Written by Ben Cox – As Brownwood area crafts people ready their wares for the next Artisan Market this weekend, one of them plans to bring a bit of color with him.
Mark Walton lives in Mullin, and makes the drive to St John’s church twice a month to sell his lavender products. Walton grows five kinds of lavender on his property, a farm he calls Xanadu Acres.
When they moved to the property, farming lavender was nowhere on their radar until Walton got an idea that he shared with his wife. “I’ve never grown anything, I never even went out in my garden. When I told my wife I was gonna plant lavender she said ‘ok’, but when the guy showed up with 2000 lavender plants she about freaked out!”
The aroma was originally what inspired Walton to grow the plant. “My intentions were to sit under my pecan tree and smell lavender.”
The tending and pruning of the bushes, however, took that notion from him rather quickly. “I had no idea what I was getting myself into.”
A stroll through the plants on a hot afternoon fills the nostrils with a familiar, calming scent found in linen sprays, teas, decorations, and surprisingly, cooking. “Anything you can use Rosemary in, you can use Lavender. We’ve tried a lot of foods, chicken, pork, lots of desserts, lots of teas. I talked to a lady this morning who makes a simple syrup for margarita mixes and stuff like that.”
Walton distills his lavender oil via steam distillation and one the byproduct of that process is called hydrosol. Hydrosol is the water left over after extracting the oil, and is commonly used as a linen spray.
Vera, one of the strains of plant grown at Xanadu, is what Walton calls the original lavender, “Everything else is a hybrid.” Walton also grows Grosso, Provence, Phenomenal and Spanish varieties of lavender. Provence and Grosso are French strains, Phenomenal and Vera are English varieties, and Spanish is from Spain and the Mediterranean regions.
Walton, an organic farmer, keeps his lavender chemical free with the help of his neighbors. To the west of Xanadu Acres is a neighboring farmer who “used to plant twice a year and hasn’t planted anything since I put this in the ground.” To the south another neighbor “grows coastal and he has been pretty considerate about the whole thing.”
Walton plans to expand his lavender farm, and plans include zinnias to add even more color to his land. More information about Waltons lavender can be found at his website, which includes a bloom watch showing the current state of his plants. Walton can also be found among the rest of the vendors at the Artisan Market this Saturday at St Johns Church from 9 till noon.
