Michele Capron had big plans for 2020. Lavender Essentials of Vermont, the tourism business she runs on the family farm in Derby, was going into its second year with a new annual 5K race, a growing campground and a farm store. She was diversifying the crops on the farm with broom corn, buckwheat, chamomile, mint and sunflowers.
When Covid came along, the camping business faltered. The state said “no” to the 5K, and Capron’s husband lost his job. Then most of the lavender crop died in the spring.
Capron quickly adapted. Last summer, the family started raising pigs and chickens, set up a bee colony and expanded the vegetable garden three-fold. They replanted lavender crops, and Capron added a dozen new herbs such as St. John’s Wort and comfrey for a you-pick herbal garden. A sweet corn maze was planned for the autumn.
With little money coming in, Capron decided to monetize the hilltop farm’s 350-degree Northeast Kingdom view. The year before, she had offered the family’s gazebo as a spot for romantic date nights, getting about 10 takers at $125 each. In 2020, with options limited for dining and gathering, she turned the gazebo into a private getaway. She installed plexiglass panels on the sides and added curtains, pillows and blankets. A small propane heater kept the place warm on chilly nights, and she started offering drinks, a charcuterie board and a small gift from the lavender farm.
Seventy couples from as far away as Plattsburgh, New York, booked in the gazebo to watch the sun go down over the mountains.
“With restaurants closing, people were bored and dying to have something to do and somewhere to go,” she said. “We really just kind of make it feel like you’re the only people here.”
This year, Capron is adding the option of a meal prepared by a chef using farm-raised meat and produce. She has a guitar player available if a guest would like music, and she has started promoting the farm as a wedding venue. Meanwhile, she’s working on a variety of other projects that take into account the reality that Covid restrictions will probably be around for a while.
Last summer, the farm hosted reiki and meditation classes in the lavender field and on a hilltop. For the summer of 2021, Capron hopes to get a yoga instructor to teach there, too.
Capron has changed the campground’s configuration to allow for more social distancing. For campground guests and day visitors, she plans to offer tours of the farm — which is 2 miles from Interstate 91 and from Derby Line — and she’s looking into food trucks. She’s taking classes in alchemy, the art of using plants and herbs as medicine for the mind and body. She’s already studied aromatherapy as part of her desire to offer guests more information.
“With each year, I’m trying to add a little more to my knowledge, so when people come, we can answer questions [about the plants] … where it comes from, why we use it in the way we do,” she said.
Last year, the farm received a federal $20,000 Covid-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan and a $500 grant from the Center for an Agricultural Economy in Hardwick. But the farm still lost money, said Capron, who also walks dogs for extra income. Her husband got a new job in the fall at a car dealership in Berlin, 80 minutes away.
Capron inherited the 12-acre property 18 years ago and said it’s been tough to support a family of four there. She is one of many Vermonters struggling to repurpose family land and create an alternative to the 9-to-5 lifestyle.
“We know we have something precious here,” Capron said. “I’m here to figure out how to make a living no matter how we have to do it.”
