Lavender Creek Co. finds a niche in wellness products
PHOTOGRAPHY BY MICHAEL TROUTMAN
Imagine a potential plot for a Hallmark Channel movie: boy meets girl in the big city, marriage ensues and they accidentally discover a beautiful piece of property, envisioning a sweet life ahead…as organic lavender farmers.
It may sound like a dreamy romcom, but it really happened this way for Ryan and Myriah Hopkins, the proprietors of Lavender Creek Co. in Carmel Valley. Married in 2017 at Holman Ranch, it didn’t take long for them to spot their dream farm.
“Right after the wedding, we went for a long drive and saw the property for sale,” Ryan says. They printed out the listing and taped it to their bedroom door, and “that’s what planted the seed.”
It was no mere whim, since Myriah had long been intrigued by essential oils and their uses—in fact, the couple made lavender soaps together to give as wedding favors. Lavender is a classic scent that brings a sense of calm and peace, and as an essential oil, has anti-inflammatory and antiseptic qualities. According to information from the Cleveland Clinic, lavender oils have been shown in studies to aid sleep, reduce headache pain, soothe colicky babies and even speed up wound healing.
Lavender Creek, established in 2020, has been on a serendipitous path that has led to a national sales presence and fascinating new products that trade on the healing properties of lavender. The company was recently honored as 2024 Business of the Year by the Central Coast Small Business Development Center.
“We’ve been lucky—a lot of things clicked into place for us,” says Ryan, who was working in business-to-business sales in the Los Angeles area when he and Myriah met. He was no stranger to the Monterey Bay area, though, having lived here as a youth, attending Monterey schools and UC Santa Cruz. As the business has grown, so has the Hopkins family, with 4-year-old daughter Aulora and 2-year-old son William.
They researched the requirements for lavender production and saw that the crop was a perfect fit for Carmel Valley.
Although the couple had never grown anything commercially, they researched the requirements for lavender production and saw that the crop was a perfect fit for Carmel Valley, with its dry and sunny weather and sandy soil. “Lavender is drought resistant and pest resistant, and it does well in Mediterranean climates,” Ryan says.
They planted nearly two acres of English lavender on their Carmel Valley acreage, installed a solar-powered well and got growing. The plants thrived, and a business was born. Their plan is to eventually add Spanish and French lavender, which have slightly different properties and bloom at different times than the English variety.
With Ryan’s sales smarts and Myriah’s experience in bookkeeping, accounting and finance, product ideas began flowing.
“It’s really exciting building a business together,” says Ryan. “We really like what we do, and we complement each other.”
The company offers products using its own homegrown lavender, including soaps, bubble bath and herbal balm, in addition to imported culinary lavender, which has made its way into creations at Monterey’s Revival Ice Cream and local restaurants.
But their most unique product is a lavender refreshment towel sold to hospitals and healthcare systems, both locally and elsewhere, as comfort care for not just patients, but also for staff as a way to lift spirits during tough times. The towels were developed after a customer asked for something calming and sweet-smelling to give her mother, who was in hospice care.
“We are now shipping nationwide to some of the country’s leading healthcare systems including Wellstar Health in Georgia, UCSD Health in San Diego and UMC Health in Lubbock, Texas,” says Ryan. Sometimes the towels are used for “Code Lavender” events in hospitals—an emergency designation called when staff need extra support to deal with emotionally difficult situations.
The all-cotton lavender-scented towels are also a hit with folks at nursing homes and assisted living facilities, as well as hotels, resorts and fitness centers.
Local healthcare systems using Lavender Creek products include Montage Health in Monterey, Central Coast VNA, Watsonville Community Hospital, Ivy Park at Monterey, and Sunshine Villa in Santa Cruz.
“We are incredibly grateful to our local partners as they are the early adopters of the towels,” says Ryan, who notes that some hospitals also carry Lavender Creek products in their gift shops.
The company is also supplying dried lavender for eye pillows made by the Monterey Peninsula Quilters Guild, whose members craft and donate to cancer patients undergoing treatment at Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, Natividad Medical Center in Salinas and Salinas Valley Health.
It sounds like a lot, but for the Hopkins family, it’s just the beginning. Not only are more new products in the pipeline, but they have big plans for their farm as well. They’re hoping to eventually make it a destination so that visitors can see the fields of blooming lavender and inhale the heady scent. They’d also like to develop a venue there for weddings and other events.
Meanwhile, the couple is still sticking with the wellness products that are the heart of their enterprise. Being able to make people feel better during difficult times is what their brand is for, Hopkins says: “It’s all about making people more comfortable when they need it most.”
Lavender Creek Co.
lavendercreekcompany.com
About the author
Kathryn McKenzie, who grew up in Santa Cruz and now lives on a Christmas tree farm in north Monterey County, writes about the environment, sustainable living and health for numerous publications and websites. She is the co-author of “Humbled: How California’s Monterey Bay Escaped Industrial Ruin.”
