Sisters Turn Family Farm in Wagontown into Lavender Oasis
Sisters Amy Saha and Joanne Voelcker have transformed their family farm into a true lavender oasis, writes Lisa Dukart for Main Line Today.
The sisters own the 42-acre Mt Airy Lavender in Wagontown, just outside Coatesville, that their parents bought in 1971. Twenty years later, the City of Coatesville claimed eminent domain and tried to build on their property. However, the family fought the city and won, losing just six acres.
Preserving the farm became increasingly important to the sisters, who had built their homes there.
In fact, Voelcker, the former head of client insight and marketing technology at Vanguard, began planting lavender in 2012. She started with 500 plants, and now has 1,200 in seven different varieties.
“The first year, I was like, ‘What the heck are we going to do with all of this?’” she said.
That is when her sister, a biochemist for West Pharmaceuticals, got involved. They installed a still to turn the lavender into oil and lavender water, or hydrosol. Then, in 2015, they established Mt Airy Lavender.
Today, the business is thriving. They sell the hydrosol to cosmetic companies and the oil directly or as part of other products.
Read more about Mt Airy Lavender in Main Line Today here.
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