Yesterday’s Artisan Market in Solvang was another huge success! It was nice to once again take the farmstand on the road, and it’s always great to show off all the amazing products we do here at Santa Rita Hills Lavender Farm.
This market is shaping to not only be a fun time for Solvang, but is even in the running for new up and coming markets of Santa Barbara County! If you happened to miss the market, don’t worry, the farmstand is open today until 4, be sure to stop by!
Santa Rita Hills Lavender Farm had so much fun at last month's Solvang Artisans Market, we decided to make it a routine!
Be sure to stop by and visit us if you're in the Santa Barbara County area, today we will be closed at the farm, but don't worry, will be open tomorrow, so be sure to stop by if you want to check out the farmstand!
In celebration of this years bloom, we at Santa Rita Hills Lavender Farm have planned a Lavender Festival for Saturday July 13th, when the lavender is at its zenith! Come and join us as we open the field to many local boutiques who will have their own pop up market, with local food vendors providing luch and baked goods! Live music will be provided by Grady DePietro who plays acoustic spanish guitar, accenting the majesty of the field perfectly.
We will also have a distillation demonstration active, where Lucas, Santa Rita Hills Lavender Farm’s on site distiller, will have a lavender distillation going throughtout the day of the event. Be sure to sign up for one of our Lavender Wreathmaking classes scheduled throughtout the day. Its sure to be a blast, mark your calendar to be at the Santa Rita Hills Lavender Festival, July 13th!
Thanks so much to all who came out to support Santa Rita Hills Lavender Farm at the Solavng Artisans Market in Sanata Barbara County. It was a complete success for the first event of the year for us, here are a few pictures we took of our booth, we were busy all afternoon meeting new friends and catching up with the many who have supported us this past year!
We will be continuing to participate in future markets; check out our event calendar for all updates on locations for pop up stands and details on which days we will have the farmstand closed. If you have plans to check out the farm and are wonderingif the farmstand will be open, please be sure to contact us!
With everyone around Santa Rita Hills Lavender Farm getting things ready for Valentine’s Day, sometimes the chilly winter can get to you while you’re working in the field; so we thought it would be a good time to show off our twist on Tahitian Melon Squash soup!
First, lets list out the ingredients, you’ll need:
1 pound Roasted Squash (we used the Tahitian melon squash we grew, but any winter squash will do!)
1 tablespoon butter
1 medium yellow onion, chopped and sauted
1 clove of garlic
1 medium leek, white part only, chopped
6 cups chicken/vegetable broth (for vegetarians!)
1 teaspoon Lavender Seasoning Salt
1/2 teaspoon curry powder (leave out if you have a sensitivity!)
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1 bay leaf
1 cup half and half (optional)
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme (or a couple fresh sprigs!)
First we roast the squash in the oven at 350 degrees, after we liberally apllied our Lavender Seasoning Salt to both sides of the cut open squash. Proceed to bake in the oven on a baking sheet tented with aluminum foil.
As the squash bakes in the oven, we move on to the broth itself. While most recipes would tell you to use a bunch of different pots and pans, we feel that is a super hassle for the home cook, so we do all of our prep work in the same soup pot! So in the soup pot we first melt the butter, add in the chopped onions and saute for a minute. We then add in the garlic and let it all saute together in the pot.
Once you have finished sauteing the onions and garlic, remove the baked squash from the oven and seperate the now mealy squash meat from the skin using a spoon. Transfer the baked squash meat to the saute pot and add chicken/vegetable stock.
Finally add in all of the seasonings you have left and leave the pot to simmer covered for at least a half hour. After a half an hour, remove the bay leaf and use the immersion blender to incorporate the half and half into the soup. Serve and Enjoy!
We don't leave any of this to waste however, so the skins go off to the happiest chickens in Santa Barbara County, while the rest of the squash goes out to behind the farmstnad for thus years squash patch!
We here at Santa Rita Hills Lavender Farm are hitting the ground running this new year, with the first of our gorgeous Italian Ranunculus starting to bloom!
We noticed it poking out of the ground after we finished cleaning out the spent Cosmos in the upper field behind the farmstand, doesn't it look nice and clean out there?
The Provence is really starting to gets its winter coat going as well. Look at how fresh and green those shoots are looking!
Thankfully, no one should be messing with any of the lavender in the field, thanks to the watchful eye of Santa Barbara Counties cutest gaurd trio!
There is plenty of amazing shot to take even in the offseason, come and sign up for a farm tour here if you are curious about all that's happening around the farm!
As Christmas slowly marches towards us, we at Santa Rita Hills Lavender Farm are taking a much needed bit of rest and reflect on what an amazing year we had this year!
July was such a wonderful time here on the farm, we met a ton of amazing folks who came to stop by the farmstand, and put on plenty of amazing events for all the guests to came to visit our small corner of paradise here in Santa Barbara County. This year has been an incredible blessing, being able to open to the public and show off all the hard work we’ve managed to accomplish has made us realize there is still plenty more work to do!
Looking towards the future, Santa Rita Hills Lavender Farm plans to continue to invest all our effort into making the land even more beautiful, while also revamping the website and planning a more regular event schedule here on the farm. Be sure to watch out for any updates, and know that we here at Santa Rita Hills Lavender Farm love and cherish all of those that helped get us to where we are today! Thanks and looking forward to seeing you in the new year!
There’s less than two weeks until Christmas, and Santa Rita Hills Lavender Farm is celebrating the holiday season at the Santa Ynez Botanical Garden’s Holiday Lights Festival, and we can be safe to say that the botanical garden has outdone themselves this year, look at these light displays!
We’re so happy we decided to take the farmstand on the road this month to be apart of what is sure to be another great holiday festival here in Santa Barbara County! This is the final weekend for the light display, so be sure to check it out in person, the pictures are amazing but seeing it in person is even better! We hope to see you there, and from Santa Rita Hills Lavender Farm ,have a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Santa Rita Hills Lavender Farm is so excited, once again it is the holiday season, we personally enjoy all of the festive decorations we set up around the farmstand, but it seems everywhere you go now in Santa Barbara County is another amazing holiday display! Our favorite local display is by the Santa Ynez Botanical Gardens, last year they started doing a Holiday Lights Festival with a Santa and reindeer and ended up being such a blast we decided to do it again this year!
The marshmallow roasting along with Santa and his Reindeer will be in attendance both Saturdays and Sundays, along with all sorts of fun rides for the kids and even snow machines to make the place feel like a winter wonderland! This year's holiday display is better than ever, here are some pictures from last year's festival to see what you missed out on!
From Santa Rita Hills Lavender Farm, we hope everyone has an amazing holiday and hope to see you at the event!
Santa Rita Hills Lavender last year missed out on Sunstone's Holiday Market last year, so we made sure to make a spot at one of Santa Ynez Valley's preeminent wineries!
Sunstone has built a brand new VIP area, and we will be up their with all our other local friends like Gaia Farms aand The Barreled Bee Company, so their should be plenty of choices for local Santa Barbara County goods for your holiday shopping this season!
As the holidays slowly draw closer, Santa Rita Hills Lavender Farm is bringing the farmstand on the road once again!
This Saturday we will be at the Koehler Winery Holiday Market; this will be the first of these markets at Koehler, but it’s shaping up to be a great time for all in the Santa Barbara County area! We will unfortunately be close on Saturday November 18th. Don’t worry though, we will be open Sunday, November 18th from 11am - 4pm, if you cant see us Saturday, be sure to stop by Sunday to pick up some great holiday gifts!
It’s the holiday season once again, and we at Santa Rita Hills Lavender Farm feel this year has just flown by! We hope that everyone has an amazing Thanksgiving celebration, but its important to remember Christmas is right around the corner!
That being said, we will be taking the farmstand on the road, first stopping at the Koehler Winery Holiday Market on November 18th. Next, we’ll be stopping at Sunstone Wineries’ Holiday Market on December 2nd and 3rd, and finally we'll be at the Enchanted Lights at SYV Botanic Garden on December 8th- 10th and the following week from the 15th- 17th.
The Enchanted Lights at the SYV Botanical Garden is especially popular amongst the Santa Barbara County community, why not stop by and do your holiday shopping before it’s too late!
It's been a busy week here at Santa Rita Hills Lavender Farm, we just got in the mail our new Besel Lavender Processing Machine, all I can say is it's gonna make work around the farmstand go even faster!
This piece of equipment takes the lavender buds straight off the bundle while removing dust and sorting out any of the debris to give you just the bud itself, don’t take my word for it, watch it do its thing!
Once it finishes, this is the result that we are left with! Now we'll take the bud and use it in all the great local Santa Barbara County products you know and love!
Here's another look at how the machine sorts and separates, truly an amazing piece of equipment!
Santa Rita Hills Lavender Farm is taking the farmstand on the road yet again, setting up shop at Day In The Country in Los Olivos on October 21st!
It's sure to be blast, stop by and see us to show your support! If you can't make it though, no worries, we will be open Fiday October 20th and Sunday October 22 d, be sure to come by and check out what's happening at Santa Barbara Counties premier lavender farm!
Today we had one of our new friends stop by Santa Rita Hills Lavender Farm to pick up some culinary lavender from the farmstand, Justine from The Tipsy Wagon!
Justine is a wonderful lady who runs a mobile bar out of a converted horse trailer, its pretty amazing, and so are the cocktails she makes!
If you've got an event to do in the Santa Barbara area, be sure to check them out they do some amazing work!
