One day this past summer, more than 400 people turned up at Anita Buehner’s farm in Waterford, Ont. They came not for the field crops or the wine grapes or the wetland on this 180-acre spread in Norfolk County. They came to see – and smell and taste – a new crop during the first-ever lavender festival at Bonnieheath Lavender Farm.
Buehner is among an increasing number of growers in southern Ontario looking to develop a new industry of products and services – from salad dressing to shampoo to therapeutics to agri-tourism – based on lavender. Those farmers are looking to University of Guelph researchers to help them further grow the market for oils, soaps, foods and medicines based on this aromatic crop, already worth about $1 million a year.
Much of that research occurs at U of G’s Simcoe Research Station, located only a few minutes’ drive from Buehner’s farm. Plant agriculture professor Al McKeown began investigating lavender about seven years ago, using funding from the Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers’ Association and working with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA), which runs an office at the station.
For decades, McKeown has studied vegetable crops at the Simcoe station, many grown by farmers on the Norfolk sand plain north of Lake Erie. Now more growers are looking at lavender, partly as an alternative crop to the tobacco traditionally grown there on dry, sandy soil.
About 20 southern Ontario farmers belong to the Ontario Lavender Association (OLA) formed in 2010 and chaired by Buehner. Those farmers need lots of information about cultivating the plant in this part of the world. “It’s a new crop in this province,” says McKeown.
Studies ramped up in 2010 with the start of a large field project at six sites. Besides a quarter-acre plot at the station, those locations include Waterford, Harrow and Avon. Growers are trying out 27 varieties of lavender, ranging from Lavandula angustifolia, known as English or common lavender, to lavandin hybrids.
So far, says McKeown, studies have shown that numerous varieties can grow here in southern Ontario. Many cultivars of this perennial shrub can survive the winter, an important trait for a plant that hails originally from the Mediterranean.
“Winter hardiness is key here,” says Sean Westerveld, OMAFRA’s ginseng and medicinal herbs specialist at the station. Adds McKeown: “We need a better idea of winter survival and varieties good for this climate.”
They’re also looking at cultivation and harvesting practices, as well as studying which varieties yield the best amounts and types of oils for different uses.
Some of that work involves Prof. Gopi Paliyath, Department of Plant Agriculture, at the Guelph campus. In his lab, he uses various methods to extract and analyze oils from the flowers. (Most oils come from glands at the base of the flowers, although leaves and stems are also used.) He wants to help growers determine which cultivars produce oils that lend characteristic fragrance or taste to their crops.
“Some are sweet or spicy; it depends on the composition,” he says. Less expensive lavandin oils are spicier, while English lavender contains sweeter-smelling oils.
Paliyath expects his work will also help growers figure out which cultivars to plant in different regions, when to harvest their crop and how much oil they might get from the plants.
Growers here will be following the lead of farmers elsewhere in North America. Besides a large farm in Quebec, a number of growers are located in Oregon and Washington states. Says Westerveld: “There are several that receive thousands of visitors a day during a weekend festival.”
No one in Ontario is yet in that league. Buehner has grown about three acres’ worth in Waterford and plans to double her acreage next year. In her home boutique, she sells sachets and dried bundles, bath salts and soaps, and culinary items, including sugar, jellies and herbal blends.
She plans to run the festival again next July. Along with other growers, she hopes to develop a tour route akin to the Niagara Peninsula’s wine route. “We want to be a destination for agri-tourism,” she says.
This fall, the growers’ association received $40,000 from the federal government to continue tests of varieties for Ontario’s sand plain region.