We recently connected with Milton and Gina Hambly and have shared our conversation below.

Milton and Gina, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

Our ancestors were dairy and cattle farmers so farming is in our blood. Our children grew up raising animals in 4-H and FFA, we loved the lifestyle and knew we wanted to live on our own farm someday. We bought our 26 acre farm near Paso Robles in 2017. For the first two years, we cleaned up the property and began to envision what it could become. Originally, we thought an olive orchard would be a good crop for us but learned they require lots of water. Our goal was to plant in the fall of 2019, right in the middle of the drought, so that crop wouldn’t work for our sustainability goals. A consultation with a local farmer was scheduled and after looking at our soil, climate and location, she suggested lavender. After this meeting the research began- we learned about the benefits of using lavender products and found there is a market. We also discovered some local lavender growers had retired so there was a need for something to do in Paso Robles in addition to wine tasting. With our background in education a Lavender U Pick Experience was designed to showcase our sustainable farming practices, educate visitors about the benefits of using & growing lavender and have an opportunity to be in the lavender fields. After our first few tours, we saw the spark and excitement in visitors’ eyes as they learned and relaxed on the farm- we knew we had something special. When visitors tour the lavender fields, learn how we grow, process and craft handmade products on our farm they have a better appreciation and understanding of what it takes to get lavender from the field to the farm store.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

In the fall of 2019 we planted 400 plants and kept planting, now we grow three acres or about 4000 plants, and eight different varieties of lavender. Our farm follows organic practices, is pesticide and herbicide free, and are proud to offer handmade products- crafted by us right here on our farm. We both worked full time jobs the first couple of years until the business had grown so that Gina could retire and took on running the farm business full time. As we attended artisan markets many asked if we were open to the public- so last year we decided to take a chance and open the farm for a U-Pick Experience. Running our lavender farm is our passion project and a 365 day operation growing plants and raising animals- there are no days off.

The farm business revolves around our estate grown lavender crop. On the farm, many natural products are crafted. During the lavender bloom (mid May to September) we sell fresh bundles, distill lavender oil and hydrosol. We also dry lavender bundles and craft bath & body products like Goats Milk Soap, Lavender Salve & Lip Balm, Lavender Calming Oil Rollers and culinary lavender. Investing in our community that our family settled in 5 generations ago is important to us, all of these products produced on our farm are made with as many locally sourced ingredients as possible. We sell them on site, at shows around California and we wholesale to other businesses.
Hambly Lavender farm is open to the public from May-about October and coming to the farm is tranquil. Step out of the vehicle and take a deep breath- inhale the soft sweet lavender scent, take in the expansive 360 degree views of rolling golden hills, vineyards, orchards and horse farm. Walk through the lavender rows down to the barn and animal pens where you can meet & pet our friendly farm animals. Bring a snack or picnic and pick out a table and enjoy some time on the farm.
Lavender has many beneficial properties, many know that it is calming and perfect to relax your mind and help settle into sleep.
We are the most proud of our returning customers who purchase our product time and time again. This lets us know we are doing something right making high quality all natural products that our customers love.

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

How did our side hustle turn into our full time business? When we began our farm, we both worked full time jobs. Gina worked for the county in staff development and Milton taught 8th grade history. The first year we did not have many plants and were still mastering the manufacturing of our products. The second year we went from 400 to 1000 lavender plants and began to think about agritourism so we started to create our farm tour and seating places on the farm. By the start of the third year, we had 2000 plants in the ground and we were literally spending all of our free time running the farm and business and were starting to bring in a pretty steady cash flow. Something had to give by the start of summer because our off time from our day jobs did not give us enough daylight to do the farm work. We made the decision at that point for Gina to retire from the county to run the farm and business full time. With Milton being a teacher and having summers off, he could work the farm during the summer while continuing to bring in a steady paycheck, insurance and build his teachers retirement. It was very scary for us to give up Gina’s monthly paycheck but we gave it a shot. We thought this would take a load off of us and we would get the work done in a reasonable time frame but… we doubled our plants from 2000 to 4000 plants! We created double the work for us but we continue to fine turn our processes and purchase machinery to lessen our man hours in our products. We could have never gotten to the place we are today without taking the risk of having Gina retire and run the farm/business full time.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

At Hambly Farms, we have been focusing on expanding our agritourism. The two biggest sources of new customers are flyers at shows and Google Maps. When we travel the state selling our products at shows and festivals, we hand out rack cards to customers when they come to our booth. Luckily for us, we live in a tourist area (Paso Robles) that has established wineries so people from Northern and Southern California already come to our area for vacation but we need to get them to our farm so handing out rack cards gives people a physical item they can keep to remember our farm. The second source of new clients for our farm is Google Maps. We are located in a rural area right of the 101 freeway so as people are driving north or south, we come up on their large car navigation screens on Google Maps. We have many people each day during the bloom season find our farm just driving by on the freeway.

Contact Info:

• Website: hamblyfarms.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hambly_farms/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HamblyFarms/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=hambly+farms&find_loc=Paso+Robles%2C+CA+93446

Image Credits
https://www.instagram.com/brittanyapp/