HISTORICAL HIGHLIGHTS

1998 – The Original Plan : Open Space Preservation

Simply to improve the appearance of the property by removing derelict outbuildings and fences and then planting the fields with a non-invasive, self-maintaining, physically attractive crop that would enhance the natural beauty of the landscape.

Seeking a crop that would satisfy several criteria – unique on the island, low water and fertilizer needs, and just as importantly one with a discernable path to economic viability – we eventually arrive at lavender and a simple plan – plant a small field and sell the crop to others to do with as they wished.

1999 – Execution

After considerable research, we prepare the fields, source and plant approximately 2,500 lavender starts, nurture them carefully and then hold our breath — which turns out to be quite unnecessary. The plants “take” spectacularly, and we are on our way.

2000 – Transformation

Encouraged, we plant another 5,000 plants. The same year, however, unanticipated changes in the market economics of lavender raw materials determine that we will have to go well beyond the modest limitations of the initial plan if we are ever to become economically sustainable. In a nutshell, we will have to become our own customers, so to speak, and venture into value-added lavender product handcrafting for ourselves.

Building our own Production Center and developing our own formulas, recipes and procedures, allow us to retain full product value within the venture. Doing so on the farm itself helps distinguish us from many others, not least in allowing us to further affirm our focus on quality by knowing intimately our source of flowers, buds and essential oil – our own organically certified fields!

It also allows us to extend the concept of locally sustainable agriculture by providing local employment opportunities for island-based handcrafters and artists.

This choice of a handcrafting rather than the less expensive mechanized manufacturing model for making products has its obvious downside however. We will have to sell the products ourselves through our own retail outlets rather than wholesale them to others – at least until we attain greater size and can recognize adequate economies of scale.

2001 – Opening to the Public

After two years of research and preparation, on 30 June 2001 we open our first store — The Gatehouse — as an on-farm Gift Store and Nursery. Committed at the same to time to educating the public, we add a Demonstration Garden with more than 50 lavender cultivars demonstrating the wide diversity of this extraordinary plant genus.

In concert again with our original purpose, we also open up the fields for visitors to wander through and enjoy the vistas of lush rows of flowering fragrant plants. We add additional picnic facilities and also make the lawns and fields available for community and private functions, including weddings.

We also invite painters and photographers to paint and photograph for their artistic endeavors as and when they wish (never locking our gates) and for sculptors to exhibit their works.

2002 – Expanding our educational offerings

By popular demand, we start conducting frequent docent-guided tours for farm visitors as well as more programmatically for groups such as Elderhostel (now Road Scholar). We also host the first of our annual free-admission San Juan Island Lavender Festivals, with demonstrations, talks and workshops, accompanied by music, children’s activities, food and refreshments.

We complement these further by developing self-tour facilities with signage in key locations on the farm. Away from the farm, we actively support and help expand the concept of economically viable sustainable agriculture and organic farming practices throughout the County by giving talks to community and service groups, participating in the island’s Farmer’s Market, and mounting educational displays at the annual San Juan County Fair.

2003 – Website Upgrading

To accommodate our rapid growth in product sales, fueled by word of mouth and favorable press alike, we find we need to redesign our relatively primitive original website to better handle customer service and product fulfillment through our on-line store.

2004 – First Off-Farm Retail Presence

In response to popular demand, Pelindaba Lavender Friday Harbor opens in May in Friday Harbor as a hybrid Product Gallery and Refreshment Place. Being in the Pacific Northwest, we soon are obliged to add coffee to our initial offerings of Lavender teas. Lavender baked goods – both sweet and savory – are also offered, all made ourselves in our newly completed custom-built commercially certified Kitchen & Bakery at the farm.

To support the continuing growth in demand for our products, we plant another 8,000 plants and upgrade our distillation capacity by installing a 50-gallon still.

2005 – Pelindaba Lavender Friday Harbor as Gathering Place and Events Forum

With the addition of light lunches and suppers, the location becomes even more popular as an away-from-the-farm extension of the Gathering Place concept. It also becomes an island cultural haven, hosting book readings, musical and theatrical events, special interest forums, and film evenings.

2006 – Farming Activities Expand

Continuing to pace our growth, we plant another 4,000 plants.

2007 – Pelindaba Expands Off-island

Having thoroughly affirmed the appeal of our product line on the island, we decide to test its appeal elsewhere by opening Pelindaba Lavender Seattle in the heart of the city’s retail core.

The positive results of this test soon signal that we are ready for the next phase of growth. Having steadily increased our plantings over the years, we now add a further 6,000 plants to bring our total to approximately 25,000. Having also significantly enhanced our distillation and production facilities and methodologies, we have laid a solid foundation for what we now come to envision as a wider geographic expansion. While growth for its own sake is not our objective, we determine that this expansion will help secure the sustainability of the overall project.

2008 – Pelindaba Lavender Bellevue Square, Washington

This, the last in our trial program of retail outlet models in a variety of settings – farm, small town retail area, major city retail core, and now upscale regional mall – further establishes the viability of our retail expansion program concept as it draws many accolades.

2009 – Fire !

And then, in an early morning major conflagration, our entire administration, production, and inventory facilities burn to the ground from a fire apparently originating from the simple malfunction of a domestic clothes dryer. Pausing for perhaps two heartbeats, we rapidly secure temporary space and are up and running within a few weeks, all our data having being successfully backed up off-site. The fields and Gatehouse are unaffected, but as we need to replace our still, we build a new distillery with much greater capacity than previously, and commence construction of a new building to house our Administration, Production and Inventory activities — 14,000 square feet vs, the original 6,300.

A strategic review leads us to allowing the lease on the café/restaurant component of Pelindaba Lavender Friday Harbor to expire, but renewing the lease for the Product Gallery component. Popular and rewarding as the café/restaurant has become in many ways for many people, we decide to concentrate our efforts more fully on the expansion of our core lavender farming and product production enterprise.

2010 – Visitor Center

Behind the Gatehouse and adjacent to the new Distillery, we add a comprehensive exhibit area with panels, displays and video monitors to further enhance the educational experience of a farm visit. Recorded audio tours are subsequently made available to provide in-depth narrations as visitors wander the grounds, and the ever-popular lavender craft workshops from the festival are now offered in the new Visitor Center throughout the summer.

Allowing the leases of our two pilot off-island stores in Seattle and Bellevue to run out in the Spring, we close those stores and enter into a handful of limited term licensing arrangements as a trial exercise to learn how best to partner with others in expanding the world of Pelindaba. Having served their purpose, we allow them to lapse at the end of their various terms to make way for a future franchising program.

On the farming side, we harvest yet another bumper crop, and the new distillery allows us to dramatically improve the efficiency of our essential oil distillation operations.

2012 – Pelindaba Lavender La Conner, Washington

The opening of a new store and product gallery in the historic downtown area of La Conner, Washington not far from the ferry to San Juan Island in March 2012 provides us with a new mainland demonstration store as we begin to develop the infrastructure for our future franchising program, building further on the experience of our licensing trial program.

2014-15 – Pelindaba Lavender Franchising

We consult with franchising experts, develop a detailed Franchising Plan, and proceed with the scale-up our Production systems.

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In short — Pelindaba has become a self-sustaining open space preservation model that successfully harnesses mutually compatible farming, manufacturing, marketing and agritourism activities that are as environmentally sound and enhancing as they are economically viable.