Lavender ranch: Aromatic herb thrives near Quincy

QUINCY — Quincy farmer Joseph Downs first started planting lavender at his properties at the Upper Crescent Bar near Quincy and in East Wenatchee in 2015. He now grows more than 20,000 plants on 20 acres and operates a variety of lavender businesses.

“We have the farm. It’s called Lavender Ranch, and we have over 20,000 plants and 110 different varieties,” Downs said. “One of the reasons why we have so many varieties is that they all bloom at different times, generally. So, depending on our harvest time – it depends on whether we’re harvesting for culinary or were harvesting fresh flowers or dried flowers or harvesting for oil – we harvest them at different times.”

Downs said the business provides various men’s and women’s lavender products produced for the Lavender Boutique, as well as his more recent culinary lavender products made from 15 different varieties of the plant.

“We have over 85 different health and beauty products…Another thing that sets us apart from the majority of lavender farmers is our culinary line and that’s (a line) of 45 different products,” Downs said. “All of them have a lavender flavor. We have genuine lavender honey, which is very rare to be able to do that … and what’s really blossoming in the last year and a half is our lavender simple syrup.”

Down also operates a venue for events near Quincy that is open throughout the year. 

“That section of my enterprise is Lavender Estates, and that is very active at the Crescent Bar farm; we have a facility there. Our slogan for Lavender Estates is weddings, conferences, celebrations and family get-togethers,” Downs said. “I use my farm for different purposes. So there’s always a good day to come to the lavender farm because if you’re there in March, you’re going to see the daffodils; if you’re there in April, you’re going to see the tulips; if you’re there in May, you’re going to see the lilies. (In) June and July, you’re gonna see all the lavender…I can have festivals and classes year-round at my farm.”

Downs said he started the farm with the venue in mind, which is used by several entities and organizations in nearby communities, such as the Quincy School District, for events.

“We started from scratch. I first got into lavender by propagating. I was working with a former business partner propagating plants, sourcing different varieties, providing them to farmers and we were shipping all over the United States,” Downs said. “I was an educator before I started growing lavender, so I missed that contact with people and sharing the knowledge and stuff. So, I decided that I wanted to have my own farm.”

Downs also distills lavender plants for essential oils and uses them in his other lavender enterprises, which includes supplying other lavender producers with different varieties or with culinary lavender, lavender for coffee shops in Rock Island and Quincy as well as for nearby mead production. 

The unique land situation of two separate farms provides Downs a competitive advantage over other lavender suppliers, he said.

“One of the reasons why I bought the two properties is there is about 10 days difference between the climates (due to how they are situated topographically),” Downs said. “That allows us, when we’re harvesting for people, for fresh flowers, we can start here (at Crescent Bar) earlier and then work (at the other farm) later. So it allows the wholesaler to work with one lavender farmer instead of having to work with several (growers)…So, it’s a really big bonus for us that the people can deal with one person and have multiple different varieties and early varieties and late varieties and a collection of middle (varieties).”

Downs, also the president of Lavender Northwest – an association of nearly 100 professional lavender farmers in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana – detailed more about the business side of his lavender ventures.

“There’re a lot of lavender farmers out there, and some of them kind of use it as a hobby. I didn’t want to do it as a hobby,” he said. “The best way to have people come to your farm is because they seek you out because you’re identified as a professional.”

In addition to professionalism, Downs said pricing is important to staying successful.

“My product is priced accordingly so that I can stay in business. I mean, I could see an analogy of Mrs. Jones around the corner who happens to have 10 lavender plants, and she’s just happy that someone wants them, and she doesn’t want to waste anything,” Downs said. “So, she sells her bundles, 300 stems for three dollars. I can’t do that because I want repeatable transactions…I’m not looking after my customers if I charge so small of a price that I go out of business, because then where are they going to get their products from?”

Downs said he has two full-time employees and employs seasonal workers generally from May to August to harvest the different lavender varieties.

“All of my products are trialed for a minimum of six months before they go to the general population. I have a great network of friends and product testers,” he said. “Some of my lavender colleagues, I do that for them, they do that for me, and the end result is that the lavender industry flourishes more because the quality products are getting there, because, you know, I get painted with the same brush. If someone goes to another farm and they hate the lavender lemonade, they come to me not wanting to try it. But I know my lavender lemonade is great because it’s using culinary lavender.”

Downs said he wants to make sure customers are successful in keeping the lavender they purchase fresh for as long as possible, so they will come back to the farm. 

“We market it. We test it. We get the prices for it to see what it can be. We also need to check what happens if another farm wants to buy wholesale.  Are we charging enough, so that we can still make some money on the wholesale and not only have to be restricted to just retail? It’s a difficult one for people. Sometimes they’re only wholesale or they’re only retail. 

Downs does both retail and wholesale.

“Not very many are both because when you wholesale something at half the price of the retail, they come and pick up 25 or 30 of something and you’re like, ‘If I sold all that (at retail) it would have been twice as much money.’ But the point about that is they came and bought that all in one go,” Downs said. “So you spent three hours in the kitchen making that. You could spend three hours in the kitchen and now have to spend six hours to sell it, by going to the farmer’s market. So it balances, but you need to make sure you price things accordingly.

Downs said it is difficult to pick which of his various successful lavender ventures he enjoys the most.

“It’s the one that I happen to be doing,” Downs said. 

    Various lavender products lavender grower Joseph Downs sells in-person and online as part of his Lavender Boutique business. Downs said he makes more than 85 different products for men and women.
 Gabriel Davis/Basin Business Journal   

    A patch of lavender plants at Joseph Downs’ lavender farm at Crescent Bar, near Quincy. Downs said between the Crescent Bar ranch and his property in East Wenatchee, he grows more than 20,000 plants on 20 acres of land.
 Gabriel Davis/Basin Business Journal   

    The exterior of the Lavender Estates venue that lavender grower Joseph Downs rents out for weddings, conferences and other events, located in Crescent Bar at Downs’ Lavender Ranch.
 Gabriel Davis/Basin Business Journal   

    A rack of stored and drying lavender harvested from Joseph Downs’ Lavender Ranch near Quincy.
 Gabriel Davis/Basin Business Journal