Look out France, New Hampshire Could Be the Next Big Producer of Lavender

Is Lavender Spice the new pumpkin spice?

Will we be lining up for lavender cookies and lavender lattes soon?  Only time will tell.  According to concordmonitor.com Missy Biagiotti who owns the Pumpkin Blossom Farm in Warner, New Hampshire received a Value-Added Producer Grant from the government. That means that Biagiotti will be working full-time on creating lavender fields.  Biagiotti wrote and applied for the grant herself, a huge undertaking.  Most farms don’t have a full-time grant writer and Missy Biagiotti had some previous experience with grant writing so it worked out great.

New Hampshire Doesn’t Get Many Agricultural Grants

New Hampshire is one of the states with the fewest of these grants according to the USDA.  Biagiotti tells concordmonitor.com “It’s really a waste.  If New Hampshire spent $150,000 a year on a full-time grant writer to reach out to these farms about these grants, they would make their money back tenfold.”  This is a great idea that would help farmers in our state.  Currently, the state received $564,230 of the $76 million grants offered.  Half of that went to Pumpkin Blossom farm.  Imagine how other farmers in New Hampshire could benefit if there was someone helping them write grant applications.

Lavender Fields Will be a Welcome Addition to the State

Lavender is probably one of my favorite scents.  A Lavender farm would be a great boom for tourism.  I know how nice my lavender candle smells; I would take a trip to walk through a lavender field.  Think of all the things we can do with lavender.  My wife makes lavender cookies, you could make candles and bath melts and the sky is the limit on ideas for products we could make.  I would like to see a grant writer step up and help these farms cash in on those grants.  Look out France, New Hampshire could be the next big producer of lavender!