molds for slicing
2 - soap
Each bar was to be around 105g because they were sold at 100g. So after each slice, I would weigh the bar to make sure it was in the right weight range. As soap dries it loses some weight, which is why they were to be cut with an additional 5g of weight.
3 - soap
Lavender soap without the flowers (because some people prefer them without it).
4 - soap
Soap bars laid out for drying.

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