Inside

The barn was originally framed by the Amish for raising shrimp indoors. With the high demands of time, workload, and being pioneers in indoor shrimp farming, it was unable to be sustainable. Through various struggles to stay afloat, we decided to create a venue to host weddings after Webb’s oldest daughter had recently gotten engaged. Melinda felt confident it could work, “but we need to make it look cute,” she would say. People learned of our venture, like an owner of an old barn in Vallonia, IN, and began to donate materials. The 200-year-old structure was dismantled and up-cycled to the current front porch. Even the tin roof was used to cover the walls inside in the north and south end of the barn! The inside was stripped of all remnants of the shrimp production, except for the shrimp nurseries (which now serve as buffet tables).

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Outside

Once the barn had a use, we looked at the acreage. Although much of the land is planted with soybeans or corn to a neighboring farmer, Steve thought it would be nice to plant a crop of our own, and we settled on Lavender. He sold Melinda on the idea and they decided to plant 100 plants of different varieties to see how things would go. Throughout the journey, they received much support from previous owner (Brent Ables and family), Melinda’s sister (Kara), brother-in-law (Daniel Fields), and Friend (Rick Maley). Currently, they now raise culinary varieties such as Munstead, Hidcote, Folgate, Royal Velvet, and Phenomenal to extract essential oil. They use the specialty crop to make value added products such as neck wraps, eye pillows, sachets, and selling the bundles in their dried form. Additionally, they have a line of tea along with soaps, lotions, room sprays just to name a few. These items are always found at our annual Lavender Daze Festival in June and again when they celebrate Christmas on the Farm in November. Recently, they have added our newest member to the farm in the form of a 1951 Chevy Truck.

Agritourism

It’s Melinda and Steve’s desire to make the farm a destination for people to visit and build memories with their friends and family, whether it be a concert, yoga on the lawn, picking a bundle of fresh lavender or sunflowers, or our favorite…weddings! They have discovered a few delicious lavender recipes that keep customers returning. Lavender wine slushies, lavender lemonade slushies, and lavender shortbread cookies are just a few favorites. They are proud to host many bridal and baby showers, proms, and even political party fundraisers. Over the years, they continue to build a sustainable farm that will imprint lasting memories to those who visit. The statement said by many is that they feel like they are home when they step foot inside and look around at the coziness the twinkling lights offer.

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Moving Forward

“We will continue to improve the property. Covid affected us in similar ways to many others, and we unfortunately had to postpone many weddings. While we were shut down, we created a beautiful crushed-stone pathway and gathering space adjacent to the barn. This was completed with a Pergola made from the up-cycled old barn beams as a place for guests to gather. If it’s a chilly day or night, propane powered fire pits can be enjoyed. The pathway leads you to the back of the barn that opens up to a meadow and at the center has an alter for ceremonies. This year, we also completed our mini goldfish pond with covered bridge. Many people in our area are from Columbus and know the history of the Clarion hotel that was torn down. They will appreciate that the covered bridge was relocated to our property from the pool area. It’s always fun when guests find out and smile. It often reminds them of a time they spent at the Holidome for the birthday parties that took place near the indoor pool.”

The current project now is to complete a covered porch and lean to porch down the west and south end to offer much needed shade and shelter in case of rain. Future plans include a new altar we hope to complete in the year 2022.

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Inside

Inside

Meet Our Executive Chef

Outside

Outside

Agritourism

Agritourism

Meet Our Executive Chef

Moving Forward

Moving Forward

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