Selah lavender lovers don’t have to drive to Sequim, Washington, this July to pick lavender and buy lavender products. All they have to do is drive out North Wenas Road and turn left on Wickstrom Lane and follow the signs to Bella Vista Lavender Farm.

Granted the tiny field of lavender grown by Julie and Peter Morris and their two children, Rhys and Ariana, isn’t as impressive as the massive fields on the Olympic Peninsula.

But the 12 rows of five varieties provide enough lavender for u-cut and for the Morris’s to make lotions, soaps, aromatic oils and massage oils and to pay for their own love of lavender.

Nine years ago Julie and Peter Morris arrived in Selah from Oregon with Rhys, now 16, and Ariana, 13. Peter works for Black Angus Restaurants and was transferred to the Yakima restaurant to be its new general manager. The family had a choice between Yakima or Bellingham and they picked Yakima. They settled into their Wickstrom Lane home in Selah.

The yard had been planted with rosebushes, a hardy Aspen tree, and some perennials, including a lavender plant. The rest was pasture on their two and a quarter acres.

“That one lavender plant was my inspiration to grow more lavender,” Julie said.

Inspiration turned to 40 varieties planted in a field behind the house. But a hard freeze seven years ago, took out most of the plants. They planted the remaining varieties in front of the house six years ago, added more of the French Lavender
(Grosso), or as Julie says, more correctly a lavendin, a more pungent variety with a scent of pine.

They also planted more of the sweeter English lavender and some other varieties, that now thrive ready for u-pick lavender lovers to harvest. The English lavender was ready last week; the lavandin, or French lavender, is ready this week.

The field is about the size of two garages––not large––but will produce enough for u-pick, and the Morris’s, who will dry large bunches in their small barn.

After the bunches dry, the family will sit in the living room or on the porch on windless days and “rub lavender.” Using screens they shake out the stems.

The dried lavender then goes into everything from drawstring sachet bags to scent a bureau drawer, to homemade soap, lotion, massage oil, and aromatherapy oil, all under their Bella Vista brand name.

Seventy-five pounds of the Grosso are required for one liter of oil.

“It’s time consuming, but I love it,” Morris said.

Morris says she’s not an expert, but can describe the subtle perfume properties of a bottle of oil.

“It’s like music,” she said. “When you smell the oil, the top note is the sweet English lavender. The longer you sniff it, the more you notice the low note, which is the Grosso.”

“It’s not one dimensional,” she said. “To really enjoy a scent, it has to linger with you.”

Morris’ love affair with lavender began when she was 15 and she planted her first lavender plant in a herb garden. She has read and studied and visited Italy and Spain, where lavender is native. Lavender is really the “sagebrush” of the Mediterranean, she said.

The family’s Selah property is almost the same latitude as Italy and Spain, providing the perfect environment to grow lavender, Morris said.

“The terrain is similar here, hot and dry,” she said. “It’s actually more similar to Italy and Spain than Sequim,
Washington’s lavender “capital,” is to those countries.

Sequim has problems with salt and moisture, and the lavender is sometimes grown in low mounds to allow for better drainage, she said.

Lavender is hardy. Depending on the variety, it can survive harsh winter weather, is not susceptible to insect infestation and animals won’t eat it. Morris said they fertilize every other year, using the same fertilizer they use on their pastures.

Come fall, Peter will take a hedge trimmer to the rows of lavender, clipping them just above where this year’s growth started, careful to avoid snipping the woody portion of the stem, which would stop growth. If done correctly, next year, the
lavender spikes will double.

The Morris’s hobbies don’t stop at growing lavender. They also raise 22 Border Leicester sheep, native to the United Kingdom. They sell the wool to hand spinners. But their biggest income is blankets that are woven from their wool on Prince Edward Island. This year they sent 84 pounds of raw wool off to make their blankets, which they sell along with their lavender products at festivals and fairs throughout the state, including Yakima’s Folklife Festival.

Most of the sheep are white, which is used for the blankets, but some of the sheep are black. They send the raw fleece to a carding mill where it is carded into “roving” or long strands, ready to be sent to hand spinners.

They’ve been raising sheep for eight years in pastures adjoining the lavender.

“The goal has always been to have hobbies that pay for themselves,” Morris said. “We buy hay for the sheep, and then when we sell the blankets we make a little profit.

Peter, the original soap maker in the family, decided he wanted to learn how to tan the sheep hides, which people buy to make costumes for Renaissance Fairs. One lady bought a shaggy sheepskin to hang over a sofa in her new log cabin dream home.

They lambs for meat and keep one for their own freezer. They raise fryer chickens as well as egg chickens, to help stock their freezer.

This fall Morris will return to school to get her master’s degree in library and information science. A library para-pro for the Yakima School District, Morris wants to be an elementary school librarian, encouraging kids to read.