I'm David James, and this is Two Main Street on the road at the Big Roots Lavender farm in Hancock County, Kentucky.

So this is a place of peace and tranquility run by the Ramsey family.

It is a family business.

We're going to meet the family members.

So what makes Lavender so special?

Well, it's a beautiful plant.

Of course, it's aromatic and it has some healing qualities and it's used in many products.

Also, there's a lot of myth and lore about lavender as well.

There's a story that when God kicked Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden, well, Adam and Eve took some lavender with them.

I don't know if that's true or not.

Also, a Cleopatra queen.

Cleopatra of Egypt.

She use lavender as part of her grand seductions.

And there's a story that the ASP that bit and killed Cleopatra while that ASP slithered out of Cleopatra's lavender patch also a lot of going on with lavender is and with its healing properties healing headaches.

It's soothing aches and pains and even indigestion and heartburn.

And the lavender has many use as well as in cooking.

So a lot to learn about lavender.

Let's go talk to the boss here.

Erin Ramsey.

Erin Ramsey is the lavender queen here at Big Roots Farm.

Aaron, thanks for inviting us out to this idyllic location.

And it's quite a transition from the urban environment you're used to, that's for sure, that in fact, none of us ever dreamed we would be living in the country, let alone farming.

I mean, we didn't even keep a house plant.

Right?

It's just a really funny story how we got here and we just feel like it was meant to be.

So where are we?

We're in Hawesville, Kentucky.

Oh, we're in rural Hartsville.

Yes, very rural.

Yeah, we're out of the city limit if there is a city limit.

Yeah, we're we're pretty far out.

And what's the the road?

You're off of it.

We're on Truman Young Road, but we're off of Highway 69, which is in Hancock County, which is where Hawesville is.

Now, besides being a lavender farmer, also, you're an author, you're an inspirational speaker.

So there was quite a leap of faith for you to to leave that world in Evansville and your childhood educator to decide to become a farmer.

What was that all about?

You know, it was just like a natural evolution for our family.

When I started writing books 12 years ago, it really was about living joyfully and abundantly and being courageous.

And so I would speak about that.

My family and I would be doing all the tools.

So seven years after that, which was five years ago, we really just got a wild hair and we kind of think of it as like inspired action of practicing being courageous.

And we literally came up with the idea on September 10th of 2016, and nine of us moved here on December 27th of the same year.

So you convinced the whole family?

Yeah, there's not hard to convince us, but it feels right.

It feels right.

Yeah.

Was just like over the kitchen table or something, basically.

Yes, it really was.

What happened was we, my husband and I were talking and thinking we really should start a family company because we're all really creative and a couple of our boys are in transitional stages into adulthood.

And we were thinking, well, what can we do?

What can we do?

And we lived in Evansville and I'm sitting there floating in my pool and my son Ryan comes out.

And maybe the year before, I planted a few lavender plants in our concrete backyard.

We lived over by the University of Evansville, so we had a concrete swimming pool and a concrete yard with a little flower bed.

And we planted like 20 lavender plants, ten died because the dogs peed on them, you know.

So my son comes out and I'm like, Ryan, you know, what could we do?

Like, what's the best case scenario?

And he's like, You know, Mom, I've often thought about being a farmer, and I'm like, You're kidding me.

I mean, like, we were so same people.

Like, it was like off the raft, I guess.

And I said, Well, gosh, what could we farm?

And I looked over and I said, Well, I guess we could grow lavender.

And we had a whole meeting that night in the family.

We decided in the backyard and we just went for it.

We started traveling around on the weekends looking for properties, and we didn't know if we would be able to sell our house because this beautiful historic home that we have been renovating forever in a great neighborhood.

But, you know, with a home like that, you can have a 50 page inspection person bought it who was a contractor, didn't want an inspection.

He was going to fully renovate it for his family.

We looked at a few farms and ended up here.

Now, was your husband Doug, was he on board?

You know, we really thought we were going to die in that house.

We loved it.

And our heart and soul was in it.

And it was so perfect for our family.

We had so many parties and our kids friends could come over.

So leaving the house was hard, but we all felt like we were ready for a new adventure.

So what was Doug doing then?

Doug's an industrial mechanic.

Okay?

He was working in Evansville.

He still works in Evansville?

Yep.

And he's kind of your handyman around the farm.

Oh, my gosh.

Doug can fix anything.

Well, that's good.

And thank goodness he just is a hard, hard worker because there's never not work to be done.

So were there any other farmers in your family?

No.

Oh, no.

Zero farmers.

My son Jack has learned a ton.

He's been he's got his horticulture certification and he's we've all learned by trial, by error.

And my son Ryan's here helping as well.

You had to learn a lot about lavender, I'm sure now there are different varieties of lavender.

Is that correct?

Oh, yeah.

There's so many different.

And what type is this?

This is Grosso, which is a French variety G-R-O-S-S-O..

Okay.

And what we did was my son Jack and I, we flew out to Washington State to Sequim, Washington.

We're on the Olympia Peninsula, which is like the Mecca of lavender.

And we met our grower and we we shipped 1900 seedlings from Washington State here.

And he recommended that we grow two different varieties Grosso, which is the French and the English, which is called Folgate.

Mm hmm.

How do you ship all that lavender?

We've only had to do one shipment, and Victor, who we bought our lavender from and knows exactly how to ship it, it literally just came like a cardboard box, really, that were stacked.

Yeah.

And just seedlings like this big.

Really?

Yes.

Yes.

And then you immediately plant them.

Yeah.

Well, Jack and Doug and Ryan had the field ready.

They had mounded.

You have to mound for lavender in the Midwest because number one killer of lavenders, root rot.

So you want you could take it on a lot of water but it has to be draining really well.

So our we were around it and we had all of our weed barrier and our water lines in and then we had an awesome planting party.

60 of our friends and family came out and they helped us put them all in and we did a big blessing.

And then the funny story about that was after the party was over, and I think this is a good story to tell because I'm hoping that other families and people in general will look at life this way.

After the party, Ryan, Jack and I were sitting in the backyard and Ryan says, Well, Mom, what if all the plants die?

And I said, You know, you get that panic for a second.

And then I said, Well, you know, don't you remember?

It's just our experiment year and then we could go back to joyful lavender farming.

And I think that that's what Big Roots is all about, that we're just looking at it as a big experiment to welcome more joy and abundance into our lives and to share it with other people.

And it's a family outfit doing this.

It bonds you guys together even more.

We are so tight, you know, we've always been a close family, but we're we spend a ton of time together because we're in the middle of nowhere and we all.

It feels good to work hard together as a family.

Yeah.

Tell me about the blessing.

Yeah, well, we just set a huge intention, you know, for ourselves, for prosperity and abundance and goodwill.

And you'll see that our taglines grow piece.

That was the impetus behind it, because lavender is healing for anxiety and sleep and calming.

And so we just set that big intention.

But then the next year we had a whole group of Buddhist monks come and they did a massive blessing, a dance and everything.

Really?

Yeah.

It was beautiful.

Oh, my goodness.

That is neat.

Yeah.

Now you have a new variety.

Phenomenal.

Yeah, we just started.

So the plants are about five years old now.

The last ten, if we're lucky.

So we're going to start redoing the rows, you know, start a transition.

Pray.

This is Jack and Doug's work, but I saw a farm down in Nashville growing phenomenal, doing well.

So we're going to experiment with that.

And so what makes grosso different from phenomenal?

Yeah, so phenomenal.

I'm not really familiar with.

But what Grosso is different from folgate.

So Grosso has a really long stem and it's more of like an astringent smell.

It's really clean, very, very strong.

And then the folgate's a shorter stem and has more of like a soapy smell.

So is folgate used in the soap then?

Yeah.

Know we use grosso almost for everything.

We use grosso for our coffee.

For our lemonade.

People use folgate more for like wreaths, decorations because it has a brighter color.

Okay, coffee.

Tell me about the coffee.

Yeah, people love it.

And they're just crazy about the lemonade, the lavender lemonade, the coffee.

All we do is, you know, if you go to a coffee shop, blood types will just pour syrup in it.

Sure, we don't do that.

We just take the fresh buds because we use no pesticides on anything at the farm and we just sprinkle the buds into the coffee grounds and brew it.

Really?

Yes.

I have never heard of that.

That sounds good.

The lemonade you is a popular.

Oh, gosh, people love that.

And also I do with that.

It is I use the dry buds and I steep it in honey in hot water and mix fresh lemon and water in it.

And it's it's delicious.

Now, is it easy to grow lavender?

Well, some people might say so, not really.

For us, though, now we have learned a lot.

But you'll notice there's not a lot of farms in the Midwest because it doesn't do great with humidity.

So our rows are further apart.

Like if you go to Oregon or Washington or France, we haven't been there.

But when you see pictures, the plants are just on top of each other and super close together here.

You have to keep them far apart to let the air flow for humidity.

So our plants are doing great.

We have lost a lot with the late frost this year and then a few years ago with the polar vortex.

But, you know, that's all to be expected.

It's out of our control.

Now, we talked about the many uses of lavender and over the years, it's had many healing properties.

It's good for anxiety, indigestion, what have you.

What kind of feedback have you received from people who have picked your lavender and enjoyed it?

They love it, they love it and they love to know where it came from.

Some people don't know anything about lavender that come and they just want an experience.

And then there's some people that know, like, way more than us.

We're always capitalizing on the master gardeners.

Yeah.

In fact, we've made friends with a lot of master gardeners to help us through.

That's one of the most beautiful things about being on the farm is the people that come into our lives.

It's amazing who walks in that door.

Oh, I bet it's just it's crazy.

Now, besides lavender, you have other crops.

Yes, we have sunflowers that were that are here in the summer and in the fall.

We have a cup flower garden and late summer we're going to be doing pumpkins this fall.

And so we just kind of let it keep growing as it's growing.

And hemp now is part of.

Yes, we have a CBD line, we get huge feedback from that.

In Kentucky, there was an opportunity to grow hemp and it had been for several years.

We kind of came in on the end of it and we got a grower's license.

We planted a thousand plants that we bought from over in eastern Kentucky seedlings.

And Jack and Doug and Ryan all really managed the hemp business.

But the market fell out when the farm bill passed, so we had a hard time finding a processor.

It was this big adventure.

Our buds were locked down in a warehouse in Owensboro and then the judge had to release.

Everything we do is like this huge story and we just go with the flow.

Well, ends up that our buds were perfect and the percentages were excellent.

So we have CBD full spectrum, distill it now in three different flavors.

And my dad, who lives in California, you know, was leery about CBD because, you know, he knew that there's not a lot of regulation.

So Ryan and Jack talked to him about it and he started taking it and he said in three days his arthritis was so bad he couldn't wear his wedding ring and he started taking our CBD and he could put his wedding ring on in three days.

Really, the inflammation went down.

Well, that's a good testimonial.

Is oh, isn't it.

Yeah, I know it's maybe not for my dad, but it is true.

Yeah.

Now, growing hemp, is that an easy process?

No, I should let you, talk to Jack about it or Doug.

So each plant has its own little challenges?

No, actually, it grew beautifully and they managed it well.

You know, you have to feed it and water it and really watch it, make sure it doesn't stay in the ground too long so they lose its strength.

But they did have to spend a lot of hours hand stripping it in the barn because you have to pull each butt off.

Really?

So that took a long time.

Yeah.

And lavender, super labor intensive.

We get out there every night during bloom season and just cut, cut, cut.

Just our family.

It's a lot of weeding and fertilizing.

Yeah, no, yeah.

We don't do any fertilizing.

We don't need to, but we do do it.

My son Ryan does all the weed eating.

Now, this property used to be a tobacco farm.

Is that correct?

Yeah.

A long time ago, there was a big barn.

We had to take tanks.

It wasn't safe.

And then when we bought it, it was a cattle farm.

Okay, so you had some built in the fertilizer right there?

Exactly.

The soil is great.

In fact, that was another really good thing about coming here.

We didn't know about soil testing or anything, so we bought the property intuitively and we really needed a house big enough for all of us and a road for tourists.

So that's really where the deciding factors.

So Jack and I go down to the Purdue extension or the 4H office.

I don't even know where we were.

We needed to find out like what kind of tractor do we buy?

Like, what are we supposed to do?

And so they showed Jack how to do the testing of the soil.

So we were out there doing that.

We sent it to UK and miraculously, miraculously, our soil was legitimately perfect for lavender.

You would score again.

I mean, I feel like that's all we do is score now.

We have some farm dogs roaming around here.

Of course.

Now, honey kind of took off.

Oh, here we go.

Yeah, this is honey.

Honey.

Okay, honey, honey is here.

Honey greeted us as we we pulled into the drive here.

And you have other animals, too?

Of course.

Yes, we have Nero, who's my grand-dog dog, and we have Louie, who's our grand-dog, an adorable little dog, a pack of lavender farmers.

Well, we're talking to Erin Ramsey here.

We're at Big Root Lavender Farm in Hancock County.

There's more to the farm, too.

We have a shop inside.

You sell the products.

And this is a kind of a venue, too, for special events to if you had any weddings out here, you know, we had one wedding of a family friend, and then we decided that we didn't want to do weddings.

It was too much of a commitment.

So we have a lot of a baby showers.

You know, that's mostly what we have.

Bachelorette days.

They come out a lot of special events, a lot of yoga, meditation, wreath making.

Well, good, good.

Now, coming up, we're going to meet some family members, more of the Ramsey family farm folks.

Also, the labyrinth.

We're going to find out about the labyrinth.

I'm kind of curious what that's all about.

This is a two main street I'm David James.

We're on the road here at the big routes.

Farm to Main Street is presented by Jeffrey Burger.

Kim Wren and the Burger Will Services team at Baird Private Wealth Management... Doug Ramsey joins me now to talk about the operation here at the Lavender Farm.

And you are the jack of all trades, is that correct?

Doug Ramsey Pretty much my role.

So what is your daily routine here?

Well, this is actually I've got a day job.

So after work we got to the biggest part of the of lavender farming is weed eating, obviously, because we're completely organic.

So a lot of grass cutting, a lot of weed eating.

Right now we're in the process of replanting.

We just planted 80 new phenomenal plants.

We got another 200 coming.

So we're going to stagger our rows so that it's sort of labor intensive, but it's fine.

You know, we're all hard workers.

We all enjoy it.

What's your day job?

I'm a maintenance supervisor at a corn flour mill and Evansville.

Okay, so you commute back and forth?

Yeah, I was just.

No problem.

Lovely.

Okay, well, good, good.

Now, so what are the challenges that you've encountered growing lavender have seen surprises.

We have there's a ton of rain out here, so you have to mound like Erin was saying earlier and you also have to drain so they can take on as much water as you want, but the water has to drain away from it.

So we have again, our mounds are start.

Over time they go away.

So you have to pull up the plants that are five, six, seven, eight years and then plant new rows.

Okay, now what's that?

What's when do you put them in the ground?

Well, we just put in May is perfect.

Okay.

But you can put them in the ground in any time.

If you put them in July, obviously you got a water.

Okay.

And you got to keep water them until they take.

So at a lavender plant, when it's fully grown, its root base will be three times the size of the plant itself, really.

So that's you've got to make sure they have plenty of room and air to go through them.

And now you have the different varieties of lavender.

Any special way you have to treat the different varieties?

No, you pretty much treat in the same.

Uh, the, the folgate is much shorter.

I like this is the grosso.

So you get a much larger bundle out of that and then you will the so this is actually to me it's prettier, but the other one is much more colorful.

So there's really no difference in how you plant them and how you take care of them.

Now, how long?

A Now I can really smell it now you can just squeeze it.

Oh, really?

Oh, definitely.

Definitely.

So when do you harvest it?

Right now.

Oh, really?

So the two plants that we planted are about two weeks staggered.

So by July 3rd, we'll have it all pruned, which is basically we're cutting this off the top and you do that.

So it retains that shape.

If you don't prune it, it'll get real woody and just lay out that it's not a pretty plant at all.

But if you prune it, it keeps that shape and it's really it's really nice plant.

Now folks can come out and harvest themselves to come out and that's one of our big draws is you cut, they come out and cut their own bundles really so they cut them.

And if we have jars a lot of people leave jars.

Fourth, just cleaning jars that they use or whatever they put them out on the porch and we'll just put them in bins under our bench in there.

And then we just put them in jars and put a full tag on them for them.

And well, tell us about the other family members involved here in the operation.

Well, of course, there's my wife.

She's she pretty much takes care of the business side of everything and make her and Sam make products together.

The rest of us help with labels and stuff like that every now and then, but they pretty much take care of all that.

Me and Jack and Ryan pretty much do all the Who are Jack and Ryan.

Jack's my youngest son and Ryan is my oldest son.

Okay.

Uh, I.

Of course I have one more son, and he lives out in Seattle.

I'm sure if he was here, he'd be doing it, too.

But the interesting thing with our family being so close, we all lived in the same house together while he was building his house for about a year and a half.

Not a single fight argument.

We all get along so well that it's just, uh.

It's really cohesive.

Well, that's what I was going to ask you.

The family business.

Sometimes there could be some.

Some friction, but you haven't seen any of that?

None at all.

That's great.

So with the whole ideas, groups, you have it on your shirt there and we try to live by that.

We really do.

Well, Doug Ramsey, thanks a lot for having us here at your lavender farm.

We we are really enjoying our visit.

Well, thank you for coming out.

We're meeting more Ramsey family members, Jack Ramsey.

And what's your role here at Jack?

I guess I'm a little Doug Junior.

I'm kind of a Jack of all trades as well.

You're a you're oh, he's crazy.

I never got me a nice lick on the ear there.

Yeah, he has a zero personal space.

So basically, can you handle your troubleshooter?

Pretty much something needs to get done.

We figure it out now.

What's this two time farm thing?

What's that all about?

We like to label ourselves that way because every time we do something, we realize we did it wrong.

So trial and error.

Yeah, we do two weeks worth of work and four weeks every time, but it's evening out now.

The first three years are like that.

But now that we have a handle on things, it's, you know, we can tell we've grown where we just hop out and do it instead of, well, give me an example of one of the things you had to do over again.

Oh, well, when we first put the weed barrier down, we put this cloth weed barrier the head, it was like little holes in it, like very small, but the sun was getting through so the grass would come up through it, so the grass would be growing, pushing it up on the plant.

So we had to tear all that down, lay down a different weed barrier.

And then that we barrier did the same thing.

It'll just disintegrated on itself.

And so we just want to know weed barrier now that's why we, we need so much.

But the plants are doing great.

So now what advice would you give to someone who wants to grow lavender at their home?

Just plant it.

I mean, plants it and water it every once in a while.

And is there does it need a lot of sun?

A sun is good.

Maybe if you put some rocks at the bottom, if you're putting in a pot that way, it has more drainage stuff like that.

Make sure I mean root rots the biggest killer.

So as long as there's not water sitting in it, it's okay.

Yeah.

Any pest control problems?

Well, aphids are a problem, and we have these things called spittle bugs.

They just leave this little white sticky residue on the buds.

It doesn't seem to affect it much like killing them or anything, but it ruins the esthetics of it a little bit, and it's kind of gross.

Now, you also grow hemp here.

Yeah, we grew a thousand hemp plants, I think two or three years ago, and that's an interesting thing to do.

But I mean, all we had to do was feed it once a week.

I think it was water it twice a week.

We would just mix the fertilizer in with our watering and it grew itself pretty much when it comes down to it, you just have to make sure there's not weeds covering the sun or I mean, it was just free roam.

Our main issue with that was worrying about breaking over the THC limit because it's .03 percent is the THC limit.

And so we had to kind of look at the full jeweler's glass and look at the earlier the tri-combs and stuff and wait for the right time where they kind of teardrop that way.

That's right before.

Because if you let them sit in the sun longer in the season, it'll THC will start to grow.

How did you learn all this?

Well, all this was from reading, but I just graduated the Cleveland School of Cannabis Horticulture program, so I'm trying to build off of that and hopefully going to go into that more now and when you grow to hemp, do you send it off for processing?

Yeah, we had issues with our first process, but I think we we found a good place.

It's really all in their hands after we grow it, you know, it's either you have a good one or a bad one really does.

So what's this hemp used for?

I mean, it's used for pretty much anything.

Anxiety help you sleep back pain.

I mean, it can help pretty much anything.

Like I use it every day.

Really?

Yeah.

Any future crops in the works that you want to grow here?

Well, we're planning on pumpkins and, uh, I mean, I'm always open to anything new, you know, maybe grow some food.

We're talking about getting some chickens.

Become a little bit more self-sustainable out here.

Really?

Yeah.

Now, how many acres are we talking about?

I think it's 56.

54?

54.

And how much is a is given to the lavender, do you think?

Uh, I think about two acres.

Oh, really.

That's all I think we have about.

It's about half field and half wooded and a in our back field.

It's mostly hills and stuff.

So it's a little treacherous for the customers to go out there, anything like that.

Jack Ramsey, thanks a lot.

Thank you.

Samantha Ramsey, one of the busy family members here and the family business, the whole idea is a work in harmony, right?

A harmonious atmosphere here.

So the family does work in harmony with you say?

Yes, we definitely do.

And you know, being the daughter in law, I get that a lot.

Like, Oh, you went with your husband's family and yeah, we work really well.

That's always good to hear.

Now tell us about the products here at The Big Roots.

Well, the products, you know, we had we spent just quite a bit of time looking into what we wanted to incorporate and researching the different ingredients to go into it.

And we had some trial and error, some things that just didn't really work.

And then we found some our tried and true that we stuck with.

Now the marketing of this of these products is important.

How do you do that?

We market them through social media a lot and we have our website now.

Do you have any do you have any stores that carry your line?

We do in Evansville, we have partnered with Body Works.

Mhm.

Yeah.

And they carry our massage oil, our body butter and a couple of our products, they actually even use our massage oil in some of their massages.

So what's your big seller of the linen spray.

The linen spray, the roll lines and the sachets are our big ones really.

And we have an up and coming one.

Erin looked into and she started with a body oil.

And, you know, our body butter tends to be another kind of big one and it's kind of catching up very, very quickly.

Are you the product tester?

Yes.

Yeah.

So if it works, you give it a thumbs up.

Yeah.

Yep.

And we kind of send it out.

We get feedback from friends and family to have you have some products that just didn't quite work.

Yeah, it's the body butter.

It was one.

It took a few tries finding the right ingredients.

Yeah.

So it's.

It's kind of like a little chemistry lab you got go in there?

Yeah, yeah.

We put all of it, we measure it, you know, especially our CBD stuff to get the dosage right, making sure we have the amount of grams per ounces and making sure we got that a thousand milligrams in that bottle.

You guys do the packaging, too?

Yes.

Yep.

We do all the labeling ourselves.

Really?

So it is a family run business?

It is.

There's a crooked one.

I'm sorry.

So from seedling to packaging, it's all done here?

Yes.

Is it like a kitchen sink operation?

Where do you it?

Yeah, in the kitchen.

Really?

That way you do it the whole way.

We wipe it all down, we have everything lined up and then, you know, we'll even kind of do stations.

You know, we'll have the one person making it, the next person kind of closing up the bottle, wiping it down and then labeling it.

Mm Yeah.

So what did you do before this?

Samantha I work in early childhood education.

Oh, you still do that?

Yes.

Yes, I do.

Really?

Do you see any kind of parallels in what you're doing now in early childhood education?

Is it seems like the calming business here is calming, just that constant problem solving.

That's right.

Kind of a constant with both.

So what do you see for the future here?

What are you guys going to do next, do you think?

Well, we are expanding into pumpkins this fall, so we're pretty excited to see where that leads us and keep growing with our lavender.

Well, I think lavender.

I just seemed like there's more and more lavender products out there.

It seems like it's it's trending right now for some reason.

Well, maybe people just need to be calm or calm and helping with that anxiety.

It's been a stressful period of time.

It sure has.

Two years.

So what's your favorite product?

Um, my see, I would say the body butter, but now I'm kind of torn.

I like that body oil too.

Um, you know, especially the winter time just getting that dry skin.

So what has been the feedback from the people that you sell to on your products?

Oh, we've gotten some really, really great feedback.

We have one customer who keeps returning.

She said she can't sleep without the linen spray.

When she gets low, she orders.

We just had one stock up on again, the linen spray.

They just love it.

I don't understand what the linen spray is.

How do you make linen the spray?

It's a spray and you can like spray it on your bedding throughout the house.

And what it is, is it's the, um, the oil.

And then we have to put an emulsifier in it to help it combine with the water to help bring out that smell stronger than just because water and oil separate.

So it helps those molecules combine.

So it gives that smell a nice strong smell to it.

So is that the Grosso plant or is that the folgate plant in the spray and the spray?

Um, now we don't use our actual lavender for our oil, really, because you see all of this floral material here, it takes over 3 pounds of that to get one of those little bottles that you see like with young living.

So it takes 3 pounds of that and that's a lot of plant material to go through for quite a little of oil.

So it's just the aroma of it.

Is that in the spray?

Is that what's the calming part of it?

Yes.

Yep.

And our supplier that we go through, it's organic lavender oil that they've accumulated.

Samantha, thanks for joining us here.

Thank you.

We've talked about their products here at the at the lavender farm and the process of growing the crops.

And we also have a labyrinth on the property.

Tell us about that, Erin.

Yeah, that really our labyrinth is a dream come true.

So I've been walking them for years and years.

The first one I ever walk was in New Harmony.

Sure, yeah.

And so I travel a lot.

So I walked them all over the world and I use it as a form of self-care.

And when we were living in Evansville, I was like, Doug, can you just paint one in the corner of our backyard?

Like, I always wanted a labyrinth and but we just didn't have the space living in the city.

So when we came out here, we, we put one right in the middle of our, our lavender field.

And what a labyrinth is, is its people think they're mazes, but they're not.

It's an actual ancient form of a walking meditation, and they always face due north to the entrance.

And so as you walk in, you follow the path and it's the time to let go, you know?

And then when you get to the middle, you can pray or meditate or ask a question or set an attention.

And ours is set up that if you have something that no longer serves you, you can leave it behind and we'll take care of it for you.

And that came from an idea that I got walking a labyrinth in Montana, and then I'll tell you what that is.

But as you walk back out the same path that you walked in, it's a time to prepare to take action.

So it's a renewal.

And we have so many people that have amazing experiences, they come in crying, our visitors just saying it was magical.

But I was in Montana walking a labyrinth and I went up into the mountains.

I was like staying in the valley.

And it was ominous.

And I was feeling afraid, you know, I was like even texting my husband when I was when I normally wouldn't do that.

And there was this big path up and it had all these stones with, like, beautiful sayings on them and still nervous because I'm in the middle of nowhere.

And, you know, when you're in the mountains, the weather changes so rapidly and everything's so big.

And so I get to this gate and I open the gate and I could not believe my eyes.

There was the biggest labyrinth I've ever seen in my life, and it was like on this plateau in the mountains.

Come to find out later.

It was a mile in and a mile out.

It was so big.

So as I was walking in, I was feeling afraid and I kept thinking, I don't really have anything to be afraid of.

Like, why?

Why am I afraid?

And I get to the middle and there's just this stack of stuff and it just stuck with me.

I mean, this is not a beat ten years ago, but I walked this labyrinth and it just stayed with me all these years.

So when we came to Big Roots and put the labyrinth and we used all the stone from our creek, so and then, you know, we built it.

My son Jack laid it out.

And Doug, Molly and I, my other day, my daughter went out and built it.

And the next day I went down there and I just cried.

I just could not believe.

How does this happen?

Like, how am I here?

How lucky can I be?

And now we get to share it with people from all over.

We have visitors coming as far as Nashville, Louisville, Indianapolis.

But when people's families come coming to visit from all over the country, they bring them here.

And the labyrinth is a big draw because it's a real healing renewal experience.

Now, you said when you get to the middle of it, you're supposed to leave your cares behind if that's what they choose to do.

Yeah.

And they get they'll leave keys, wedding rings, lighters, photos.

And then we also have pebbles there so people can symbolically carry in something and leave it behind as well.

But if you don't want to leave something behind or you don't have anything that's no longer serving you, you can set an intention.

You can just sit and watch butterflies and the bees and the birds.

You know, there's no prescription.

You know, it's not a prescriptive experience.

But I will tell you that when we have the visitors come and I tell them before they even go there, they have tears in their eyes.

It's like this feeling of, yes, I need to lighten it.

I need to light my load in some way.

And that's really why we're here.

Do you share this story when you speak at certain events?

Yeah, I share it with people all over the country, thousands and thousands of people.

The two big stories I tell and almost all of my presentations are the less experiment.

We're just experimenting and that we can release what no longer serves us.

Because when we can lighten up, then we can help other people lighten up.

I know.

What do you say about 21 day?

Joy challenge.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, it's super fun.

We've had a I've had a lot of people go through it.

We're launching it, it launches periodically throughout the year.

But what it is, is you sign up and you get 21 emails from me in a row and it's a video with a worksheet and some inspiration and a challenge to clear the way for more joy in your life.

So it's just an online experience that you can do alone and people love it because it's short, it's sweet.

Sometimes it's really funny, but it's just a good reminder, you know, that we really are intended to live joyfully and abundantly.

Now, you're an author of several books.

Yes.

Tell me about those.

Yes.

So my first book was B Amazing, which has six really key choices in it to help clear the way for what you're really supposed to be doing.

And I sincerely believe if I hadn't written that book and decided to change my life around, we wouldn't be here at Big Roots.

So really we were, you know, it seems all hunky dory now, but it's not always like that for us.

So at that point in my life, me and Doug's marriage was falling apart.

I was a workaholic.

I was a grumpy mom.

We were broke, you know, all the things.

And I just remembered when I was a kid that I was super joyful and just funny and lighthearted.

And I thought, How do I get back to that?

And so I started developing all these tools and then I wrote about them and be amazing.

And then my second book is for teams at work called Inspired Work, and I was in a lot of leadership roles over the years, so I wrote the book that I needed as a leader to help lead my team.

So now I can help people do that.

Now, when you go to do these speaking engagements well, what kind of feedback do you get from the folks what what's what's on their minds?

Yeah, that they needed it.

People, I mean, with humility, they, they need the reminder that they're worthy and that, you know, we don't have to be struggling all the time.

Mhm.

So you're, you don't just talk the talk, you walk the walk now.

Yeah.

Our whole family does.

Yeah, our whole family does.

I couldn't do it without them, you know.

I mean that's, it's not just Big Roots but life and being happy and, you know, and not everything's perfect.

Every family has problems and people worry and everybody has challenges.

But what we believe as a family is that it's not what happens to us.

Like if the plants die, that's not that's not the issue.

But the issue is how do we respond to it?

So everything is about how we choose to respond.

And that's why Big Roots is joyful, because you can see other lavender farmers or anybody doing anything and everything could be a problem or everything can be an opportunity.

And we look at everything as an opportunity, even when it's hard, you Now tell me more about where did you grow up?

Erin I grew up in San Francisco.

Well, the Bay Area.

Uh huh, yeah.

And this is a great story.

Yeah.

So I grew up in the Bay Area in California, and I was in high school and I met Doug and he was in the Navy.

He was stationed at Treasure Island, which is no longer a naval base.

And I was coming home from a ski trip in Lake Tahoe with my friends and my sister, and we stopped at Treasure Island, says a beautiful view of the city.

And he was there with his friends.

We all decided to go out and we've never looked back.

So we've been together for, I think, 35 years now.

Now, you studied childhood education.

Yes.

And how did you get from childhood education to this place?

Yeah.

Yeah.

So I started I went to school in Sacramento, in California, and actually I started as a journalism major.

Yes.

And then I decided it would be too much time away if I wanted to have kids, because all I really wanted do was have kids.

Right now I have this huge career.

You don't know where you're going to end up.

So really we are here and this is our home and it is our business, but we all still have day jobs, so we're all working full time.

So we hope that will be viable enough, you know, maybe two or three years where the farm could be it for us, but any small business takes years, so we're still growing.

So I'm still in early childhood education and I and I'm doing my speech as majority for educators.

And then I work training on executive function of the brain.

So how did you get from San Francisco to Evansville?

Well, Doug was from Evansville.

And then we he we were working out there.

I graduated and we had our first son when I was still in college in California, so expensive.

But I had all my friends, all my family there.

And Doug had the VA loan from in the military.

And I said, why don't we just go to Evansville and buy a house with the VA?

And the VA's like no money down kind of situation because if I have a child development degree and he's a mechanic, you know, you're not in a position where you're saving money, you know, when you're that young.

And so we came out, we bought our first house on the east side of Evansville, and Doug promised me if I hated it, we'd go back to California.

And I loved it.

I absolutely loved it.

And so we've been here ever since.

So you like to share this place with others?

This is a place of joy, really.

That's that's our greatest gift.

And one thing.

And the people walk the labyrinth and come.

But another thing, when we decided to start the farm, it was a tumultuous time in our country.

And we thought we really do want to contribute to peace.

And the only way we get pieces of people really know each other.

And I remember our first season open, I stood at that door in our store and looked out to the lavender field, and there were people from all over, all different colors, all different socioeconomic status, everything, all the differences.

They were walking, the labyrinth passing each other.

And I just thought they probably have never been around people like that before.

Maybe they have.

I don't know.

I was just maybe creating my story.

Right.

But I saw this diversity in our field and I thought that's how we grow peace.

And so the people are the greatest gift.

I mean, and we we have all these artists and yogis coming and people sharing their gifts.

And like when we host a special event, like if a yoga instructor's coming or meditation, we don't charge them.

We say, Come share your talent.

They collect their own money and it's a win win.

We have more visitors and they're sharing.

We give them a platform.

Mm hmm.

Well, I think the fact that you're in this location, too, is away from the hustle and bustle.

And it's really a very quiet environment.

It is.

And, you know, we really made a very clear decision that I don't think we'll ever changes that admission to our farm is completely free because Doug and I remember when we were young and didn't have a lot of extra resources, we were always trying to look for places to take our kids or to have some kind of different experience.

So to walk the labyrinth or just come, you don't have to cut a bundle if you don't want it, you can here and not spend a dime.

Or you could come here and buy every product we have.

And, you know, we hope you will.

But if you don't, that's cool, too, because we want everybody to have the experience.

I understand there's a unique butterfly story you want to share.

Erin Yeah, it's really it is about butterflies, but it's not really about butterflies.

Okay, that's intriguing Yeah.

So one day we had two master gardeners come out and they were scouting out the area for their meeting.

Make sure people with mobility issues would be okay to have their meeting here.

And they both appeared really serious.

They're my friends now, but their names Glenda and Bonnie, and they know I tell their story everywhere and they come in and I'm like, you know, we're not really farmers, so and gardeners.

So if you see anything, let me know that we should be doing when you go out there because, you know, let's build on each other's knowledge.

So Bonnie and Glenda out in the field for a really long time and Bonnie comes back.

She stands in the back door of the store.

I'm working the store.

And she says, Erin, and she's like this.

And I'm like, Oh, now, you know, you get that panic.

Like, I have a fungus on the plants or something.

I don't know.

Right, right.

And I walk out there and they're standing there and she's like, Yeah, and we want to show you something.

And I said, okay.

And remember the master gardeners there, they look serious.

They're not serious people.

But I thought they were at the time.

And she says, we have never, ever seen this many species of butterflies ever anywhere in Kentucky in one spot, and they're tame and that they were taking pictures of butterflies that they could never capture because the lavender was probably relaxing the butterflies.

And she looks at me and I pick a word every year like what I want to focus on in that year.

It was magic was my word.

I just want to welcome more magic.

And Bonnie, this serious master gardener, looks me straight in the eye and she goes, Erin, they're magical that they're here.

Mm hmm.

I was like, Oh, my gosh, Bonnie, they just came.

They do a workshop every year here now and then they came back.

So Bonnie actually is a professional photographer, and Glenda is a retired middle school teacher.

But butterflies and photography are like their thing.

Oh, yeah.

They came back with blown up pictures of every species of the butterflies, and we hung them all in the barn as a gift so people would know what they were.

So lavenders will attract butterflies.

It definitely attracts butterflies and all the right people.

Well, there you go.

My people.

Now, lavender is used in cooking, is that correct?

Yeah, definitely.

Lots of baked goods.

People will come in and get it and make they want to make syrups for their cocktails.

You know, we you know, we have the coffee, we make some lemon cake with it, sprinkle put it on brownies.

So lots of different culinary uses and you're probably finding out more and more uses as you as you do this.

We learn so much from our visitors, so much what they're doing is so cool.

You know, we love when they send us pictures.

So, sure, if they're using our lavender in their wedding or they're making a special drink or anything.

Really.

Well, that's right.

It's a it's a decorative plant to definitly, for wreaths.

You said you make wreaths.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I host wreath making workshops, which, again, if you think about me not even keeping a houseplant, it's hilarious.

Sometimes I'm in the barn getting ready for a wreath workshop and I'm like, This has to be a joke.

Like, Oh, you know, least crafty person.

But you know, again, it really goes back.

It goes back like we just had a wreath making workshop and all the women were there and they were nervous that they were going to do it wrong and follow directions.

So I just I just said, everybody slow it down.

We set an intention and just let the process be because it's not really about the wreath.

It's about working something and being creative.

And all of the wreaths always turn out so beautiful.

How does your day start?

May I get up super early?

But Doug gets up earlier than I do.

I get up every morning about six, 630.

Doug leaves at five and I do a meditation and I write my journal, I drink my coffee.

If it's nice, I sit outside and then I spend a good part of my day on Zoom calls.

Mm Yeah.

And then we usually do something with the farm later in the day.

Now your journal, is that part of your book writing too.

Yes, yes.

Yeah.

I'm working on a new book now and then.

Now that the pandemic is over, I'll be traveling a lot.

Before the pandemic.

I would fly 99 airplanes a year.

Really?

Yeah.

And then I got to stay home for a few weeks.

And now it's picking up again.

Now is there some symbolism here with this logo, Erin?

Yes, and it's such a great story.

So when we decided to start the farm, we had a meeting in our house in Evansville, and I already had had a graphic designer, Rachel, from Sprout.

And so we invited her over for this big family meeting so we could start some branding.

And so she did all these storyboards for and we knew for sure that we wanted our tagline grow piece on there, and we knew for sure that we wanted the three generations that were coming to be represented.

So our kids Doug and I and then our grandbabies.

And so Rachel came up with the logo with the three buds.

Oh yeah.

In a forward direction, facing direction.

You know, it's almost like a directional sign with the three buds representing the three generations.

And then we came up with the grow piece because of the, you know, the healing properties of lavender and and the connectedness of people.

So is this a family compound here?

Yes.

In fact, we're actually four generations now because my mother in law built a house up on the plot.

So it is.

And that is just it's the most incredible thing that my grandkids could just walk over from next door.

Oh, wow.

You know that when we're open and, you know, my oldest granddaughter, Isabelle, will keep the money and give the change.

She's seven Anna, greets everybody.

She's six, tells them about the lemonade, makes the sales.

You know, Michael of the my grandsons, they're talking about his dinosaurs and stuff, but it's really heartwarming for them.

One to see the family could be courageous together.

And I always tell them that they have their whole army with them like we are all together and when we all live together in the same house for a few years and I travel a lot like I told you, and I meet lots of people from different walks of life that it is so common in other cultures that families live together and stay together.

You know, sometimes in America we think, you know, it's it's like hindering each other, but in other cultures, it's viewed as the way to be.

And so we're so grateful that, you know, not all of my kids are here, but a good portion and you learn from each other.

Oh, do we ever?

I learned so much from my kids, but I've got more humble over the years.

So now I just I was asking Jack something the other day and I said, What should I do?

And he's like, This is now.

My gosh.

Thanks, Jack.

Great advice.

You know, it's nice to have to have all the answers.

So what do you see at Big Roots in the next five years or so?

Yeah, we really hope that it's completely financially viable and self-sustaining.

And so we'll be you know, we're expanding our crops to go longer season with pumpkins and sun flowers and that our online sales will just take off and that all the right people will show up that have their gifts and talents to share with the people who need it most.

So we're really hoping to create more special events around wellness and well-being.

Well, tell me about the wellness and wellbeing that seems to be a part of your life.

It's a huge part of our life, the whole family's life.

And I think people just need it and they're not quite sure, sure how to get it, you know?

So when they hear our story about our struggles as a family and turning it around, I think it gives people hope.

You know, and and as Sam said earlier, that the the pandemic just raised havoc on our spirits, you know, and and on lots of things on finances.

And it also was a gift.

People reposition their thinking.

They started seeing more family time, less rushing.

And we're seeing that pick back up again.

So hopefully we can get people back grounded into the moment because that's all we have.

Well, when you're these speaking engagements are folks starved for hope, do you think?

I think I think that I think that people need some more hope.

Hmm.

And I feel like each one of us can give that to each other if we just let ourselves.

So what's so special about lavender to you?

You know this we lavender.

We found out we were on a I was a speech.

And because I told you, really, I never even kept a houseplant, barely, sometime.

So I was doing a speech in Portland and Doug happened to be with me.

And this is probably a year before we came up with the farm idea.

So you can see how you plant seeds in your life, right?

So we're going we're in Portland and we said, Well, let's go drive the wine trail.

They have like this whole loop of wineries outside of Portland, and it was in March, and so none of them were open.

And because it's all off season and then we see this little sign like Lavender Farm, and I'm like, Oh, let's go look at the lavender from I don't even know what lavender was.

David Any idea?

I mean, I know there was soaps and stuff, but I didn't know an herb, you know, I don't know a molar from a bush hog.

You know, we didn't know anything at that time.

And so we get up there and it's like this little shack, then a few rows of plants, but they're all dormant.

And I thought, Oh, that's cool.

And then we started driving away and then I got this feeling inside.

I call it a nudge.

I feel like your intuition.

I said, You know, Doug, if they can grow lavender here in Oregon, it's the same climate.

You know, it's the foothills of Oregon.

I said, it's the same climate as Evansville.

Let's plant some lavender when we get home.

I don't know why.

And he said, okay, you know.

And then normally I would just, you know, plant something and it would probably die.

But I actually looked it up that you need, well, drainage, no mulch, you know, put some rocks.

So I had the boys clear out our concrete flower bed and that's how those 20 plants with the ten dogs peed on.

So we ended up at the ten Plants.

That's how it started from that one little detour.

Hmm.

That's cool.

That really is cool.

Yeah, well, this has been quite an adventure visiting your your lavender farm and and hearing the stories behind this operation.

Erin Ramsey, thanks for being my guest on Two Main Street.

Thanks for coming, David.