Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Alexandra Reid. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alexandra, appreciate you joining us today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

The idea, years ago, was to get a couple of acres, farm something, get away from the rat race, and retire. The typical dream many people have. Typical turned into a poor initial partnership, then a global pandemic, then inflated real estate. It seemed as if our dream was just that.

Then I managed to find some reasonable acreage for sale by owner. This was critical as banks do not often lend money on property without structures on it, known as unimproved. Now, almost four years later, those 15 acres are almost paid off. This too is relevant as to get to that retirement point, taking on additional debt for years is counter productive.

Once we found the land it took us two years to get started. Why? We didn’t know where to start? Research told us that lavender was a profitable small acreage crop to grow with several means to monetize it. From agritourism (u-pick), to products, to wholesale. It is a perennial, a single plant can grow for 15 years, it is disease resistant, fairly hearty, and its beautiful! So we knew what we wanted to grow, just not how to start it. The farm is 90 miles from our residence, so doable in a day trip, but not one you would want to do day after day after day. We thought we would put our camper in the woods at the farm for long stays on the weekends. But we spent the first two years just wandering around, trying to decide where we were going to put it. I think we were scared or overwhelmed at the possibilities?

Eventually, We purchased some lavender (140 plugs) and grew them up at home the winter of 2022 for spring planting. This forced us to get going as those babies would need to get into the ground. We made a place in the woods for our camper, another spot in the woods for a storage building in the future, and, wait for it…. We laid our first four rows by hand.

Alexandra, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a jack of all trades and master of none. I love life, experiences, experiential learning, nature and its power and wonder. I think I was born that way, but I can tell you that a multiple sclerosis diagnosis in the early 2000’s solidified and hardened my outlook that nature controls things, not us. I am not as granola as that may seem, but I have a huge respect for mother nature. Fundamentally, I am a marketer however. I am schooled in all types of marketing, from advertising to direct marketing, merchandising and straight up sales. Its my day job.

I think this brings a natural progression for us to be making lavender and other medicinal herb products. I have a grasp, outside of the historical and anecdotal evidence of medicinal usage, because it makes sense to me that a natural product would be better than a non natural product would. Many drugs today are made, or were originally derived, from plants. Aspirin from the Willow tree, and weight loss drug Ozempic from Goldenseal and other plants. So If I understand it, I believe it, I can sell it! Again, not as granola as that may sound, but it sure sounds more fun than selling ready to assemble furniture.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Many people speak of grants for funding. We have applied for some and they are time consuming, very specific, and often you have to solve a problem or prove something. The USDA offers some grants as well to farmers, but they often require an equal match. Meaning if they award you $10K you have to match with your own $10K. There is a specialty crop block grant we could be eligible for that funds $75K with a 100% match. We don’t have $75K cash laying around, so its out of our reach. We found the NRCS department of the USDA that has a match of 10-15%. Their programs are for conserving important aspects of farming, like water conservation. That itself makes you feel good about taking free(ish) money. A single page application, name address, basic information is all you have to fill out. You get a bump up if you are a first time farmer or underserved (minority). We have won a well, pump, irrigation, irrigation plan, bat houses, soils tests, deer food plots, fire lanes, and a high tunnel. It was about $35 in farming infrastructure that our out of pocket costs might be about $5K. They vary from state to state and have tons of programs. I encourage farmers to go talk to them.

Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?

One of the reasons we picked lavender is due its many potential revenue streams. One being products, lotions, soaps, medicinal, culinary, etc. While we did not start out with the intention of making products, we knew it was a card up our sleeve as eCommerce is our profession. Not quite like Etsy, but we have been in the B2B side of eCommerce since it started. And now with the proliferation of “marketplaces” we are pretty confident in our skills. This year, 2024, we have started making products and are testing them out at farmers markets and fairs this entire year. Once we are confident in our recipes we will put them on line.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.agapefarmsouth.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/agapefarmsouth_lavenderfarm/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100089921435262
• Other: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61555317776849

Image Credits
Alexandra Reid