Twenty-plus years ago Gayle moved from San Francisco, CA to New Mexico. Her San Francisco friends, Carla says, thought she was "the most urban person they know", so it's a bit hard for some of them to understand how Carla ended up in the hot summer sun, weeding lavender.
Gayle didn't have the original idea for the lavender farm. That honor went to her friend, Doranne Candelaria, who moved from California five years later than Gayle and settled in Santa Fe. Both women loved lavender and, since Gayle owned 3 ½ acres in Nambe, it was Gayle who got the plants. She now has something under 1,000 plants on a little less than an acre of land. The advantage to having such a small lavender farm, says Gayle, is that you can do everything by hand - cultivating, weeding, harvest - and don't have to rely on machinery or pesticides.
Gayle has two kinds of lavender plants. One is "Grosso" (pronounced 'Graw-so' after the person who introduced it; it has nothing to do with the size of the bloom) and the other is "Provence". "Grosso" is long-stemmed with dark purple flowers and is ideal for all kinds of crafts and products. "Provence", with less of a camphor smell, is more popular as culinary lavender. Gayle really loves making soaps, lotions and other lavender products and finds it a real pleasure to spend time in her workshop surrounded by the lovely fragrance. Her products have been very well received and many people come back and place repeat orders. Gayle finds being in the field with the plants very lovely and mellow. "Even the bees seem mellow", she says. "There's something about growing plants in a complicated, technological and even corrupt world that's so simple and lovely. I enjoy it as much as I've enjoyed anything in my life. But it's hard work, says Gayle, to do everything by hand. "Since we don't spray, weeding is constant", she explains. "Weeds are so relentless." And it can be heartbreaking. She tried to grow a plot of a new cultivar called "Super" and lost the whole plot to a rough winter.
Making her products and going to markets and festivals help Gayle find enjoyment even in the hard parts. She meets so many interesting people, both customers and other vendors. She also learns a lot about lavender and its uses from the customers themselves, which Gayle finds extremely interesting. Gayle says she enjoys the Los Alamos market because of its location - surrounded by green lawns and with Ashley Pond just across the street - and because the people are so interesting. She says when she gets flustered with calculating the total cost of an order, the Los Alamos customers can just step right in and do the math for her. And so many of the customers are really serious about going green and avoiding the use of deleterious chemicals. They appreciate Gayle's pesticide-free product and dedication to hand cultivation.
Gayle would love to have you stop by her booth at the market and talk to her about the world of lavender.