Lavender grower puts down roots in Las Cruces

By S. Derrickson Moore / Las Cruces Sun-News
Posted: 07/18/2009 05:09:21 PM MDT

Joan Keif sits in her front-yard lavender garden. She estimates that more than 1,000 lavender plants are growing in her garden. The clean, soothing aroma wafting from tiny purple blooms attracted visits from her little dog Auntie Em, as well as a bevy of Mesilla Valley bees. "I've never been stung," said Keif, who has turned the home she and husband Al Polk share near the bank of the Rio Grande into a wonderland of imaginative landscaping and herb gardens.

Their front-yard garden includes a labyrinth, colorful flowers and a variety of desert-loving plants, trees and shrubs. A hutch on her expansive back patio features a collection of retablos depicting San Ysidro. "Our fields are dedicated to San Ysidro, the patron saint of farmers," Keif said.

She said she has had lots of help -- heavenly and local -- in starting her farm. "People have been wonderful. When we moved here from San Diego in 2004, we got some very good advice from our neighbors, people who have been farming here for generations, who have taken very good care of the land," she said. "Robert and Barbara Cosimati taught us what to do, first using a laser field level, and then to make maximum use of water by digging a trench and having raised beds so the lavender sits up above the water." We've also gotten help from extension agents and from Madeline Hill and other members of the Herb Society of America," and, she feels, from the Land of Enchantment itself.

"New Mexico, as it turns out, has been a wonderful location. The soil has been wonderful and rich, formerly used to grow New Mexico's finest cotton, pepper and onions. An average of 350 days a year of sunshine can give us as many as four harvests of lavender blooms each year, starting in late spring."

She and her husband, a mate on container ships, share their colorful, light-filled adobe home with three dogs: beagle-border collie mix Auntie Em and two Great Danes, Scooby Doo and Star, who have earned honors in obedience and agility competitions. "The dogs like to walk through the lavender, but they aren't much help with weed control," she laughed. "Pulling weeds is Al's job, when he's home, and he's also the master distiller for our lavender oil. We have our own little still."

The couple, who ran Katy's Herbs & Things Bed & Breakfast in San Diego, have lived and traveled all over the world, but New Mexico is where they have decided to put down roots -- literally. "We love it here. People judge each other on who they are, not by whether they are rich or poor," Keif said. Their farm reflects the couple's world travels and Keif's own family heritage. The Connecticut native's eclectic education included "fairy lore" learned from her Irish-American grandmother. "This is mugwort," she said, indicating a plant. "I grew this for my summer solstice party. It allows you to see fairies."

Her friend Alexandra Hall said the farm's annual summer solstice party "attracts what could be an artists' registry." "There were farmers from Mimbres, dog whisperers and horse whisperers," Hall said. "It was a great party." Keif's herb garden is a popular attraction for visitors. Just outside her kitchen, her patio is lined with raised brick planters that house thriving stands of lemon verbena, parsley, sage, thyme, tarragon and other favorites. "When I started high school, my mother took a job so I could go to college, and it was my job to have dinner on the table. Mother taught me to cook and sent me out to the garden. There's something about digging in the dirt that's very therapeutic. If there's a problem, you can work it out, and it makes you feel wonderful to plant something."

She enjoys sharing culinary and gardening skills with others, as her home gardens have evolved into a small business. She offers tours of her gardens for $20, which includes a lunch featuring herbs from her garden and her own recipes. A lucky visitor might also get to sample her lavender lemonade or lavender cookies -- all subtly flavored. "If lavender is too strong, it puts me off," Keif said. "I'd rather have people notice there's something different and ask what it is."

For true aficionados, she also has a sort of "lavender of the month club" from May through September, offering the opportunity to "buy shares in the New Mexican crop" in the form of products handmade from lavender grown at farms throughout the state. Products, she said, include lavender wreaths, lavender cookies, lavender jelly, lavender water, lavender oil, sachets, soap and bunches of lavender. The annual "share" purchase fees range from $150 to $210, depending on whether products are bought locally or shipped.

Keif has other plans in the works. She said she hopes to expand to at least 1,500 lavender bushes and maybe add new varieties to her current favorites, grosso and hidcote lavender. And she has her sights on a new crop. "I just planted four olive trees this spring, and I believe they will grow well here. Eventually, the pecan farmers might run out of water and want to try something new," and she hopes to have a thriving prototype grove to lead the way. Keif also teaches classes at Enchanted Gardens, a Las Cruces nursery. For information on classes, tours, products and other aspects of lavender and herb farming, go online to www.NewMexicanLavender.com.
S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com.

If you go
What: New Mexican Lavender tours.
When: By appointment.
Where: New Mexican Lavender farm of Joan Keif and Al Polk.
How much: $20.
Perks: Keif offers touring visitors a lunch with her own fresh herb recipes.
New Mexican Lavender shares: The farm is involved in a program that offers monthly shipments, May through September, of products made from lavender harvested in New Mexico. Information: 575-541-0805, www.NewMexicanLavender.com.