Aromas

New lavender and honey farm opens its doors

Just minutes west of Wellington, you’ll find Millefleurs, a new lavender farm and apiary, complete with sprawling grounds and a gift shop. The brand-new business chose an intense time to open— during Canada Day and the Lavender festival— but seem to have to weathered the storm unscathed. Aside from having to play catch up replenishing their entire stock of soaps and creams and running out of some types of honey, it’s been a very positive and friendly few weeks.

(L_R): Millefleurs owners Wilma Vreeswijk and Sylvain Segard stand in their shop in front of a block of lavender soap that Vreeswijk is finishing.

Owners Sylvain Segard and Wilma Vreeswijk have been married for what Segard jokingly says is “too long that I care to be quoted on,” and bought the property three years ago after they both retired from careers in Ottawa as senior executives with the federal government. Their dream was to live on and tend to an active farm as their retirement project, and the two have been developing the land slowly—planting the first lavender field two seasons ago and the second field last season. They had enough of a lavender crop last season from the first field to head to the farmers’ markets with some product, and that’s where the buzz started. They also had some honey to sell, because even before the house on the property was built, Segard had been here living in a trailer getting the land ready and taking care of the bees on the property, who technically moved in before everyone.

The couple moved to their new house just before Christmas of last year and then almost immediately devoted their attention to building the barn, which was built by Ray Mulder and his sons in the spring. They started fabricating product as soon as the facility was ready and then it became a race to stock the shelves before the Canada Day opening.

But everything came together in the end and the opening went off without a hitch. Segard was incredibly pleased with the response.

“We got tons of people out for our opening and lots of local support. Many local businesses also gave us kudos, which was so nice to see. It shows what a great community we live in and it makes us even prouder of our new business,” says Segard.

The gift shop is filled with an array of lavender infused soaps, creams, oils and chocolates. Each piece of soap is handcrafted in-house by Vresswijk, who makes each piece with love. Today she is making a healing cream deemed to be good for the skin. Her shop is filled with colourful soaps that look like cupcakes and slices of multi-layered Black Forest cake.

“It’s a handcrafted soap, so in my mind it should look fun. I started making soap with my kids and then when I saw all this lavender I thought about making some larger batches. I make everything look like it it’s edible. In fact I have to remind people sometimes that it’s not,” says Vreeswijk.

She also went on to say that she had made 800 bars of soap for the opening and she is still making bars every day because the response has been so positive.

The new property also features a distillery so that the extraction process for the essential oils can happen onsite. “I want people to come and enjoy the fields, but I also want them to enjoy the oils and the products that we make. I want them to feel good when they use them, and that means a lot to us,” says Vreeswijk.

As far as the apiary goes, it is situated towards the end of the property in colour-coded boxes that house about 20 hives. In total, Millefleurs has roughly 80 hives located throughout the County, some in Hillier, some on different wineries. Segard tries to choose the location based on the taste profile of the honey that can be extracted from that specific area.

But for Segard it’s not just about the honey. It’s about the bees and their importance globally right now. Its also about the couple finding a way to give back with their new property. Not only as a family gathering place, but as a place that honours nature and its inhabitants.

“We’ve come up with a motto which is ‘helping bees, one flower at a time’. There are hundreds of thousands of blooms right now, but as you know the bees are having a really hard time. Part of my personal mandate of developing honey in the future will also be to inform the public on the plight of bees,” says Segard, who went on to say that he is also looking to start a group with some likeminded people to restore habitats, creating more forage for bees and sensitizing people to their practices so that they can be more bee-friendly.

As for future plans, Segard and Vreeswijk have another trick up their collective sleeve in that Segard is a certified sommelier.

“All my friends thought I was going to plant vines and I told them that by the time you bury me I might be able to taste the first vintage. So, I said no let’s raise some bees and make the best mead wine the province has to offer.” says Segard.

Millefleurs has a goal of increasing its hives to a point that they can obtain a wine production permit. A portion of the new building has been dedicated to a meadery for next season if all goes to plan. There are a lot of steps from a regulatory point of view, but Segard is optimistic that next year there will be some mead production onsite.

As far as business hours go, Millefleurs does have scheduled hours, but in the summertime, everything is negotiable.

“We are trying to keep with our posted hours, but people just show up at all times, so if we are here and able to do so, we will open our doors earlier and stay later,” says Segard.