Was it fate?
Big win allows couple to purchase lavender farm, which continues to grow 10 years later
Ten years ago, Dave Belt received an unbelievable phone call.
At the time, Dave and Suzy Belt were trying to secure a loan to purchase a lavender farm from family friends Dave and Anita Carlson. The Belt family, who owned a restaurant and gift shop called the Sunrise Mercantile in Tatamagouche, was looking for a new opportunity.
“We just were desperate because the economic situation back in that time period, 2008, 2009 time period, was just awful. Our business just dried up,” Dave says about their situation at that time, noting tourism had been impacted by a number of factors — change in passport laws, gas prices, and the value of the dollar.
Though they had a plan to purchase the Carlson’s lavender farm, they were having trouble finding enough money. They had investigated all the options, Dave says, from getting a bank loan to maxing out their credit cards.
One day, Dave got a call from Tip Top Tailors, talking about the store’s 100th anniversary celebration. Assuming it was a telemarketer, he hung up.
They followed up with emails, telling him he won a prize and needed to call back right away to claim it. He didn’t remember, but they told him he had filled out a ballot months ago.
He went from thinking it was a pair of pants to finding out it was a car. He picked one out, only to learn he could get cash instead. The amount, $32,000, was exactly what the Belt family needed to purchase the lavender farm from the Carlsons.
“I was stunned, obviously, that it was precisely that amount. The whole thing was just surrealistic — the phone call to start with, the fact that I hung up on her ... and that they somehow got my attention to call them back.”
Dave recently posted the remarkable story and a photo of the cheque from Tip Top Tailors on the Seafoam Lavender Company and Gardens’ Facebook and Instagram pages to mark the 10th anniversary and received a lot of attention with hundreds of likes, comments and shares.
GROWING BUSINESS
The family bought the Marshdale lavender business and moved 2,000 plants to their farm in Seafoam.
Dave says it took nearly a year to transport the plants and their business didn’t start to grow until the second year. At first, he expected it would be a small, seasonal operation he and Suzy ran alongside their children, Kiva-Marie and Collin.
“Never in our wildest imagination could we have dreamt things would get as big as they have,” Dave says.
Seafoam Lavender Company and Garden now has nearly 4,000 plants and 26 staff members. They’re open to visitors at 3768 Highway 6 in Seafoam, where they have lavender plants, a store and a manufacturing space that’s open from Mother’s Day weekend until Thanksgiving weekend. They also operate a year-round location at the Halifax Seaport Farmers’ Market on the weekends.
Their website is a big part of their business, where they have about 65 different products available including oils, bath products, food, lotions and soap. They also sell wholesale, with approximately 82 stores in Canada and one store in the United States carrying their products, Dave says.
Offering wholesale was a risk, he says, as they have to rely on volume, but ultimately, it’s been a good decision.
In 2015, the business won the Pictou County Chamber of Commerce Export Achievement Award and was one of 10 regional winners at the 2016 Nova Scotia Export Achievement Awards.
WHAT’S NEXT?
The family’s next venture will be to build a large greenhouse in order to expand their season.
Dave describes their business as part manufacturing, part agri-tourism.
In mid- to late July, their lavender is typically blooming and they host a two-day festival around that time with educational presentations, a u-pick and food to purchase.
“Our vision is to create an oasis where people can come and enjoy nature, enjoy not only the beautiful lavender but also we have a very scenic spot. We're right on the ocean, so it's like sensory overload but in a very nice way,” Dave says, adding that visitors smell a blend of salt spray, pine, freshly cut grass and lavender. “And, so, we want people to come here and leave their cares and their troubles at the front gate and just come and have a place of peace and tranquility and commune with nature.”