Vince V.
Yelp
My mom is a huge fan of lavender and the color purple. She buys lavender coffee, lotions, salt, pepper, candles, creams, incense, soda - basically anything that is or can be made with lavender.
This year, her friend backed out and the last minute, and she asked me to take her to the Sequim Lavender Festival. I declined, then felt guilty, since her arm is broken and she doesn't feel comfortable driving.
On the first day of the festival, we made the 2 1/2 hour drive from Bellevue, and met up with some friends from Sequim and their family.
Tip: Do not take the ferry and pay $36 - it's the same amount of time driving through Gig Harbor/Tacoma and paying $4 in toll fees, plus there's no waiting for the ferry. Yes, the water and ferry ride is beautiful, but I don't have an extra few hours to wait for the next ferry b/c the lines are too long...
In any case: Easy to find, easy to park.
The festival had about 10 food vendors, and surprisingly had little lavender offerings in their food. Why?
My mom chose to order from Horn of Africa, based out of Oregon.
Lavender chicken with rice. It was terrible. Flavorless. And she's not a complainer, so I had to taste it myself. I paid $8 for a few pieces of "lavender flavored" chicken with a scoop of rice and some wilted salad. What really pissed me off were the 3 workers that had SERIOUS attitude. I mean, outright rude. I asked for a fork, and this girl looked at me, squinted her eyes and said: "IT"S RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU!" -I replied, "They're dirty." Her reply, "Well, that's all we have."
This was after the fact that we waited a good solid minute (with no one else in line) so the 3 workers at Horn Of Africa could finish their personal conversation. I said, "Hi! Hello! Um...hi there! Can I order?" With a smile. The cash register girl was outright rude. "Oh - hi."
LMFAO!
I came close to simply taking my mom and walking away, but I didn't.
FAIL.
Onto the other vendors selling lotions, clothes, crafts, and other items - there was a large selection of products made with lavender, but I wasn't that impressed.
For $15, one can purchase a button, and take a shuttle bus that takes you to various lavender farms, whether you go to one, or all of them.
I asked the info booth ladies which was the best farm, and they recommended Purple Haze.
In lieu of the shuttle bus (that sounds like misery) we drove 1/2 mile to Purple Haze Lavender Farm.
They had parking organized, and more vendors, with lavender ice cream, coffee, and a lavender product store located in a cabin.
For $5, you can walk through the "U-Pick" section and cut your own lavender (I never knew there were so many different types of lavender?) You receive a basket, a pair of scissors, and a tie/string- cut as much lavender as you'd like that fits in the string for $5.
Overall, my mom and friends had a good time b/c they love lavender but the slow paced life of Sequim and the 20+ person deep line for ice cream resulted from the staff causally chatting with each guest made me what to scream, let alone the terrible food vendor experience.
If you ever go, make sure to arrive before noon, pack a lunch, walk the craft booths, then visit as many lavender farms as time allows in your day. I think we were there for about 3 hours.