Lavender, Not Tobacco, is Drying in the Barn

Source from:  news.cincypost.com Column by Jack Hicks 06/23/2006

What used to be Tobacco Road is now Lavender Lane. Well, not officially. Charles "Sonny'' and Judy Brothers still live on Conrad Ridge Road in Bracken County, Ky., near Brooksville, but lavender has replaced tobacco as the focus of their farming operation. That's lavender, the herb or mint, and until recently many folks hereabouts might have identified the term only with the color purple. Count Sonny Brothers and his friends among those who were unaware of lavender as a cure-all, do-all cash crop. Even Judy Brothers didn't know about lavender's potential. "I always thought it was just a flower," she said. That was before their daughters, Denise Scaringi of Lakeside Park, Ky., and Teresa High of Maysville, Ky., began researching a plant whose properties range from easing aching joints to keeping fleas off dogs; from freshening clothing and rooms to adding flavor to food. She was developing a yen to return to her rural roots, said Scaringi, a Kenton County School District teacher, and trying to convince her husband, Jerry, to purchase some property near that owned by her parents. Tobacco is in decline, Denise Scaringi knew, and she began to scout about for an alternative crop. The land acquisition fell through, but not before she learned of lavender-growing efforts in the State of Washington, and how it included a tourism element. That would be attracting visitors to view the farm and the eye-pleasing plants, and then offering them an array of lavender products for sale. Scaringi convinced her sister of the merit of the idea, and the two then sold their parents. "Our sons were skeptical," Judy Brothers said of the other family members involved in the farming operation. Ultimately it was agreed to give lavender a try, and a year ago, 375 plants acquired from a Maryland nursery were placed in mounded rows near the Brothers' farm house. It was a whole lot like planting tobacco - toil that his daughters had escaped by moving to town, Sonny Brothers said. "I never thought I'd see that sight again," he said of seeing his daughters down willingly working in the soil. Irrigated and protected from weeds by a fabric - similar to placing black plastic in a garden - the plants largely survived the winter and are now flowering and cuttings are being made. It's the state's first lavender farm, Scaringi claims, and the endeavor has an impressive name - Lavender Hills of Kentucky. Products soon will be for sale in a small gift shop near the lavender field. There are lavender-filled pillows, sachets to put in closets and drawers to improve the scent and repel moths, and bathroom pomanders enhanced by the steam from a shower. Scaringi laughs at comparisons to a medicine show barker, as she extols the many uses for lavender, including healing wounds, alleviating motion sickness and calming hyperactive dogs. There is also the flavoring of food, chiefly desserts, and the gift shop will also offer a lavender cook book. You can even distill lavender buds, but that will take a lot more plants than the farm's present capacity, Scaringi said. Sonny Brothers sees similarities between growing tobacco and lavender, mostly the labor intensity required. Along with setting the young plants, the mature blooms are cut and then hung in bunches to dry. Tobacco is topped, to keep the plants from going to seed, and when ripened and cut, is also hung in barns to dry. While the drying lavender doesn't take as much space, Brothers can visualize using dormant tobacco barns for the drying process. Lavender doesn't have to be hand stripped like tobacco, but the buds must be rolled off the stems by hand. Lavender Hills of Kentucky is still a fledgling operation, and Scaringi would like to find some type of wholesaler or distributor to buy the product. In the meantime, the family will offer lavender in their gift shop and at various fairs and festivals around the area. Lavender Hills is working with the River Valley Agriculture-Tourism Alliance, which attempts to promote various crops and their ties to tourism. "We've got to make it work, to keep them from laughing," Sonny Brothers says of skeptics. Enditem