Meet Bob and Sheila Hammervold | Lavender Farmers and High Plains Hosts

We had the good fortune of connecting with Bob and Sheila Hammervold and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Bob and Sheila, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
We didn’t really start out with a farm in mind. Initially, we just saw that we had a piece of land that wasn’t being used for anything. We thought about putting in wildflowers for the bees, but we were interested in growing something that would be useful to humans too. We ended up choosing lavender because it likes full sun on sloping landscapes with good drainage that we have, and it doesn’t use very much water. Water is a precious resource on the high plains, so that was a big consideration. We took a couple of years to try test plantings, and it was during that time that we realized we needed to start thinking of it as a farm business. We had both grown up around family farms, but on the business side we had no idea what we were doing. One day we were at a pollinator festival and began talking to someone at the local beekeepers’ club booth who told us about a group of local farmers who wanted to organize gatherings for sharing resources, ideas, and best practices. We jumped at the opportunity to learn from others in our community. We attended the first meeting and that was the beginning of the Elbert County Agricultural Association (ECAA).
Looking back it’s funny how we were reaching out to other farmers to learn how to even get started. It really paid off. We found a support network and people we can call informally when we don’t know where to begin asking questions. Through them we found places to market our products. We have developed new products. Now we’re teaching other business owners about this stuff.
The best part about our involvement in the ECAA is that we’ve formed partnerships. We’re all microbusinesses, so it’s important to find ways to dovetail interests and rely on others’ strengths. We are able to market complimentary products alongside others for added value. Or integrating our related products into one display so that customers who are looking for honey from our farm will also see jam from a partner farm right next to it.
Over the years, though our farm has changed a lot and our vision for it has changed as we have discovered what we enjoy about our business. We sell products made from dried lavender and oils like sachets, eye pillows, cleaning solutions, soaps, infused olive oil, infused vinegar, and jelly. We also sell eggs and honey. We’ve begun making products from our pinon trees as well, i.e. smudges and soaps. We enjoy making these things and selling them, but we’re happy keeping that on a small scale.
What we have enjoyed most is meeting people who are interested in the farm, farm life, and learning about growing and producing. We have begun shifting our focus toward agritourism and classes.
We just opened our first vacation rental property nearby. But opening our own farm to overnight guests and day visitors is on the slow track. The year 2020 hit us with more than just the pandemic. We lost an entire field to a disease and half of the other field to two hard winters. We also had setbacks with the lab testing on new plants and missed the 2021 planting season. Also, during the pandemic, we built another house on the property for Sheila’s parents, which turned the property into a construction zone. We are still renovating our own home too.
This year we started seeing progress on rebuilding the field with new plantings. We feel like we have better strategies for getting the plants through winter. Our goal is to have the property in shape for visitors by the time our new field is filled out. In the meantime, we are happy to be able to offer the vacation rental nearby. We’ve been showcasing our products and products from other local farm businesses at the rental so that people can see what we have to offer in our area and hopefully become curious about how things like soap, jam, coffee, and other basics end up on their grocery store shelves.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
Bob is a career architect, designer, and builder. Sheila is a career meeting and event planner. We gain a lot of satisfaction out of creating something new. Whether it is a product or an experience or a building or a field of flowers we enjoy making dreams become reality. We are service oriented people so we enjoy making other people’s dreams come true also. That and the fact we love to entertain and meet new people translates well into the hospitality side of agritourism. When people stay with us and visit our community we want them to have unique experiences that create wonderful memories. For some people that’s learning to rope in the backyard, for other people it’s holding a rooster, for some people it’s watching the sun set on a quiet deck, for someone else it’s bringing home a gift that has a special story attached to it. We certainly have a story that we can share about any of our products, but the people who visit us are taking home stories about themselves and of their own making. We love making that possible for our guests.

Even when we go to lavender festivals, we make a production of it and create a pop up mercantile. It started because we enjoyed creating the experience for ourselves. Since we stand there all day, we ought to enjoy it and be proud of it. Now we have people who tell us they always look for our booth not just because they love our products, but because they love how it feels like a unique experience.

We should add that we couldn’t do any of this without our partners. Our pop up mercantile isn’t just populated with products that we make. We have to fill it out with products from our neighboring farms. And agritourism isn’t created by just one farm. We certainly have the perfect vacation rental for making the rural experience complete, and we offer lots of options there, but people want to see and do more than that. Our entire community has a lot to offer and draw people to our area.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
We really enjoy hiking, so two of our favorite nearby spots are Castlewood Canyon and the Paint Mines. They are both easy hikes for visitors, but make you feel like you really did something. Castlewood Canyon is what most people expect to see in Colorado. Sheila’s favorite, though, is the Paint Mines at Calhan. The rock formations are beautiful, but the plains and sky that go on as far as the eye can see are breathtaking. Another great spot for that is Lucky Acres Alpaca Farm, which can only be visited by appointment. It has that same expansive view as the Paint Mines, and it is a great place to take kids to see alpacas, goats, chickens and other livestock. They will also give demonstrations on spinning fiber into yarn, which is neat activity for kids. Twisted Shed and Serenity Acres also teach fiber processing and allow visitors to meet the alpacas near our vacation rental. If it’s the right time of year, Olde Willow Mercantile has a one-day herbalism class that includes a foraging walk for people who want to learn how to identify useful herbs in the wild.
In town, we recommend Elizabeth’s historic Main Street where there are antique shops and gift shops featuring products from local makers. Also everyone who comes to visit us is taken to El Pinito Mexican Restaurant, which has great service and great food. Of course there is also Patty Ann’s Café in Kiowa for the authentic small town diner breakfast.
A lot of people like to meet local growers, producers, and artisans; and there is an opportunity for that almost every weekend here. When there isn’t a rodeo or festival to attend, the Elizabeth Marketplace is open every other weekend.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
First, we would give a shoutout to the Elbert County Agricultural Alliance (ECAA), which is an advocate for microbusinesses in agriculture and providing education on homesteading skills. Our county is growing and it’s important for newcomers to a rural area to know how they can be self-reliant and how they can find local resources. Second, we would give a shoutout to the Elizabeth Area Chamber of Commerce. Small town chambers have to work ten times as hard as metro area chambers with one tenth of the resources. The Elizabeth Area Chamber has a solid foundation for growth but needs more volunteers to support programming and expanded member services.
Both ECAA and the Chamber are the kinds of organizations where people might ask “what’s in it for me?” The answer is you get out what you put in. There are dedicated volunteers in both of these organizations who are giving their time to build up local businesses and create a sense of community, as newcomers from the metro area is spilling in. As the population grows the need for community organizations like these grows. Those who want to maintain a sense of community need to take on commitments in their community to be a part of it..

Website: https://ponderosaplains.com

Instagram: farm_diva_pp

Facebook: @PonderosaPlains

Image Credits
All photo credits: Sheila Zuschek Hammervold