FENNVILLE, Mich. — If all this wildfire smoke and poor air quality is spiking your stress levels, you probably want to find a way to take the edge off. Well, your search for sweet serenity can stop at the Summerhouse Lavender Farm in Fennville.
“Lavender is amazing for people that, you know, like to relax," said Eric Adams, the farm's owner. "The lavender is great for, for stress and anxiety as well.”
Peace is the power of the farm. Adams even embodies the personality of the plants around him.
"People will sit out here all day, and then I just tell the, 'Make sure you lock up when you leave.' They can stay here when I'm gone," he joked.
The former horse pasture opened as a lavender farm in 2016. Adams took it over last May, stepping in for its founder: Dan McGavin.
“I was a friend of his daughter," he explained. "I was literally just going to buy the furniture out of the property. Then, after talking to Dan, she said, 'You guys are getting along great. You guys are exactly the same.' We sat here and had a three-hour conversation. I had just lost my father earlier in the year, and Dan really reminded me of my dad and the reason he built this farm. So then, I was like, 'Oh, let's make this happen.' We came up with just a gentlemanly handshake agreement on the price and took it over and kept the business going.”
As a plant, Adams said lavender takes on the traits it emits into the world.
“Lavender is basically a carefree plant," he said. "You put lavender in the ground, you water the first couple of weeks, and then you leave it alone and Mother Nature does the rest. This lavender is growing in basically West Michigan beach sand and gravel.”
So, that massive dry spell that struck Michigan, actually helped his plants grow.
“Most people that come in here, they're asking questions like, 'Oh, I killed my lavender plant.' I was like, 'You were probably taking too good care of it. You probably had it in some nice potting soil. You're probably watering it every day. That's not the ideal growth,'” he said.
There are 50 different cultivars of lavender, both English and French. Five of them can be found here on the farm, each with a different scent and service.
“The French lavender is a really floral, which was mainly used for fragrance," Adams said. "But then we have a cultivar lavender up there that almost has like a little bit of a peppery hint to it. So it's culinary lavender, and that's great if you're gonna use it on pizza, or sausage, or something like that. Then our sweet lavender is used to make simple syrups, lavender baked goods or lemon cakes, cookies, and things like that.”
Even when the farm is technically closed, like it was on Wednesday, Adams keeps an open door policy.
Anyone can come visit, like Elle McMullen and her family who were on a girl's trip from Indiana.
“I love it," McMullen told FOX 17. "Lavender, of course, relaxes me. I’m going to college next month, so I figured why not get a bunch of lavender stuff to help with stress?"
The Summerhouse Lavender Farm is only about an acre big, but it has a whole lot to offer.
“I don't know if it's the property, the lavender or the mystique, but they all they all kind of interact with each other," Adams said.
All of those aspects make it hard to deny this purple plant's peaceful purpose.
Every year, that peace is parlayed into a festival during the first two weekends in July.
Adams said they'll be hosting local artists, like a glassblower, a woodworker and a bronze sculptor. Someone will be making lavender baked goods as well.
Of course, you can't have a festival without live music.
The Bloom Festival will take place July 1 and 2, as well as July 8 and 9. It will run from 11 a.m.-5 p.m. on Saturdays and 11 a.m.-3 p.m. on Sundays.