52: Part I Living Lavender with Renee Ellsworth

Michael Dugan: 0:59

Come on. Come on and do place you never been sit right down and I'll show you where my dreams began.I'm Michael Dugan, your culinary host, guiding you through the chef's journey. Join me at the chef's table where you'll experience stories, secret sauces, signature dishes and kitchen disasters.Seattle area native Renee started her professional experience as a young teenager in a restaurant. She began as a hostess at a local bar and grill in Woodinville and segwayed into service. It was there where she fell in love with people and hospitality. Rene moved into the commercial real estate realm after high school. 25 years later, she retired from commercial real estate as Vice President of Human Resources and organizational development for large P and W firm. She had a hand in forming this back in2006 when Renee and her partner began to plan their ideal life together, our legacy fields lavender farm became the dream.The goal to live a life with deep intention and spending purpose driven time doing the things that mattered most became a mission. The goal to create a life outside of big city jobs big city lives in big city stress became a primary focus today. We welcome Renee Ellensworth owner and entrepreneur of this lavender farm. Renee, welcome to the show.

Renee Ellensworth: 2:54

Thanks Michael. It's really nice to be here.

Michael Dugan: 2:56

How do you connect lavender and food and how did you discover food at an early age?

Renee Ellensworth: 3:01

Well, food foods a favorite it has been it's it's been deeply connected to who I am and more so to a sense of feeling. I have fond memories of visiting my grandparents on both sides, my mom's side my dad's side into the farmhouse The first thing you do is get you know swept up with hugs and kisses and welcomes and then you want something to eat baby, you know,come sit down let me feed you in it. So from a very, from a very young age, it was an expression of love it was you know,something that brought people together and make everybody happy for me food was was a comfort you know, feeling feeling like I belong that I was I was being nurtured not just by what was on my plate but by the people who put that plate in front of me that connection transferred over to me as a lavender farmer now in this new realm this new adventure that we were undergoing, you know,seeing the bees hard at work having a lifestyle that allows me to grow a huge garden and a fruit orchard and a berry garden keep chickens and pull eggs out of their their coops and bring it straight into the kitchen and feed my family. So all of that is creating a life that I love but also like that then loves others

Michael Dugan: 4:23

That's amazing any early dishes that you can think of anything that really like you remember from your childhood this is gonna be so many

Renee Ellensworth: 4:33

yeah there's a lot that my my grandmother on my mom's side her name was Nora she passed away but famous her famous she lived a long beautiful life like it all get to that milestone of quality and joy. Well we'd be very lucky but thinking Wow. Her famous dish was she made homemade bread and not just bread but these beautiful yeast rolls and oh how Nora's buns. I love it. My sweet old grandma bragging about her buns and it was just always something that tickled everybody and even her you know it's just a funny thing. So very unfortunately she passed before we could ever nail down her recipe she never wrote it down.It was always pitches and grab your hands on your best tools and mixing with her hands and and me and my sister I think tried to watch her create the bread from scratch before and you know like what's the sense of that pinch? We had no idea that I think I've gotten pretty darn close but nothing will be that.

Michael Dugan: 5:45

Yeah, I love fresh bread. We talked before but I work in Woodinville Washington at the courtyard restaurant, and I used to make fresh bread every day. And it was so interesting because it was this old oven, you know,this old kind of beat down restaurant, but his very famous in the area in the Seattle area,it was a really good restaurant.And we would make bread from scratch. And I would literally be doing 10 things multitasking,and I would never set a timer. I would just know when it was done. You can smell it. Yep. You just knew at the right point when that bread was ready, and you know, I mean, fresh, fresh bonds, fresh bonds every day.Yeah, one time I burned them just one time.

Renee Ellensworth: 6:31

We have to pump the brakes on it in our house. We kept the sourdough starter for geez, I think a year and everyone in the family put on like 30 pounds. It was ridiculous.

Michael Dugan: 6:46

As you're growing up, you're connected to food and in around your family. And so what, tell us a little bit about your backstory about how you left the corporate world? Why?And what led you to becoming a lavender farmer?

Renee Ellensworth: 7:05

Really great question. My first job was, like you said in that intro, that was and that's where I forged a deep connection to the guest experience and the power of place. And quality is queen and you know, customer service and making connections can make or break an experience. And so that was really important than also establishing a value for the back of the house, you know, I was the front of the house in that restaurant, from a hostess to a server, but intense value is played or placed on the people behind the scenes, the chef's evening. And they rarely get that credit that they deserve. And so all of that appreciation for teamwork, and everyone playing apart to create to create something special transferred over into the corporate arena, and becoming an executive in the corporate arena, you know, there's a lot of people behind the scenes that don't necessarily enter the boardroom or end up on the leadership page on the website.And, you know, they, they don't always get the credit that they deserve. They keep everything running. And there's there's a lot of a lot, I found a lot of personal purpose in shining the light on those individuals and trying to create an employee experience that they were proud of, and could take home to the kitchen table for dinner, you know, and their pride and in their, their body of work and what they're responsible for and feel good about it. So I all of that was really just internal customer service, I found. And in commercial real estate, it's creating the power of place,it's creating, you know, that that culture in an office that transcends to a high rise building that transcends to a neighborhood block in one of our Wow EPDs that, that can create a sub market, you know, it just it It exudes out of goodness. And I thrived in that environment for many, many years. And it it really was time to bring that home and give that same goodness to my family. And it all started up kick started during COVID When the kids snapped into remote learning, my workforce snapped into remote work and my partner became retirement eligible. And like we just all were home. And we there was a lot of pain during COVID. And I don't want to minimize that pain or or not pay homage to the suffering that a lot of people experienced. But my family my immediate family weathered it well and thrived. You know, we had meals on the table at a reasonable time. played cards with the kids in the evening. We weren't hustling and bustling the way we had been for years.Why slow down? And we came together. And so you know our dream was was to create a life of simplicity and deep meaning and we attached a lavender farming to that. That was that was the way to do it.

Michael Dugan: 10:39

So you left the corporate world successful corporate executive to become a lavender farmer to become an owner. Wow, that's really powerful.

Renee Ellensworth: 10:50

At the risk of sounding crazy, you know. I certainly don't minimize the privilege of having the experiences that I've had. You know, I definitely savored all of those moments and, you know,everyone asked me, well, it wasn't broken you Why would you work so hard for 25 years to arrive at this position, only to set it down and literally become a flower farmer? And the answer is simple. There's, I created what I consider the best seat in the house at that firm, where I could create culture and create care, and love on hundreds of employees, and bring the value of people into big business.It's hard to do. But it was definitely my joy. And, you know, I learned the vocation and the profession aspects of myself in that corporate environment. I explored what was needed, I was also good at it and paid well for it. But what needed more attention in my life was the mission piece and the passion piece of finding purpose. I look back at all the elements of my working life. And, you know, did the homework dove into the bits and pieces that I enjoyed, what were the things that lit me up?What were the things that didn't drain me, but filled me in? And really, it came down to creating a place for people? And okay,that was that was kind of a constant theme through my whole career. And how did you figure that out?

Michael Dugan: 12:34

I mean, because I, I love learning about these pathways, you know, and when I interview my guests, I hear some of these things come out, right.And there's certain things that really charged them up about being shafts being around this industry. And so, how did you figure that out?

Renee Ellensworth: 12:57

You know,tough, it's, I think it's in the feedback that I get from people,it wasn't something that came to mind or something I recognized within myself.

Michael Dugan: 13:04

No tests you took or anything? Sometimes people find it through that.

Renee Ellensworth: 13:13

You know, and funny you say that. Because when, when I was at the height of my stress, and my partner was at the height of her stress in our careers, I sent her a lead.And I said, Take this career aptitude test, you know, I'm HR executive, so I'm like, let's,let's dive into all the elements and Six Sigma and like, just figure out exactly, who you are supposed to be, you know, what,what value you bring to this world, and then also back to yourself, and, and the number one thing that came back for her was a farmer. That was for destiny as a profession I know,in that study, and she has a background in environmental science, and then and then law enforcement. Okay. And for me,it was anything that had to do with people. And so social worker, human resources,professional, you know, the things that I was like, oh,yeah, well, that makes that makes a lot of sense. My whole goal is to, you know, meet people connect with them. And in that tiny moment, whether or not you know, we're just pumping gas at the gas station, or I'm serving their table at a bar and grill in my teens, or they're in, in my office, you know, with a performance evaluation is to make them feel comfortable, and that they truly belong, exactly where they're where they're at.

Michael Dugan: 14:36

I'm going to pivot, but you make me think of something where there is an amazing exercise that that people can do that might be like, Well, what do I want to do next? And there was a guy, I think his name was Richard Bowles. And he wrote a book called what color is your parachute? And a lot of people talk about it, but they may not do the exercises. There's a special exercise in there that basically list out or helps you figure out what your transferable skills are. And it's about listing out your top life accomplishments. And I was coaching my sister and friend and some other people and literally, you write out your top 25 accomplishments in your life and that can stem from the beginning when you were a kid,all the way till you know your,your adulthood until the time you're at right now. And you literally just kind of timeline it. And for me, it's kind of interesting, because I know my brothers and sister will listen to this. When I was really young, we started a zoo, and we collected animals around the neighborhood. And I know I I was an adventurer, and I love it.Snakes, spiders and all kinds of, you know, creatures, right.And some of them, we kind of hid in the garage that my mom didn't know about, because she would have freaked out. But we opened a zoo, and we charged 2 cent admission. And we had a line out the door of people in the neighborhood and from other neighborhoods. And we raise money for the Ranger Rick Foundation, because we wanted to donate to adopt some animal or something like that. Yeah, but my point is that you take these stories, and this is one of them. And you literally list out or, or go through a list of transferable skills, like maybe there's 100 skills, and you look at every story and you analyze it, and you say, Okay, what skills tied to the story, right?So the idea is that you take seven of your top 25accomplishments, and you create stories. And so once you do that, you figure out the commonality in your life. So when you're talking about this,this is resonating with me,because that's a commonality right there.

Renee Ellensworth: 17:03

I had a year is a purpose chart in my office.And I would I would talk to others about it, you know, even if, if, you know, they might be flailing in their position. In real estate, they might not feel very comfortable with the list of responsibilities or duties that they, they were charged with doing. It wasn't about that we're not going to focus on the struggle, we're going to focus on what, what you're supposed to be doing. And if we can, we can incubate that and harness though your talents and put that into play within the org chart of, of that company, then we did it.And it was all about having,having that individual identify what they're good at and what they liked, because chances are,that's, that's where they're gonna knock it out of the park.And so, the you love it. Part of the purpose chart. Yeah. And where the world needs it, you know, there's two circles and where those two circles overlap,that's, that's your mission, you love it. That's your mission in life. And then where the world needs it, and you're paid for it overlap, that's your vocation.And where you're paid for it,and you're great at it, that's your profession, that's where you look for the job. And then where you're great at it, and you love it. That's passion. And so, in the very middle of those four rings, is purpose somewhere in there in, in that concentrated passion, mission,vocation and profession. That's purpose. And a lot of people find the thing that you're just paid for, and stay there. But are they weaving in the other aspects that are so critical, to making us contented with with our lives, you know, happy,fulfilled people. And a lot of people, you know, they are paid for, you know, their profession and vocation or one area of their life, and then they go home and enjoy the, the passion and mission part of their life.And it's segmented, and that's okay, too. For me, it was very much concentrated that way was,you know, my profession and vocation. I was good at it, the world needs it. I got paid well for it. I enjoyed making positive change in the lives of other people. But how was it changing me? in profound ways,all those interactions? Did I you know, I always took those conversations home and ruminated over things that enhanced me.But what was I really doing?Well, was I applying for a tent,sometimes 12 hours during the day, to, to give to my family,or to set an example to my children. And so that's kind of where we started to pivot in life was to do more of that.

Michael Dugan: 20:10

Wow. And so that's really what led you to kind of making a decision to leave corporate and yeah, and you move on and start a lavender farm.

Renee Ellensworth: 20:23

We began to imagine that the, you know,imagine ourselves at the end of a very long and happy, happy life. It just completely enjoyed to the fullest and picturing what were the things that made it so rich, and big business wasn't at the top of that list.It was sharing what I had,creating something really beautiful or creating a place of belonging or extending that sense of welcome that my grandmother's gave to me for doing a bit of good to other people bring some warmth to other people. And what we had was this farm in 2017. It was this, like earth shattering moment where we had the opportunity to purchase my grandparents, old retired horse farm. And that up in Stanwood,which is just an hour north of Seattle, where where we worked and beautiful 10 acre farm in this wonderful community of Stanwood Camino. And, you know,grandma and grandpa's old 1932farmhouse right smack dab in the middle of the property. Oh, wow.And the old horse barn that my dad and grandpa built together.And these fields were the racehorses that my grandpa raised, these thoroughbreds would run. And I had memories of this place. Like deep, deep memories. My our childhood swing was still hanging from the old walnut tree on this property,like, you know, I'm still my Crayola crayons are still up in the nooks and crannies of the branches. Right. But like it was just such a meaningful place.And after my, my, my grandmother passed away when I was 16. But when my grandfather had to go into assisted living, and we thought we had to sell the farm.And I drove up to the farm and met with my dad and stepmom and brought my partner and we walked it. And she was like, we can't let this go. And that, you know,it's like burst into tears. Let this go. It was probably one of my first panic attacks. I never okay, yeah, I've never knew that I had such a connection. I knew I had a connection to place.Yeah, and knew the power of place, but I didn't know what that place was, for me on a deeply personal level. You know,I was really good at creating it, you know, high rise,buildings, renovating assets,you know, creating, creating mixed use development in urban cores where, you know, people could live and work and play and all that stuff. But like this farm, I had no idea. It was interested, its roots were attached to the DNA. So okay,well, we don't know who we're going to be when in our retired life, but we know that this has to be a part of it. And so that was back in 2017, before the pandemic hit, and we just, we acquired it. You know, we held it together because there's a lot of deferred maintenance on the property. And we just sat on it, rented it out to a friend for a little little bit of time.And then when COVID hit, like,let's go, you know, we are in suburbia, and it felt really small. And we wanted our kids to have room to run, and to breathe fresh air and some space and be up close to my parents who are up here. My dad and stepmom live, literally 15 minutes away from the farm 17 door to door.Oh my gosh. Yeah. But it was, it was one of those like, let's just go, let's, let's get on this dream life of ours. And we went and planted 3200 plants.

Michael Dugan: 24:20

Oh, really?

Renee Ellensworth: 24:23

called all of our friends and family members and said, Hey, we're having a planting party. We're starting a dream, we're gonna turn this old horse farm into a lavender farm to open it up to our public and our friends and share it with our community. And if you want to come help us plant a couple of plants in the ground. We're more than welcome. I'll feed you Dad's gonna make margaritas. And we had probably, I don't know,40 to 50 people show up.

Michael Dugan: 24:48

Okay. Yeah,that's fantastic.

Renee Ellensworth: 24:51

It was incredible.

Michael Dugan: 24:53

Oh, my gosh, I could I could just picture that.I mean, you have me glowing right now my soul is glowing.And I think other people are probably feeling the same way.You know, they're listening because that's really powerful story. That's a really powerful transition, you know, that you that you went through and a risk that you took. And you've been successful. So So tell us a little about your farm. Now what kind of products do you do you create an in what is the experience like if I was to come up to Stanford, which I will with my wife because she loves lavender? And she loves going a lavender farm so we will definitely come? Oh, please do?Absolutely.

Renee Ellensworth: 25:40

Yeah, it's it's one of those magical places. It's it. We're only open in July and August. So the two summer months. That's lavender season and so july first is when we open farm gates and allow people to come in people come in and, and park there's tons of parking in one of our pastures with turned into parking. And the old horse barn the old red horse barn that I was telling you about the dad grandpa built together, he turned that into the lavender gift shop. And the hayloft on the second story of that, that barn, we turned into our lavender drying, loft. And so you walk into that red barn,and you see lavender bundles,drizzling down chains and drying and just infusing the air with the most intoxicating aroma.It's just really quite magical.But we make a ton of products here on the farm, we make soaps and lotions, and we distill our own essential oils right here in the barn. With that is lavender hydrosol. We keep bees out here.And so we have lavender, honey,we grow 14 varieties of lavender. So most people when they picture lavender, they think purple. And that is true.But there are many shades, and including pink lavender, who's white lavenders Silver's,there's deep navy blues, and we grow them all. And I mean,there's hundreds and hundreds of varieties, we only pick 14 that we know do really well in our maritime climate.

Michael Dugan: 27:22

Okay, that makes sense.

Renee Ellensworth: 27:23

Six of those varieties are culinary varieties. And that was really intentional. We wanted to make sure that we were sharing not just, you know, the the visual nature of, you know, going to a lavender farm and experiencing that impact. But also, you know,teaching the differences between x intermedius, which are nicknamed the French lavenders,and the angustifolia, which are nicknamed true lavenders or English. Those are the culinary varieties. Okay, we're learning stuff all the time. You know,we're constantly learning here and we are sharing that learning experience with people who visit. There's yard games out in the fields.There's picnic,

Michael Dugan: 28:13

I saw that on your website. That's really cool.

Renee Ellensworth: 28:19

There's cornhole there's, I've got a stack of Pendleton blankets. If you need to come and read a book. And you just need permission to do that you're gonna get we had a couple of come out and the wife is like,he needs a nap. And I need to get through this book. And I grabbed the blanket and marched out found a shady tree. And he took a two hour nap out in the lavender field. And she finished her book. And it's like, yes,that is that's the power of place. We want people to come and get what they need right here.

Michael Dugan: 28:54

Picnics I read about. That's brilliant.

Renee Ellensworth: 28:58

That you pick a you have the ability to grab some shears and head out into the fields and cut yourself a bundle. You can cut pure culinary varieties you can cut you know non culinary varieties that are long stem to use for crafting that are great to debug and put into a sachet or oh wow,it's just a million different things just a ton. And every aspect of the plant is is put to use we even compost it, shred it and put it sprinkle it in there chicken coops even like there's nothing goes to waste.

Michael Dugan: 29:36

No, that's really good. So how do we find you online?

Renee Ellensworth: 29:43

I would like to see fields.com is our website. And I'm a amateur social media er. And so I've got a Facebook page and an Instagram page. So you can find us just by doing a quick little search for our legacy fields. And you'll you'll see that we just put a countdown calendar on our website because I saw really crawling out of my skin with anticipation for this Pixies. So excited about it. Oh, wow. But we are at the Stanwood Farmers Market, which starts before we open up the farm to the public.So it kind of gets us you know,out in the community in early in June and, and just celebrating the sunny weather and the longer days with people. And then here on the farm we're open Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,Saturday, Sunday, so five days a week, and we only close Mondays and Tuesdays to weed and mow and I start carpal tunnel.