About Harvest Moon Farms Lavender

“Love in a bottle. From our hearts to yours.”

Company Vision

At Harvest Moon Farms (HMF), we believe that herbs are the medicine of the people and it is our god/dess-given right to use the plants and the natural world to heal ourselves. Further, we consider it an honor to carry on the folk medicinal healing practices of our ancestors and we encourage others to do the same! We are a family-based company and it is with this intention that we offer the products that we lovingly create to the world. When you don’t have time to make your own healing remedies, you can count on us to provide you with effective, quality products . . . ”From our Farm to your Home.”

Mission Statement

At HMF, we have been working diligently over the years to create a business that is low impact on the environment and community while at the same time has ethics and integrity and provides jobs for the local people. All of the products that we create come out of fulfilling the healing needs for ourselves, our family and the local community. Eventually, we hope to inspire and engender a Lavender industry in Mendocino County that provides a clean, non-polluting, healthful business model, based on “right-livelihood.” Through our life’s work, we aim to promote the health, well-being and prosperity of those whose lives we touch.

History of Harvest Moon Farms . . .
who are these ladies and just what were they thinking?

In 1979, Martha Betz graduated from University of Minnesota with a degree in Agriculture. Minnesota is where Martha grew up. Her parents came from Midwestern farming families on both sides and she loved spending time in the summers with her Grandmother back on the farm in Indiana. Martha’s Dad, Keith Betz, was a brilliant mathematician and programmer, yet he was a farmer at heart. Keith planted his large garden every year, where it basically took over the entire backyard in their upscale, suburban neighborhood complete with corn, beets, squash, Brussels sprouts, tomatoes, culinary herbs and lettuces of many kinds! And then there were the Betz family farmlands, which they would lease to other farmers and plant trees in the spring as part of an annual family tradition.

When Martha graduated from school, there weren’t many farming jobs in urban Minnesota but there are lots of golf courses, which is where Martha first put her Ag skills to work as a Greens Keeper.

But this just wasn’t fulfilling Martha’s farming bug. So in 1982, the West called to her and she moved to California, in search of greener pastures . . . literally! After a 10-year stint living in the Bay area driving for FedEx, Martha had saved enough money to move to Mendocino County, where she could plant the seeds of her farming dreams, so they could take root and bear fruit.

The original business model for HMF, starting in 1993, was vegetable farming for Farmer's Markets and local grocery stores. However, Farmer’s Markets were not the thriving local food scenes then that they are today and Martha was lucky to make $30 profit per market for her huge efforts. This approach just didn’t seem to make financial sense, and the lack of sales was depressing.

Then in 1995, after intensive studies and training with mycologist Paul Stamets at Fungi Perfecti, Martha made a lateral move and started to grow medicinal mushrooms including: Reishi, Maitake and Shiitake mushrooms. The process of growing-out mushrooms is highly technical, long and involved and has multiple steps. Further, it requires a clean room with a HEPA-filter (Martha made one herself), a temperature and humidity controlled greenhouse and the capability of autoclave sterilization. The sawdust media that is used in propagation and the intricate, delicate inoculation process is fraught with peril at every step! Reason being: at any time, some tiny, microscopic, stray spore of another fungi source might accidentally contaminate your medium and then all your hard work is for naught! And believe it, because when K.C. joined the farm in 1998, this is exactly what happened the very first time Martha trained K.C. in to the mushroom production process. To K.C., whose background is in Project Management for the Entertainment Industry, this presented a problem: with mushroom propagation, you end up with a perishable product that can go south at any time in the long, involved production process; and even if you make it successfully through that, once the product is dried, it weighs nothing!

Then fate stepped in . . . the year was 1999, “Lavender” was voted “Herb of the Year” by the industry and Martha and K.C. received an invitation from the Herb Growing and Marketing Network to attend the annual Sequim Lavender Festival in Washington State. Now, K.C. had gone through the breakup of a long-term relationship a few years before and it was then that she discovered the healing powers of Lavender, which helped alleviate her depression and insomnia, allowing K.C. to get off her sleeping pills. Martha, on the other hand, being a pragmatist that she is, loves lavender because the deer and moles don’t eat it, it is disease and drought tolerant, needs minimal fertilization and it’s a perennial, so you plant it once and harvest it for the next 10-12 years to come. What’s not to like!?

After attending the Sequim Lavender Conference and Festival in 2000 – where they learned how to propagate, grow, harvest and market Lavender, HMF began Lavender farming in earnest; planting out their first 422 Mother plants from which all future cuttings have come.

The loyal customers and fan base that HMF has developed over the years at the Farmer’s Markets refer to them as “The Lavender Ladies from Laytonville” . . . how perfect! Over the years, HMF has expanded their production fields locally to include another ½ acre of L. angustafolia “Royal Velvet” and ½ acre of Lavandins “Grosso” & “Provence.” Concurrently, we have been developing and expanding our own line of organic, natural Lavender Body Care products.

In 2005, HMF expanded and planted 30,000 Lavandin “Grosso” plants on 9 acres of private land in Laytonville, CA that is affectionately referred to as “Lavender Valley.” Then in 2006, HMF added another 3 acres of English Lavenders “Royal Velvet,” “Seal & Oaks” and “DeLavande,” for a total of 12 acres at that same location. While HMF has always been Registered Organic with the Ag Department, in 2008 they took the next step and became Certified Organic by CCOF as part of the National Organic Program.

Over time, as the plants grow their business also grows and expands to include more product. In 2010, HMF consulted with Aromatherapist Suzanne Catty who worked with Martha to develop a low-tech sterilization process to capture Lavender water or Hydrosol as it is known in the industry. This has expanded the product line to include hundreds of gallons of bulk hydrosol annually, the co-product (along with Lavender essential oil) from the distillation process, which is used in product formulation of creams, lotions and cleaning products.

In 2010, we hired our first part-time employee, Farm Assistant: Megan Booher, a graduate of the local Yerba Women Herb School, run by herbalist and wise woman Donna d’Terra, in the tradition of the godmother of modern herbalism, Rosemary Gladstar. Megan started with our company helping on the farm with the propagation, harvesting and distilling process and has grown into being our "Medicine Maker" as well!

Please check back with us from time to time as we expand and grow; we will continue to share our story with you!