Annemarie Manders has hitchhiked across Europe, nursed patients for hours on end, raised two sons and grieved for her late husband, but one of her greatest challenges has involved a small purple flower.<\/p>\n
“I stumbled into growing lavender,” she said.<\/p>\n
“All I knew was it was a purple flower with a lovely fragrance, so I started out very green.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Annemarie Manders grows two varieties of lavender. (ABC Rural: Faith Tabalujan)<\/p>\n
Ms Manders has been growing lavender in Victoria’s picturesque Yarra Valley for 35 years, but she never dreamed of becoming a farmer.<\/p>\n
“I trained and worked as an operating theatre nurse, so I knew nothing about agriculture,” she said.<\/p>\n
“But my husband and I bought this old cherry orchard block and wanted to make use of the land.”<\/p>\n
Today the farm is home to more than 12,000 plants of the Lavandula intermedia and Lavandula angustifolia classifications.<\/p>\n
Ms Manders she and her husband faced a steep learning curve.<\/p>\n
“We had no equipment and no buildings \u2014 we didn’t even have a tractor,” she said.<\/p>\n
“But I’m quite impetuous, so I just jumped in the deep end and made plenty of mistakes along the way.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Annemarie Manders has transformed an old cherry orchard into a lavender agritourism business. (ABC Rural: Faith Tabalujan)<\/p>\n
Today the farm attracts lavender lovers from around Australia and beyond.<\/p>\n
“We’ve turned it into an agritourism destination,” Ms Manders said.<\/p>\n
“So people flock here from November to January when the lavender is in full bloom and we also teach them how it is grown and harvested.”<\/p>\n
A ‘neat, tidy’ crop<\/p>\n
Ms Manders said she was immediately drawn to lavender.<\/p>\n
“I’m a very organised person, which was always important when arranging instruments on the operating table,” she said.<\/p>\n
“So I just love how lavender grows in such neat, tidy rows.”<\/p>\n
But Ms Manders said it was also a versatile crop.<\/p>\n
“We grow two kinds of lavender \u2014 one to put into food products such as teas, ice creams, scones, and cakes,” she said.<\/p>\n
“The other is used in craft products or sold as bunches to wholesale flower markets as far as Sydney and Brisbane.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Lavender can be added to various food, including scones. (ABC Rural: Faith Tabalujan)<\/p>\n
Ms Manders said timing was crucial when it came to harvesting.<\/p>\n
“We pick the edible lavender at the end of November and then the non-edible lavender about a month later,” she said.<\/p>\n
Lavender is best picked in the morning, according to Ms Manders.<\/p>\n
“We start picking very early, at around 5:30am or 6am, because that’s when the flowers are crisp and the lavender fragrance is at its strongest,” she said.<\/p>\n
“We then hang all the bunches upside down in the drying shed, where they dry for about two weeks.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Victoria’s lavender plants are in full bloom from late spring. (ABC Rural: Faith Tabalujan)<\/p>\n
Once the lavender is dried, it is sifted to remove sticks and leaves and poured into a large container.<\/p>\n
Ms Manders said her approach was positively old-fashioned.<\/p>\n
“You could automate this process, but I’d prefer it to be hands-on so people can see, touch, and smell all the stripped lavender,” she said.<\/p>\n
“And it’s a gorgeous experience.”<\/p>\n
An ‘absolute passion’<\/p>\n
For Ms Manders, growing lavender is a labour of love.<\/p>\n
“From the start I knew I wouldn’t make much money,” she said.<\/p>\n
“But it’s an absolute passion of mine and I was determined that the farm would not fail.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Annemarie Manders says she hopes to keep growing lavender for years to come. (ABC Rural: Faith Tabalujan)<\/p>\n
Ms Manders said she had no intention of retiring.<\/p>\n
“I’ve been doing this for 35 years and don’t think I’ll stop anytime soon,” she said.<\/p>\n
“But when I do, I’ll be pushing up another lavender bush I think!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Annemarie Manders has hitchhiked across Europe, nursed patients for hours on end, raised two sons and grieved for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272315,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[158302,64,63,99,158294,158301,158300,158293,158298,158297,158299,158295,158296],"class_list":{"0":"post-272314","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-annemarie-manders","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-how-to-grow-lavender","13":"tag-lavender","14":"tag-lavender-farm-victoria","15":"tag-lavender-farming","16":"tag-lavender-fragrance","17":"tag-lavender-in-food","18":"tag-where-is-lavender-grown","19":"tag-yarra-valley","20":"tag-yarra-valley-lavender-farm"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}