“I love the look of the lavender against the mountains,” says Lindsey Pashow, owner of Adirondack View Lavender. Pashow grew up on this 13-acre Keeseville property, but she and her parents, both retired teachers, didn’t start planting their fragrant crop on a portion of the farm until 2018.
Why launch such a unique enterprise? Chiefly because of its singularity, Pashow says. “I wanted to bring something different to the area. I didn’t want to copy what someone else was doing.” That doesn’t come without risk. “We’re really pushing the envelope as far as the climate here,” she says, especially with the fickler French lavender. Still, her plants are thriving; the fields are now home to seven varieties—both English and French, in shades from white to dark purple—as well as sunflowers, zinnias and cold-climate grapes.
The farm is open seven days a week from May 1 through October 31, and the public is welcome to walk some areas of the grounds for free. A self-serve store offers sweet-smelling bath fizzies, sleep balms, candles, dried wreaths and other lavender products alongside the blooms themselves, when in season. There are U-pick opportunities throughout the summer, with the stars of the show changing as the season progresses. Vibrant English lavender is ready in late June, followed by the longer-stemmed French varieties. Zinnias and sunflowers are blooming by mid-July, and the grapes—which are also sold to local wineries—are ripe in September.
Pashow says stocking the store is a group effort: Her mother, Dana, supplies quilted items while her father, Ken, crafts birdhouses, benches and more. Pashow, who has a full-time job off-site, makes the lavender products herself, after her active one- and three-year-old boys power down for the night. Each season she experiments with new offerings, including classes by ADK Yoga among the lavender and a kid-centric celebration, Fairies in the Lavender. The property hosts weddings, showers and other special events, and this year Pashow has added wreath-making workshops and an online store. That all might seem like an impossible pace. But no worries—one of the perks of the work is an aromatherapy factory right outside her front door.
Adirondack View Lavender (518-572-9186) is at 59 Thompson Road, in Keeseville. Lavender U-pick is offered only on in-season weekends; find a schedule of U-pick opportunities and other events at www.adirondackviewlavender.com, or follow the farm on Facebook and Instagram.
