Sequim Lavender Festival Bike Kitty Bs Lavender Farm

Visiting the Sequim Lavender Festival: A (Tiny) bit of Provence in Washington State

Added by: Cheryl

Published:

Last updated:

Sometimes referred to as "America's Provence," Sequim sits in the Olympic rain shadow, so it sees more days of sun that some other parts of western Washington State -- and grows a LOT of lavender! Here's more about Sequim's Lavender Festival that takes place each July, tips for visiting, information about a few of the farms, and a link to an interative map of area lavender farms you might want to visit.

Share via
Visiting the Sequim Lavender Festival: A (Tiny) bit of Provence in Washington State
5 1 vote
Article Rating

Sequim (if you’re not a local make sure you know to pronounce it: “skwim” kind of like “swim” and not like the shiny round things that sometimes grace leotards) is a sunny spot in otherwise-sometimes-grey western Washington State. Sitting it the Olympic rain shadow, it gets approximately 127 mostly sunny days as opposed to Seattle’s 88. So it seems to be a favorite spot for retirees, families camping near the Dungeness river or nature preserve, or growing lavender.

Sequim Lavender Festival Lavender with Provence Sign

Sequim Lavender’s website lists nine farms currently on its homepage, but many, many more farms exist in sunny Sequim. Their website, as well as the book “The Lavender of Sequim” (which you can also purchase on Abebooks), tout Sequim as “America’s Provence” or “Washington’s Provence.” Imagine you’re in France while you walk the fields for as long as you’re able to maintain the illusion if you wish. But, while I hope to discover the charms of the actual Provence soon, I love Sequim for its own Pacific Northwest charms.

Pacific Blue Lavender Sequim Lavender Festival

Some Tips on Visiting the Sequim Lavender Festival

The festival is a great time to take a self-tour of the farms. Most are open and active during the festival, but there are a few things to know before you go:

  • Carrie Blake Park is the site of the festival vendors and entertainment stage. You can find lavender products here, of course, and an assortment of arts and crafts as well as some food booths. If you don’t care about that, you can just visit the farms. But if you haven’t been there, the park is itself worth a visit for its Japanese garden and large pond. And, you never know who you might meet there…
Carrie Blake Park stage
Fig the Pig Carrie Blake Park
  • Some of the larger farms may hold their own events at the time of the festival. Purple Haze, for instance, holds its “Purple Haze Daze” the same weekend — which looks like a great event with music, gourmet food…but it costs (a pretty affordable amount) to get in, and you won’t find parking or admission unless you’ve planned and bought tickets.
  • The lavender festival publishes a pdf lavender driving and bike guidemap every year. I’ve found that not every farm is listed on their map every year. Most of the farms I stopped at on my last visit are still actively operating, and I’ve included a link to an interactive map with the locations of most of the farms. Please be sure to check the individual farms for the hours they are open to the public.
  • What follows below is a bit about some of the charming farms I visited and some photos of each. Please note, my most recent self-tour included the smaller farms — the larger ones are well worth a visit, but the smaller ones will offer fewer crowds.
Butterfly and Lavender Sequim Lavender Festival

Sequim Lavender Festival Farms

These are a few of the farms that I visited and photographed at some of the smaller Sequim lavender farms. I think they are labeled accurately but apologize in advance if I mislabeled any as my camera and GPS were not playing well together.

Kitty B’s Lavender Farm

Sequim Lavender Festival Bike Kitty Bs Lavender Farm

Kitty B’s Lavender Farm was one of the most photogenic of the farms I visited — and lavender seems to be intrinsically photogenic.

From a white picket fence and a cruiser bike with a basket full of purple blooms to the large barn to a picture-perfect gazebo, there are plenty of photo opportunities here.

Sequim Lavender Festival barn at Kitty Bs

FatCat Garden and Gifts

Pond at Fatcat Lavender

I recall FatCat as being a very friendly farm, with many people hanging out in lawn chairs, music playing. FatCat also has chickens, and some animals, a pond and, yes, they have lots of lavender and a gift shop.

Blackberry Forest Lavender Farm

Blackberry Forest Lavender Farm 1 of 1

Blackberry Forest had only a few booths open when I was there early in the morning, but their well-groomed lavender fields are very picturesque. I want to sneak back in during the golden hour to try my hand at portraits here sometime!

Purple bench and lavender at Blackberry Forest Lavender Farm

Meli’s Lavender Farm

Melis Lavender Farm Sequim Lavender Festival

Meli’s Lavender is a small field of lavender as compared with the larger farms, but they offer visitors an “Instagrammable” frame!

Nelson’s Duckpond

Sequim Lavender Festival Pond at Nelsons Duckpond Lavender Farm

Nelson’s Duckpond offers a tranquil spot to sit and gaze at the feature that gave this farm its name. Across the pond, a large, friendly red barn offers additional charm. While you’re there (if they still have it), look for Tilly’s lavender lemonade stand.

 Lavender Lemonade Stand

If you find their farm charming, know that they also offer a cabin for rent.

Sequim Lavender Farms Map

The image below is a static image on an interactive map. To visit the page with the interactive map click here or on the map image.

Please note that the map may include ANY lavender farms we’ve added since this post or lavender farms in other areas added by users as well — not just in Sequim. Also, please make sure the lavender farm is open before you decide to go — some may have closed down or closed to the public since our visit.

lavender farms map

Note: if you’re interested in Sequim’s lavender, another little book that sounds promising (but I haven’t read is Growing Lavender and Community on the Sequim Prairie, which appears to offer some advice for growing lavender (something I haven’t mastered, but I’m not in the Olympic rainshadow!)

You might also be interested in:
Railrioad Bridge Olympic Discovery Trail Sequim to Port Angeles

Riding the Olympic Discovery Trail Sequim to Port Angeles (River and Prairie Section)

The Olympic Discovery Trail is a trail running through the Olympic Peninsula from Port Townsend to the Pacific Ocean. This is the first of several posts exploring different sections of the trail, mostly from a cycling perspective.
Sequim Lavender Festival Bike Kitty Bs Lavender Farm

Visiting the Sequim Lavender Festival: A (Tiny) bit of Provence in Washington State

Sometimes referred to as "America's Provence," Sequim sits in the Olympic rain shadow, so it sees more days of sun that some other parts of western Washington State -- and grows a LOT of lavender! Here's more about Sequim's Lavender Festival that takes place each July, tips for visiting, information about a few of the farms, and a link to an interative map of area lavender farms you might want to visit.
5 1 vote
Article Rating
Subscribe to comment notifications
Notify of
guest

1 Comment
Most Voted
Newest Oldest
Inline Feedback
View all comments

Subscribe by Email

Want to keep up with our crunchy granola-like mixture of variable content? Subscribe here, and we'll send you a weekly digest of new stuff from our site, a monthly newsletter of upcoming events from our calendar, and occasional multi-content newsletters.
If you'd like to subscribe to other, specific, content areas, you can do that here.
You can unsubscribe at any time you wish from a link in the footer of email newsletters that we send.
Item added to cart.
0 items - $0.00

Manage push notifications

notification icon
Opt in to get browser notifications for new posts or for member notifications.
notification icon
Please wait...processing
notification icon
Opt in to get browser notifications for new posts or for member notifications.
notification icon
Please wait...processing
1
0
Let your voice be heard. Leave a comment!x
()
x

New Report

Close

 

Thanks for Sharing!

Hey, thanks for sharing our stuff!
If you saw something worth sharing here, perhaps you'd like to subscribe to email newsletters. This will opt you in to general occasional newsletter and a weekly-ish digest of new posts. If you'd like to subscribe to other content areas, you can do that here.
You can unsubscribe at any time you wish from a link in the footer of email newsletters that we send.