A Day At the Lavender Farm & Trendy Ice Cream

For a while my family wanted to go on a day trip to a local lavender farm, but we just had trouble finding the right day for a day off and relaxation. Finally, we found the time and drove to the Seven Oaks Lavender Farm for the very first time yesterday!

The Seven Oaks Lavender Farm is a smaller farm located in Catlett, Virginia. I’m going to be honest, when we got there I was a bit disappointed. My mind had conjured an image of fields and fields of closely-grown lavender rows, almost like corn, growing thigh high. That was unrealistic, because A) lavender doesn’t grow that high nor B) does it grow close to one another. However my disappointment changed quickly, once we actually went on the property.

We first went into the little store part of the farm, where they sell everything lavender. They had a bunch of different lavender teas that looked so good, but unfortunately I didn’t bring any! They also had goodies like, lavender syrup, lavender-infused honey, herbs de provence, soaps, and so much more! My mom bought some really cute paper straws in the color of…you guessed it, lavender. 😉 In the store you also pay for your entrance fee, or in our cases, turn in your voucher that we had bought off a site similar to groupon.

The voucher we had bought gave us entrance to the lavender farm and allowed us to pick 40 stems of lavender for a grand total of $12! That’s quite a steal, if you ask me!

Next, we got momentarily distracted by the bunnies they had sitting in a pen. My dad remarked that it was quite big for the bunnies, which makes us happy. (If there’s something we don’t like, it’s seeing animals encaged in way too small quarters – aka many zoos.) One lady came by with a handful of dandelion and asked us if we wanted to feed the rabbits, and of course we took that opportunity! They were soo cute, and it was so satisfying to see them munching away on each dandelion stem.

After feeding the rabbits, we walked over to the actual lavender field. As I mentioned it’s not huge, but it’s big enough to get quite  a few stems. There were many families and couples there who were doing the same thing! I loved the baskets you got to put the lavender in. They reminded me of those old-fashioned flower baskets you see in historical time period movies.

One of the workers there explained to us how to cut the lavender, and to make sure to only cut the fully-grown lavender stems. So we each took our baskets and scissors, and headed out into the field to find our lavender stems! My brother also loved doing this by himself.

What I particularly loved was seeing all of the bees there, that were gathering nectar! If you’re not a fan of bees or butterflies, then this might not be the best place for you. However I think it’s important to have something that helps and supports the bees, since they’re dwindling down in population and we so depend on them. If you want to learn more about why bees are important for us, then read this article here.

If you didn’t want to pick lavender, you could also choose to pick some wildflowers, which I thought were so pretty! I loved the yellow ones, but they also had some blue ones. And if you don’t like going for the usual lavender, they also had white lavender, which I had never seen before!

I was really tempted to pick more, so I could have some lavender for my room, but decided against it. I wanted to enjoy the rest of the farm for a bit. Prices were great though! Every lavender stem we would’ve picked extra would’ve cost us $0.15 and for wildflowers it was $0.25 per stem.

They had a little tent set up with some chairs and tables, where you could sit and watch your kids/grandkids pick some lavender, relax, and partake in the delicious goodies they had to offer there. There was a little cart, where you could buy lavender-infused drinks and baked goods. I, of course, had to try them all! They had different lavender shortbread cookies: chocolate, lemon, and vanilla. I didn’t think chocolate and lavender would go well together, but it surprisingly did! For drinks they had lavender lemonade and a black lavender mint tea. I really enjoyed the lavender lemonade, since it was quite refreshing and just the right balance of lavender and lemon.

We relaxed post-lavender-snack in some chairs underneath the trees, while my brother was playing with some kids in their play area. It was so calming, and I loved the light that shone in between the leaves.

A visitor came to check us out, while we were sitting there, and I got so excited to pet him/her!

I think what makes this lavender farm such a great destination is that it’s so family friendly, and has quite a few things to do/enjoy if you’re trying to have a relaxing day. Overall I highly recommend anyone to go there, whether it’s with family, friends, or on a date.

After we relaxed for a bit, we decided to try out the super trendy ice cream with puffle waffle at a korean ice cream place. I had seen pictures of this ice cream all over instagram, and even videos of people trying it on youtube. To my knowledge it was a New York City or LA thing, but didn’t realize there was something semi-close by! We headed over to Iron Ice in Vienna, and each got our own puffle ice cream.

First off, these portions are huge! But I loved the idea of having an actual waffle versus an ice cream cone! You basically choose your puffle flavor, then your ice cream flavor, toppings, and syrup/sauce if you want. They had some really interesting flavors, like matcha puffle, lychee as a topping, and so much more. We all got something with the least amount of artificial colors in it, so I had a vanilla puffle (their name for the specific waffle) with vanilla ice cream, strawberries and mango.

The waffle was delicious and warm, which made for a great contrast to the cold ice cream. However I do wish they had used fresh fruit, versus the canned syrupy kind. I’m glad to have crossed this off my food bucket list, but now that I have, I don’t think I’ll be getting it again! (I’m more of a fro-yo kind of girl 😉 )

That’s it!

Here are my questions for you:

1. Have you ever been to a lavender farm before? How was it?
2. What would you do with lavender stems?
3. What do you like to do to relax/on an off day?
4. Have you tried the ice cream puffle? What was your opinion on it? What kind did you have?

Love,

Maxi