Blossoming with color and filled by an unmistakable scent, Paso Robles Downtown City Park played host to the first ever Central Coast Lavender Festival on Saturday.

The inaugural festival, which was hosted in partnership by the Paso Robles Main Street Association and Central Coast Lavender Growers Association, was an opportunity for farmers to celebrate their harvest season and for patrons to learn more about the purple plant, from the field to the final product.

Packing both vendors and patrons alike into the venue, the first annual festival flourished more than even organizers had expected. In its first year, the Central Coast Lavender Festival boasted 75 vendors and a near-constant crowd to celebrate the lavender herb and its signature smell.

“You never know for a first year; you never know what is going to happen,” said Norma Moye, executive director of the Paso Robles Main Street Association. “It is a very family [oriented event]. We had tons and tons of families and it was just happy faces and everyone having a great time.”

While the lavender plant is best known for its classic, soothing scent, the Central Coast Lavender Festival featured a more diverse side of the herb, showcasing its health and beauty benefits, culinary applications and home garden potential. The event also offered children a chance to show off their creative side by hand decorating garden pots in a special kid’s section of the park.

“Hopefully, they will fill [the pots] with lavender plants,” Moye said.

The lavender festival also offered a variety of resources to adults. Throughout the event, farmers and producers talked about their products and special guest speakers discussed the health benefits of the lavender plant.

Lila Avery Fuson, event chairperson and owner of Central Coast Lavender, discussed the immeasurable difference that lavender has made in her own life. The plant is lauded for its natural anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, anti-viral and disinfectant properties and Avery Fuson believes that lavender has been a key component in helping to manage her course of Multiple Sclerosis. During the event, she said that roughly a dozen people whose lives have been touched by MS approached her to talk — something that made the event especially rewarding.

Avery Fuson’s 14-acre farm grows a wide variety of organic lavender. The buds are then processed into essential oils, soaps, lotions, culinary products, candles, pillows and more. Throughout the event, the booths that sold lavender products were abuzz with curious patrons eager to try something new.

“It reminded me of the bees in the fields,” she said of the crowd. “It was this vibration and this energy — incredible. [The Festival] was so well received.”

The event attracted everyone from novices in the world of lavender and regular users of herb to garden growers and small, boutique farmers of the plant.

“Everybody has really had a great success and I think it has brought a lot of attention to the processes of lavender and distillation,” Avery Fuson said, gesturing to the a massive copper still used for lavender distillation that patrons could see in action throughout the day.

For some event-goers the applications of lavender came as a bit of a surprise. That was especially true in the lavender tasting garden, where patrons were invited to sample lavender-infused sorbet, iced tea, desserts and lemonade. Though the culinary pairings may have been uncommon, the offerings were a popular choice amongst patrons.

Carole Talen, owner of Cold Stone Creamery in Paso Robles and co-sponsor of the event, brought out a pink lemonade lavender sorbet for patrons to taste. Talen started with lavender buds, which were brewed into a tea and added to Cold Stone Creamery’s pink lemonade sorbet. The response was overwhelming.

“Everyone loved it,” she said. “We sold out right away of the lavender sorbet. Next year we will have to make three times as much.”

Two Little Birds Bakery whipped up some specialty lavender shortbread cookies, lavender muffins and lavender lemon bars.

“I had a lot of people come back and get more,” said Danae Potter of Two Little Birds Bakery. “Everyone is really excited. We sold all out of our shortbread twice within an hour. Two dozen of our muffins have sold out and this is our second batch of lemon bars.”

A pair of Paso Robles friends, Ila Murr and Amy Valais, followed their noses downtown to the first-ever Central Coast Lavender Festival. After perusing the festival’s fare and watching performances, the two ladies settled into the shady tasting garden to sip some lavender iced tea.

“It was delicious, I didn’t think I was going to like it actually,” Valais said of the drink. “It tastes like it smells. It is pretty powerful but it is not too overwhelming.”

Murr agreed.

“It is a very nice replica of the odor,” she said.

An esthetician, Murr was already familiar with the benefits and uses of lavender and took the festival as an opportunity to stock up on a few lavender products. The addition of the lavender festival to Paso Robles is beneficial not just for educational purposes, but also as a means of allowing the community to gather together, she said.

“I think it is a wonderful idea to have it,” she said. “I think it is beneficial for people and I love Paso because it uses its park so much. I don’t think I have ever lived in a town that uses its park so much as Paso. I think it is really nice and it creates an opportunity for people to feel comfortable and enjoy where they live. With all the negativity in the world, it is really important to do that, to have that.”

A portion of the proceeds that Central Coast Lavender Growers Association netted at the event will be given back to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

For more information on CCLGA, visit www.cclga.org.

For more information about Main Street Association events, visit www.pasoroblesdowntown.org.





For the complete article see the 07-14-2009 issue.

Click here to purchase an electronic version of the 07-14-2009 paper.

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