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About Us
Check out our blog, updated a little more frequently than the website!
http://clearcreeklavender.blogspot.com/
In October of 2007 we set off travelling by bicycle for a couple of weeks. Read about our trip here:
http://rollinontheriver.blogspot.com/
Three years ago, Denise and I sat at the top of one of
the pastures on our farm on a late summer's evening and discussed growing a lavender
field. "Wouldn't it be great," we said. "Just
imagine this field in purple waves."
Our
farm had always been for such evenings -- sitting and thinking
pleasant thoughts. It had never in our 30 years of ownership
produced a crop. But the  lavender
idea stuck, and I read books, traveled to see other
farms nearby and especially in the Pacific northwest, and
learned that we'd hit upon a possibility. If lavender grows
well in the dry, heat-drenched limestone soil of southern
France, why couldn't it grow in Cherokee County, Oklahoma?
Although Oklahoma may rank 49th in education spending, in the areas of heat and bad soil, we're among the best.
The next spring I brought our old International Harvester
tractor to life after it had sat in its shed for several years,
and hooked up an old two-bottom plow from the pole barn that
had been at rest for decades. I'd forgotten the plow was there
until I went exploring for useful tools in the collective
'stuff' that just accumulates on a farm.
Turning over the soil for the first time felt like honest
work. The tractor's engine strained just a little as the plow
dug into the earth, but quickly got back up to speed. New
tractors offer automobile-like cruise control, but I can't
think of a gadget that could provide a more constant pace
than a tractor in low gear -- they just
keep moving. Before long I'd turned over half an acre
of pasture, formerly part of the grazing smorgasbord for a
few cattle who would just have to learn to graze elsewhere.
The plowed field itself was a thing of beauty, although far
from the works of art the French farmers create each fall.
 We decided on a lavender variety called Grosso, which fuels the French perfume industry with its high oil content. Our first plants went in the ground in the Fall -- a year after our imaginations ran wild on that pleasant evening -- and we ordered 750
more for Spring.
 There were, of course, a few things our imaginations had overlooked. Work and weeds, most significantly. Lavender is a hands-on crop. Huge farms in France have
special harvesting and tending equipment -- as well as migrant
workers -- but Denise and I had a couple of hoes. I soon invested
in a tiller to get between the rows, but maintaining the plant
lines requires hand to weed combat, and their numbers can
be daunting.
In the spring of 2004, our work paid off with a field in full
bloom. Harvest took place in June and July, and for hours
we used serrated sickles to cut the best stems. There's a
satisfying rip as the blade cuts through a handful of stems.
The loft of the old barn served as a drying room, and I made
two filtering screens to use as we defoliated buds. We found
ourselves in a situation I imagine the French and Italians
are familiar with -- we created something beautiful and then
later realized, "Oh, I bet people would buy this." And they did, as we discovered on Saturday mornings at the
Cherry Street Farmer's Market at 15th and Peoria in Tulsa.
While I have always known the farm -- my parents and grandparents
bought it when I was three -- this new venture has made me
much more aware of what I have there. And while I hesitate
to call myself a farmer out of respect to farmers who truly
make a living from the land, I find the work very satisfying
and have a greater appreciation for the work of agriculture.
Those thoughts on a pleasant evening have become a real endeavor. Last Fall I hooked up the plow again to the International
Harvester. There's a second field in the works, on a rise
overlooking the first.
Chris Dykes and Denise Bell |
