We were lucky to catch up with Monica McLaughlin recently and have shared our conversation below.

Monica, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us 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.

The idea for Among the Trees Botanical Lavender Farm didn’t arrive all at once. It really began years earlier with a small lavender product business I started called McLaughlin Lavender.

At the time, I was learning everything I could about lavender — growing it, harvesting it, and turning it into handcrafted products. I quickly fell in love with the plant itself. Lavender is beautiful, useful, calming, and incredibly versatile. But the more time I spent working with it, the more I realized I didn’t just want to make products from lavender — I wanted to grow it and build something around the land itself.

When my husband and I began looking for property, we weren’t searching for a perfect farm layout. What we found instead was a piece of land in Goldendale, Washington that felt almost like it had its own personality. Oak trees scattered across the meadow, volcanic basalt stones, wildflowers in the spring, and wide views of the surrounding mountains.

Standing there for the first time, it felt less like discovering an idea and more like recognizing one.

The land didn’t feel like a place that wanted to be forced into straight agricultural rows. It felt wild and alive. That’s when the vision for Among the Trees began to take shape — a botanical lavender farm designed to grow with the landscape instead of against it.

Instead of clearing trees or flattening the land, we imagined lavender, herbs, flowers, fruits, and vegetables tucked gently into the spaces between the oaks. A place where pollinators thrive, where soil is cared for, and where people can come slow down for a while.

Part of what made the idea feel worthwhile was realizing that the farm could become more than just a place that grows lavender. It could become a place that brings people together — through workshops, farm tours, hands-on experiences, and simply spending time in nature.

There are plenty of lavender farms, but what excited me most about this vision was building something that felt deeply connected to the land itself. A regenerative, off-grid botanical farm that evolves naturally over time.

In many ways, we’re still at the beginning of that journey. But that’s part of what makes it exciting. We’re not just building a farm — we’re growing a place.

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.

For readers who may not be familiar with my story, I’m the founder of Among the Trees Botanical Lavender Farm in Goldendale, Washington.

My path into farming didn’t start in agriculture at all. Earlier in my career I worked in hospitality, tourism, and community development, and I’ve always been drawn to creating places where people can gather, connect, and experience something meaningful together.

Plants have always been part of my life as well. Growing up, I spent a lot of time in the garden with my mom, and even now I probably have more houseplants than I know what to do with.

But lavender entered my life in a very specific moment.

As a freshman in high school, my color guard “big sister” gave me a small purple glass jar filled with dried lavender buds. It was the first time I had ever smelled lavender. I remember opening the jar and immediately falling in love with the scent.

Years later, when I was working as a collegiate lacrosse coach, my now-husband and I were living long distance. I traveled from southern Colorado to Portland to recruit at a tournament, and he came to spend the weekend with me. We decided to stay somewhere unique and ended up booking a tiny house on a lavender farm.

It was the first time I had ever seen fields of lavender in full bloom. Standing there surrounded by thousands of purple flowers, something just clicked.

Not long after that trip we got engaged, and eventually we were married at a lavender farm in The Dalles, Oregon.

Looking back, lavender kept showing up in my life long before I realized it would become my path.

What began as a small handcrafted product business called McLaughlin Lavender eventually grew into something bigger. The more I worked with the plant, the more I felt drawn to building a place where lavender could be grown, experienced, and shared with others.

Today my husband and I are building Among the Trees Botanical Lavender Farm on an off-grid property in Goldendale, Washington. The land is a beautiful mix of oak savanna, meadow grasses, wildflowers, and ancient volcanic basalt rock. Instead of forcing the landscape into traditional rows, we’re designing the farm in relationship with the land itself — allowing the natural shapes of the meadow and the oak trees to guide where things grow.

Our vision is to create a regenerative botanical farm where lavender, herbs, flowers, fruits, and vegetables grow together in small garden spaces woven throughout the landscape. Alongside the farming side of the business, we create handcrafted botanical products like soaps, skincare, teas, and lavender goods.

We’re also in the process of planning fun events and experiences at the farm through our events business, McLaughlin Events & Marketing. Our hope is to host workshops, seasonal gatherings, and hands-on experiences that bring people together and help them reconnect with the land.

What excites me most is that we’re not just building a farm — we’re creating a place. A place where people can slow down, learn, and experience the beauty of growing things.

And in many ways, the story is still unfolding.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Starting this farm has required a lot of resilience, even before we ever planted the first lavender plant.

Before beginning this chapter, I spent years working in sports and tourism. I moved across the country for a collegiate lacrosse coaching position and started a women’s lacrosse program in Eastern Oregon, where lacrosse didn’t exist. Just a few months after arriving, COVID hit and everything changed. It was one of the hardest professional challenges I had experienced.

During that time I began asking deeper questions about what kind of life I actually wanted to build. I realized I kept coming back to the same things that had always grounded me growing up — being in the garden with my mom, working with plants, and creating beautiful experiences for people through events.

Eventually that led to starting McLaughlin Lavender and McLaughlin Events and Marketing.

What began with just a few lavender plants in our side yard and handmade products slowly grew into something bigger — farmers markets, retail partners, and eventually a vision for creating a place where people could reconnect with nature.

One of the biggest leaps of faith came when my husband and I purchased land in Goldendale, Washington. For the first six months we lived very simply on the property (Glamping) while getting utilities figured out and beginning the early stages of building the farm. It meant learning new skills constantly, solving problems as they came, and trusting the long-term vision even when things felt uncertain. We lived off grid with having to use a rotation of small solar generators to charge our devices. We officially now have updated solar as of yesterday, and what a difference it has made already. I am excited to watch a normal tv and use the oven again.

Resilience in entrepreneurship often looks like continuing to move forward even when the path isn’t perfectly clear yet.

Today that journey has grown into Among the Trees Botanical Lavender Farm — an off-grid regenerative lavender and herb farm where we are slowly creating gardens, pollinator habitat, workshops, and experiences that help people slow down and reconnect with the land.

Looking back, every challenge along the way helped shape the path that led us here.

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

McLaughlin Lavender actually started while I was serving as the Executive Director of La Grande Main Street Downtown.

One of the projects I helped create during that time was the La Grande Women in Business event, which brought together incredible female entrepreneurs from across the region. Being surrounded by women building their own businesses was incredibly inspiring, and it planted a seed in me that I might want to start something of my own.

One evening during a girls’ night in our backyard, I said something out loud for the very first time: that someday I wanted to start a lavender business and live on a lavender farm where I could grow plants and host events.

Up until that moment, it had just been a quiet idea in the back of my mind. Saying it out loud made it feel real.

Not long after that, I began taking small steps to see if it could actually work. I started learning about lavender, experimenting with products, and selling at local markets. What began as a small idea slowly grew into a real business.

I officially launched McLaughlin Lavender in June of 2023, and over time it expanded into farmers markets, retail partnerships across the Columbia River Gorge and Eastern Oregon, and eventually into a bigger vision.

Today that vision has grown into Among the Trees Botanical Lavender Farm, where we are building a regenerative lavender and herb farm, creating botanical products, and developing farm experiences and events through our events business, McLaughlin Events.

Looking back, it’s funny to think that the whole journey started with a simple conversation in a backyard.

Sometimes the first step is just saying the dream out loud.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://amongthetreeslavenderfarm.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amongthetreeslavenderfarm/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amongthetreeslavenderfarm
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/among-the-trees-lavender-farm/

Image Credits

McLaughlin Events & Marketing
Whiskey Creek Marketing & Multimedia