The following posts were taken from the website for Harms Vineyards and Lavender Fields, which we operated from 2010 until 2019. They offer a window into our lives on the farm and the ways the farm changed us. In 2018 we decided to end our lavender business but we continue to work with our land in ways that bring balance and health. Posts on this website will continue to follow our work.
Sabien, aged 6, hanging lavender to dry last summer.
The biodynamic process has changed both Donald and me, weaving us into the land in a way that nothing else could have. Biodynamics is good farming, yes. You learn to watch the crops, to walk the land every day (“the best fertilizer is the farmer’s feet”).
Photo by Cristin McDonnell
The Holy Nights A blog from three years ago, but the sentiment endures! I know! Many people are happy when the days lengthen, but I am always a little sad when the morning light comes earlier and the sunset stretches the day into the evening. I love the festiveness of Christmas and then the contrasting quiet of the … Read more »
Solstice celebration of the return of the light and the burning of an iceage piece of incense.
Return of the Light Note: This was originally published three years ago, but its sentiment still holds. May you too celebrate the returning of the light on every level! The longest night of the year is over. The light is returning. The pause is to be noticed, like the moment between the inbreathe and the… Read more »
Santa and Yule Goat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yule_Goat
Yule Goat Another of our past postings, first published three years ago today! Somewhere in our psyche we know these things. Evidently Santa Claus is the result of a long development of the original legend of the Scandinavian Yule Goat. The Norse god Thor’s chariot was draw across the sky by two goats, which Thor killed and fed… Read more »
My Feldencrais practitioner told me that the human nervous system is organized around two bipolar processes at birth: Pushing and being pulled; and latching onto the nipple and letting go. He said the most difficult action is letting go. Letting go of Harms Lavender business has been a saddening process. We have received wonderful e-mails… Read more »
Sabien loves to scan the driveway for the earthworms after storms.
New Eyes on the Ranch! First published March 9, 2016. Casey and Melissa and their two sons are living on the ranch with us. Both boys know where the sweetest blackberries grow, when to pick wild strawberries and where. They have helped with the lavender harvest every year and they continue to be a joy… Read more »
We Are Closing Our Business on December 31, 2018 With some sadness, we wish to announce Harms Lavender will be closing our lavender and aromatic business on December 31, 2018. We have loved growing lavender and distilling lavender and then, in more recent years, helichrysum italicum and rose geranium. Working with these lovely, medicinal aromatics… Read more »
Old growth, gnarly vines produce fruit which in turn results in prized wine, but seldom do we hear of old growth lavender. We have a small acreage of lavender that we decided not to replant, but we didn’t pull it either. Its short stems are good only for our still yet so short they are… Read more »
Casey, photographer and photographed.
Lavender and Memory: Evocative Pleasure! Lavender is a paradox: the scent brings you into the immediacy of the senses, and this experience evokes memory. Lavender has provided an unexpected journey to my husband and me over these 20 years since we planted it. Casey was still in high school when we first planted the 3500 tiny lavender… Read more »
Lavender Harvest is over. Now We Collect for Acorns to Oaks Program. Wesley, Sabien and I collect valley oak acorns from the oak savanna by our home for the Acorn to Oaks program in Napa County. School children will plant them in a program to re-oak the Napa Valley. We collect perfect acorns, count them and put them in… Read more »
© 2025 Patricia Damery.
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