GREEN BUSH—Google ‘Lavender’ and you will find numerous health benefits associated with the plant. Spend time wandering the rows and rows of lavender in Stone Ridge Lavender’s fields, and you will easily discover everything you need to know. The scent—sweet, but not too sweet—will calm you, stress will drain away, energy will be restored, all from taking time to breathe deeply, immersed in the distinctive fragrance of lavender.
Saturday, July 29 and Sunday, July 30, Stone Ridge Farm offered a pick-your-own lavender event. The response was more than gratifying for the Dedman family. Carloads came down the long Green Bush Road to enjoy an experience like no other. The unique and satisfying visual effect a field of lavender brings, along with the heady scent, the buzzing of hundreds of bees. “We wanted to create an experience for the people of Manitoulin, something different,” Devon Dedman explained. And they certainly have done that, but they intend to do more.
“Eventually,” Randy Dedman added, “we will have sunset dinners, because the sun sets right there,” he indicated just beyond a lavender row. “It’s just beautiful.”
“We’ve had this property for about 15 years,” Devon said, “and we tried various plants and crops. We had garlic and hops growing, then we decided to do some lavender plants to see what they would do up here, and they thrived.”
“It’s hard work,” Mr. Dedman admitted, “it’s all hand work. It’s planted by hand, the ground cloth is laid by hand, the trimming is all by hand and we cover it with frost cloth for the wintertime, every row gets covered.”
People were instructed on how exactly to cut their bunches of lavender, and how to hang them upside down for a few weeks, in the dark, in smaller bunches to dry them properly and enjoy the fragrance of the flowers for months to come. In addition to the lavender, the family was selling their maple syrup; lavender infused maple syrup; honey; lavender essential oils and various other lavender products. It’s a family affair, with their daughter Morgan, 14, and their son, Mason, 10, working right along side their parents.
“This is a start,” Ms. Dedman said. “We’re just having a small opening this year. Next year we’ll have this field over here for parking and we’ll be open full time.” Something to look forward to next summer.
