thisNZlife

LAVENDYL LAVENDER FARM

Myra McLelland didn't know much about lavender farming when, in 2015, she and her family moved from Britain to a 2ha farm in the foothills of the Kaikōura Ranges. “I knew how not to grow lavender,” she says. That didn't stop her from scooping up an award for her lavender oil 14 months later.

Lavendyl Lavender Farm's bountiful purple flowers perfume the air through the summer months. Myra harvests the plant each year to produce the fragrant oil that permeates the onsite shop. The most popular variety, a French hybrid called Grosso, is found in many of her creams, bath products, massage oils, candles and room diffusers. “Grosso is the smell that most people seem to associate with lavender,” says Myra.

Visitors can walk through the gardens yearround, feed the sheep (and a particularly friendly ram) while washing it all down with coffee and chocolate-lavender ice cream at the café. When Myra isn't busy in the gardens or mixing oils, she is playing around with lavender in the kitchen. “During the lockdown, I made lavender-strawberry ice cream.

That was very well critiqued by the guys in lockdown with me. I know what I need to change now — it wasn't strawberry enough.” 268 Postmans Road, Kaikōura. (03) 319 5473, lavenderfarm.co.nz

ACTIVITIES & OUTINGS

en-nz

2021-11-12T08:00:00.0000000Z

2021-11-12T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://thisnzlife.pressreader.com/article/284726274528918

NZ Lifestyle Magazine Group