About us
Like some of you, we worked our professional "day jobs" but longed for something more. Our small 11 acre farm reliably produced hay bales for local livestock farmers, but as we aged - baling hay became harder and harder to do without the help of young able-bodied horsepower. We loved our field of clover but needed to find a better - less physically demanding way - to sustainably make good use of it.
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In December 2018, we ordered our first "package" of bees, and attended Bee School at the Long Lane Honey Bee Farm. We had no idea that this would be our first step toward falling in love with honeybees and would lead us out of hay baling and into small scale lavender farming!
We jumped right into growing lavender by purchasing about 150 lavender plugs in cultivars that seemed to do well in Canadian climates (Grosso, Munstead, and white Edelweiss). We then bought a few dozen larger and showier lavender plants (Phenomenal variety) from QVC... yep, you heard it right - we paid full retail, what did we know?
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In spite of all our missteps, replanting, dying plants from the cold winters, underwatering, overwatering and moth infestations (moths love lavender too!), we have somehow persisted. We are grateful that we managed to avoid larger more problematic situations that new growers sometimes encounter, in part due to becoming members of the United States Lavender Growers Association in 2021. We are so grateful to be part of this community, one whose support and wisdom has been lavishly shared with us.
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The name Petite Provence Farm is a nostalgic nod to my family's French roots and central Indiana farming legacy. While our tiny farm plot is "very Indiana", we pride ourselves on creating and packaging our products in a sustainable and refined manner,
suitable for only the best French farmer's market!
With a little luck and assistance from Mother Nature, we offer a limited, seasonal offering of products from our petite lavender plots and honeybee hives.
We hope you will enjoy them as much as we enjoy sharing them with you!
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