Lavender Festival

Last weekend we went to the lavender festival 20 minutes away.   I have never been to one but after seeing The Rich Life's post on the one she went to I decided to check this one out.  It was held in a big red barn and the Little Prince was so excited to be going to a real barn!  I forgot to take a photo of it!

The chefs were busy doing something...I honestly have no idea what that was tho!  4 chefs...1 barbeque!

 The menu - which really doesn't explain what 4 chefs were doing! The ice cream was made at a local creamery, the cookies were baked ahead of time, the lemonade was in big jugs...the only thing being cooked was the beef which the Suburban Prince said was amazing.  I went to get something out of the car and he had inhaled it before I had a chance to take a picture.  So handsome husband, if you read this...always photograph your food before eating it!

The view from the barn - Lake Ontario in the background and the beautiful fields of lavender.  For those who don't know...I live in Canada hence the Canadian flag flapping in the wind.

 They also grow lots of other plans and herbs...I love how the garden is laid out in a grid.

 

Inside the barn were lots of funky pieces like chandeliers....

 

An old sleigh...perhaps once driven by Santa?

I was loving this seating area...it made me miss Mad Men a lot this summer!  Don?  Roger?  Cocktails anyone?

 

I big beautiful quilt adds a splash of colour!

 

 A huge bowl of dried lavender - I could smell it for a couple of days after the festival!

 

 
A table of pretties for sale...tea sets, napkins and pottery.

 Cards made from photographs of the farm - you can see the big red barn in one of them!

 Lavender soaps all tied up and ready to gift!

The soaps are so pretty yet so rustic at the same time!

These are laundry bags with packages of lavender in the bottom to keep the shtinkies out of your hamper!

Lavender filled pillows guarantee a good night's sleep, unless of course, you are Jamie Fraser!**

My favourite part of the event...lavender cookies and lemonade!!   I have been known to make my own lavender cookies and having them at the festival reminded me to make some this summer!  I will have to figure out how to make lavender lemonade because it is just so yummy!  If I work some magic I will post the recipe.

The lavender ice cream was nice - but I was expecting the actual ice cream to be lavender flavoured...it did make me want to experiment a bit with my lavender this summer.   Book your flights as  I will need some taste testers!

The road home with Lake Ontario in the background.

All in all I liked this event...they had directions on the website (but no times), had nice lavender signs along the route to help guide us there, the staff was dressed in lavender and knew a lot about their products, the food was good and everyone we chatted with was friendly.

It would've been nice to have music there, perhaps a quartet or some other local musician would've livened up the event.

Also, we had to buy tickets for each food station which is a great way to manage that sort of thing, but we had to buy tickets from the ladies who were selling everything else like soap and linen spray which meant we had to stand waiting for all the browsers and window shoppers to move on before we could buy tickets - so, if the lavender festival people are reading this, make things simple and have a separate station for buying tickets!


I look forward to visiting again next year!


Have a fabulous day!

PS...If you are able, please leave your comments here - I love being able to go back through to years and see what people said.  Unfortunately comments left anywhere else cant be saved the same way :O(  I read them no matter how they are left for me but I would love to save as many as possible.

**Jamie Fraser is one of the main characters in the Outlander series...because of a nasty incident with someone who always for lavender cologne he cant stand the smell of it!