By CELESTE BAUMGARTNER
Ohio Correspondent

STREETSBORO, Ohio — DayBreak Lavender Farm’s co-founders, Jody Byrne and Michael Slyker, were so pleased with their farm they started the Lavender Project to interest and inform other farmers about growing lavender.

DayBreak Lavender Farm was designated in 2004 by the Ohio State Senate as “... the first lavender farm in Ohio’s history.” It all started because Byrne, a single woman, had 14 acres and wasn’t sure what to do with it. But she had always loved lavender, which she describes as a high-value crop.

She met and married Slyker, the grandson of a farmer. They planted a test patch of lavender in 2000, and it flourished.

“It must have been a serendipitous year,” Byrne said.
They harvested the blossoms from that patch, found a recipe in a gardening magazine for Lavender Salt Glow – a spa treatment – and took 18 jars to the North Union Farm Market at Shaker Square.
They sold out in 45 minutes.

Byrne and Slyker eventually planted two acres of lavender. Now they make 50 to 60 lavender products: soaps, shower gels, natural lavender deodorant and the like, all created from Byrne’s original recipes and handcrafted by Slyker in small batches, from fair trade ingredients sourced from around the world.

“We could never grow enough lavender to meet all of our needs,” Byrne said. “We only try to grow the lavender that’s used in our culinary products or in the things that are for serious skin care. We buy the oil from other organic lavender farms.”

On July 6-8, DayBreak Lavender Farm is presenting the second Ohio Lavender Festival. Byrne said they are not calling it the “DayBreak” festival because their hope is to get other farmers involved in their Lavender Project and expand the festival.

“The mission of the festival is to see the Northeast coast of Ohio become the lavender capital of the Midwest,” Slyker said.

“Our dream is to one day have a Northeast Ohio Lavender Festival such as the one in Sequim Valley, Washington, which attracts 30,000 people (at www.lavenderfestival.com online),” Byrne said.
“Of course, that will mean having lavender farms for visitors to tour, and that’s why we started the Lavender Project – to interest other farmers in growing lavender.”

Lavender is a high-value, low-maintenance, sustainable specialty crop that can play an important role in a farmer’s diversification plan, Byrne said.

“Demand outstrips supply for pure, natural, organic, farm-grown lavender, and is growing in direct proportion to the consumer’s demand for all things natural,“ she said.

“If producers took five acres and planted lavender and cultivated a reputation for being a lavender farm, and learned a little about eco-tourism and agritourism, they could do wonderful things for their own lifestyle,” she added.

DayBreak has several farm events during the year. Byrne and Slyker sell lavender plants at all of those events because they have found that people expect it. They don’t start their own, but buy from other people, though starting their own plants would be a reasonable thing to do, Byrne said.

One acre of lavender will yield well for eight to 10 years, she explained. An acre will have 34 rows of 80 plants. For all uses, the expected growing time from establishing four-inch cuttings until first full harvest is three years. Peak harvest is five years; preliminary harvests may happen in as soon as one year.

“That’s actually a plus, because it means you have three years to figure everything out,” Byrne said.
Lavender is a wonderful plant and does well in Ohio – if given what it wants. “It only wants three things,” she said. “Blazing sunlight, alkaline soil and good drainage. If you can give it those things, you will be rewarded with a plant that stays with you for 10 years.”

For information on DayBreak Lavender Farm, the Ohio Lavender Festival or the Lavender Project, visit www.daybreaklavenderfarm.com where there is a link to the festival. For information on the Project, go to the dropdown list under “Concierge.”

This farm news was published in the May 16, 2007 issue of Farm World, serving Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee.