The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - The Telegraph Magazine
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A lavender farm that’s blooming
From late June onwards, mayfield lavender is in full bloom, the sloping hills in the Surrey countryside covered with rows of fragrant lilac flowers – and every weekend during the summer hundreds of families flock there.
Businessman Brendan maye and his wife, lorna, never imagined that their 25-acre organic lavender farm, in the town of Banstead, would draw such crowds when they first bought it in 2006, yet thanks in part to twitter, Facebook and Instag ram, visitor numbers have soared. ‘In the last four years we have noticed a real tipping point,’ says maye. ‘our visitors’ book is filled with messages from people of every nationality.’
life on the farm hasn’t always been smooth-running. maye, now 50, says, ‘It takes 10 years to be an overnight success.’ Previously managing director of the fragrance division of Well auk, which included running the lavender brand Yardley, maye entered the industry during a period when lavender was seen as outdated, but he persevered and leased land, sponsoring a charity to plant 70,000 lavender-plant ‘plugs’ in 2003. three years later, after Wella was sold, maye bought the lavender.
today, he employs 35 seasonal workers, who farm the lavender between June and September. (He sells Christmas trees during the winter.) the first task of the season is to mow the grass between the lavender rows; this is done at least six times in early June. ‘then we weed the whole field by hand because we don’t use chemicals,’ explains maye.
In mid-june, maye and his team cut the lavender with shears, starting at 6 am before visitors arrive. there are 150,000 lavender plants and they farm tons of fresh lavender each year, some of which is turned into toiletries such as lavender oil, scented candles and hand creams by local craftsmen.
the most popular products are the bunches of fresh and dried lavender. ‘When it’s really busy you can’t tie the bunches quickly enough,’ says maye.
He hopes the farm will remain in the family and be taken over by his two teenage daughters when he retires, but for now he is content running it, and a decade on remains transfixed by the beauty of the setting .‘ You’ve got the lavender and then the sky – it’s like a natural infinity pool.’