Louisville-area couple runs Ky.’s largest lavender farm, shop
Just a mile past the bustling Outlet Shoppes of the Bluegrass in Simpsonville, Kentucky is a lavender oasis marked with a statue of a purple horse.
A baroque sign reads “Little Mount Lavender Co.” as you turn into the parking lot. Birds flit in and out of wooden birdhouses and fly over a freshly-planted field of lavender.
Inside, a gentle Labrador-mix, Hank, greets guests for head pats and gently wags his tail. Co-owner Jason Walker-woodlief, dressed in his usual overalls, greets guests after Hank does – usually by name.
Sisters Sheryl Gulicte and Jerry Dykstra arrived right when the shop opened at 10 a.m. on a recent Monday morning to collect fresh bundles of French lavender, just cut that morning. Hank barks.
“It’s the oboe,” Walker-woodlief says, indicating the shop’s soft jazz music. “He loves this music.”
As the sisters buy lavender to dry in their houses, he explains how to care for it and a bonus of buying it fresh.
“Put it in a half-inch of distilled water in a vase and then strain it the next day and you’ve got lavender water to spray on your hats, laundry and what have you,” he said.
Owned by Jason Walker-woodlief and his husband Jason Woodlief, Little Mount Lavender Co. is the largest lavender farm in Kentucky, growing more than 10,000 plants to sell and turn into hundreds of different floral-infused products, including soaps, candles, oils and bath bombs.
Focused on sustainable farm practices and environmentally friendly shop packaging, Little Mount Lavender has grown exponentially since it launched in 2017 with a tiny store in downtown Shelbyville. They had to expand three times, then in summer 2021 finally moved to its current location in a 200-year-old stone building in Simpsonville.
“Anything you think you can do with lavender, we’re currently doing,” Woodlief said. “It’s lavender on a gourmet level. We try to go over the top and do the best we can with all of our products.”
Now, the shop has 3,000 square feet of sprawling retail space. Product lines have expanded to include gardening items, gifts, lotions, diffusers and oils. Local artisan crafters have added to Little Mount Lavender’s items with a selection of paintings, pottery, crystals and leather goods. Walker-woodlief, a French-trained pastry chef, even added a cafe that serves gourmet French pastries, lavender-infused cookies, lavender-infused honey, soup and charcuterie boards.
“Anyone can grow flowers and sell them at a market,” Woodlief said. “We do something above and beyond flowers. Lavender, once you pick it, there’s so much more you can do with it.”
Woodlief and Walker-woodlief moved to Kentucky six years ago specifically to start a lavender farm.
Turns out, the 6.8 to 7.2 ph of Kentucky soil makes it ideal for growing lavender without having to do any chemical farming.
“It’s not bourbon country, it could be lavender country because of the ph of the land and the limestone,” Walkerwoodlief said. “The reason bourbon is bourbon is the [same] reason lavender is lavender.”
Peak lavender season is mid-june to August, he said, but it’s early this year due to the excessive early heat. Little Mount Lavender has four different “cuts” of lavender – premium and culinary lavender are first, cut just before bloom when it’s prettiest and has the beautiful, purple buds all down the stem.
After that is fresh bunches for wholesale in bouquets and arrangements, with purple buds three-fourths of the way up the stem. Last is lavender that’s bloomed all the way up the stem, used for drying, distilling and making small perfume bags called sachets.
“We let people know when we cut it fresh,” he said. “They can use it for florals if they want.”
Walker-woodlief said the U.S. only grows 1% of the lavender in the world, which provides a perfect avenue for growth for Little Mount Lavender. The couple said they chose lavender specifically because of its many health benefits and uses.
“Lavender from the aroma side is very relaxing, and lavender from the topical side is very healing because it penetrates many layers below the skin to heal from,” Woodlief said. “It even heals bruises. That’s how deep down it goes.”
Lavender, like salt, brings out floral notes and other flavors when used in food or oils. It’s what makes Little Mount Lavender’s desserts, like gourmet lavender chai cookies and lavender lemon spritzers, so popular.
It also helps that the flower itself is beautiful.
“Lavender is a very calming color and everybody just loves it,” Woodlief said. “I was indifferent, I thought it was just a spray your granny puts in her bathroom. I had no idea until we started growing it.”