Providing Much Needed Protein & Perks Of Lavender Farming

Providing Much Needed Protein & Perks Of Lavender Farming I'm Lacy Gray with Washington Ag Today. Through the Beef Counts program Second Harvest recently received a $20,000 donation from Agri Beef Company to assist in purchasing beef roast for families in need in eastern Washington and north Idaho. A Second Harvest mobile food bank giveaway in Spokane August 23 resulted in approximately 1,000 pounds of beef roast and 7,000 pounds of fresh Washington produce being given to 250 families in need. By teaming up with Second Harvest Washington's farmers and ranchers have been able to provide half a million servings of beef to those in need. Washington lavender farmer Vivian Nielsen has been growing and harvesting lavender for over thirteen years and says that there are few challenges to growing lavender but one of them could be the size of your operation. NIELSEN: The one thing about lavender farming is you either have to be small or you have to be big. And that by being in the middle it's very hard to make a profit, because most lavender farms here in the United States are farmed by hand. Nielsen says there is machinery that will harvest lavender. NIELSEN: Although it's very difficult because there really is no machinery here in the United States. You have to buy it from Europe or Australia, which is the lavender capitol of the world. Most machinery is not made to cut lavender for distilling. That's one of the drawbacks to lavender in getting big is trying to find the machinery to harvest. Nielsen still harvests the 2500 different types of lavender on her farm by hand and says that sometimes finding enough workers to harvest can also be a challenge. Big perks to growing lavender Nielsen says is that the plants can last anywhere from twenty to thirty years, are easy to maintain, and have very little disease. That's Washington Ag Today. I'm Lacy Gray on the Ag Information Network.