Lavender farm moving and expanding

Queen Street in the heritage district is far more aromatic these days. Nestled between Beau Chapeau and Just Christmas, neobLavender has opened its doors for the first time downtown.  “We’ve officially moved,” said the excited proprietor and lavender farmer, Melissa Achal.

Melissa, with husband Robert Achal, own neob, short for Niagara Essential Oils and Blends. Besides the move to Queen Street, they are also in the process of moving the lavender farm from its former location on Regional Road 55, near the airport, to a new location on the other side of the road at the corner of Concession 7.

Their former location was leased, and was only two acres,  explained Robert. When the opportunity came up to move and expand to 12 acres, they jumped at it. “After 13 years of growing lavender at that location, it was time to make the investment and make the move to grow into a world-class lavender farm.”

“We are a lavender and a flower farm,” emphasizes Melissa. “Before we had only 4,000 lavender plants, now we are actually planting 20,000 lavender plants in the spring, plus two acres of fresh flowers. We are going to be growing zinnias, strawflowers and snapdragons. They will create the most beautiful bouquets of flowers. We are very excited about this part of the expansion.”

“We have been so fortunate that nothing was planted on that property for 30 years,” said Robert. Melissa added, “it’s the perfect growing medium: rocky, sandy, and free-draining soil. That’s what lavender loves.”

Melissa, a Beamsville District Secondary School graduate, and Robert, who grew up in Oakville, started in the flower business right out of high school.

“The story started 13 years ago,” said Melissa, when the pair identified a market. “At that time, drugstores didn't carry fresh-cut flowers,” explained Robert. “We thought it would be great if we could get flowers into these stores.”

Melissa and Robert had flowers pre-arranged in South America, shipped in a refrigerated shipping system and delivered to over 200 locations across Canada.

“It worked out very well, " said Robert. “That’s how the industry started.”

“Then we thought we could grow our own fresh-cut flowers. We started growing all sorts of things,” said Melissa. “But we filled the greenhouse with lavender and nothing else, and we said ‘all right, let’s do lavender now.’”

“All that lavender that was in the greenhouse, that we were propagating for flowers, ended up going in the fields," said Robert. “Next we learned about extraction and products. It was a huge learning curve. We replanted that field so many times before we got it correct,” he laughed.

“We started reading up on it and experimenting with the different products we could make. I started throwing lavender experience parties, which are like Tupperware parties but with lavender products. It just kept expanding more and more,” said Melissa.

“We do all sorts of home care, bath, and body products. We make over 150 different products,” added Melissa. “We have amazing customers that help direct us into the products we should make,” such as the “Glorious Niagara Lavender that a local resident named for us,” she said.

The Achals are starting the farm at the new location with new plants, “because we are using our Niagara hybrids this time,” said Robert. “One is a beautiful hybrid that Melissa designed. We call it Massuet Niagara Lavender after her maiden name. These are true Niagara-bred lavender plants that grow fantastic.”

Currently the Achals have 1,000 baby lavender plants under a tarp until frost is no longer a threat.

Lemongrass and rose geranium are the two other scents the Achals extract from their plants. The extraction will take place at the field but all the processing is done off-site. “We do all the growing, bottling and labelling here,” said Melissa.

Though the Achals are still working through the details with the town and region, a plan to build a fresh-flower stand is in the works. “The produce stand will be opened up this season. We are working on a site plan with the town, and administration has been absolutely fantastic. We are working with them on future plans for a new retail location and a barn. So that will take a little bit of time as we work through the process,” said Robert.

“We are hoping to have picture opportunities and fresh-cut flowers,” added Robert. “We hope to have all that ready for this season. We are going ahead putting in the flowers and we are planting our lavender. It will take a couple of years for lavender to come to full flower.”

“There is a certain point when the essential oil production starts to drop and then you have a rotation that starts to occur. For the average home user a lavender plant lasts about five years,” he said.

Currently on the property is “a lonely garage that is not attached to a house. We would like to know more about the story behind it,” said Robert.

When asked about competition, Robert explained that “there were some really beautiful lavender farms here in Ontario that have closed or are relocating, but we are probably the largest in southern Ontario.”

The Achals also own neob stores in Bracebridge, Elora, and Stratford.

Their annual neob Lavender Festival celebrated the end of the harvest season for lavender essential oils, and was last hosted in 2018.  However, said Melissa, “the festival is not in our thoughts at the moment.”

However, as Robert added, "anything is possible.”