‘Walking the walk’ for more than a decade
Economic snapshot: Amid U.S. uncertainty, optimism in NE Wisconsin
June 30, 2025
SURING – Summer is back in Suring’s air, as Lavender Homestead is ready for another season.
The farm is set to open July 2, and Owner Eric Knudson said he’s “always excited” as the year’s efforts lead up to opening day.
“It’s a lot of work to get the lavender farm opened out of the spring – (to) do some weeding, take care of any of the winter frost die-off, things like that,” he said. “I get nervous up until this point… But now that we’ve had some warm weather, the plants have really greened up.”
Lavender Homestead – located at 13905 Balsam Lane – Knudson said, features three acres of U-pick lavender representing seven different cultivars.
“Our varieties are mostly cold-hardy lavender,” he said. “We have a couple of different English varieties and then two different French varieties.”
With the English varieties beginning to bloom in late June, and the French “taking off (in) early July to mid-July – that’s when they peak,” Knudson said the farm’s U-pick season lasts for six or seven weeks.
“The show really takes off the second week of July, and that’s when we have our peak color,” he said. “After that, in August, the color starts fading, but it’s still really pretty out here for pictures.”
During the season, Lavender Homestead is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday.
In addition to paying for a bundle of lavender – “whatever fits in one hand” – Knudson said customers can purchase dried lavender bud sachets, essential lavender oil, lavender mist spray and soap.
The sachets, he said, are the top-selling product and are potent for a year.
“That’s a great fragrance in your pillowcase,” he said. “Or, my mom likes to put it in her purse, and every time she opens it up when she’s in a store, everyone else around her says, ‘Oh, it smells so good.’”
Knudson said with the admission fee of $2, guests can also simply enjoy the farm’s scents and scenery.
“That way, people don’t have to feel pressured to cut their own lavender,” he said. “They don’t have to do that. They can just come and take pictures, (etc.).”
Between the summer U-pick season and selling his products year-round, Knudson said Lavender Homestead has become his full-time career, which explains the touch of anxiety accompanying his annual excitement for the farm’s opening.
Thankfully, he said, between the relaxing scent of the lavender and the way this year’s plants are looking, he expects another enjoyable summer for his guests and another successful year for him.
“This is right about where I’d like to see it,” he said of his lavender crop. “It’s doing well.”
Home sweet Homestead
Before settling in Suring, Knudson – originally from Appleton – said he’d established a career as a chiropractor.
“Five years ago, I thought, ‘Do I want to work indoors and desire to be outside and work to have vacation-weekends, or should I work outside and enjoy my time outside in nature while working with it?’ – and I decided to do that,” he said.
Determining which outdoor career path to pursue, Knudson said, was based on two past influences.
First, he said he’d always had an interest in farming.
“When I was younger, my grandpa had a sheep farm, so I got to see a little bit of that kind of life growing up,” he said.
The second influence, Knudson said, came from his former practice.
“In chiropractic, it’s nice to use lavender as a relaxation aid – I would put it in the aromatherapy diffuser,” he said. “That’s where my love for lavender kind of began, with the essential oils in that way.”
Though Knudson said he looked into growing lavender at his home at the time, as he sought a better work-life balance and contemplated a career change, he said he found himself “hooked on the appearance and the look of (lavender), (and) planting it in rows.”
In 2020, with extra time for contemplation amid a COVID-19-enforced pause in his practice, Knudson said he decided to “pull the trigger on this lavender dream.”
All that was missing, he said, was the right property, when suddenly, the perfect place went up for sale not far from his parents’ cottage in Oconto County.
“What actually drew me to the property itself is that the house has geothermal (energy),” he said. “I don’t know if you want to call that ‘manifestation,’ but that was always in the back of my head – ‘Gosh, I want a house that’s got geothermal.’”
When he saw the Balsam Lane property, Knudson said, “I was hooked.”
“It was this nice property tucked back in the woods, so I see a lot of nature out here: bears, wolves – I’ve had some close encounters with both of them,” he said.
Knudson said he purchased the 80-acre property in 2021 and broke ground on his lavender operation the following year, while leasing the remainder of its farmable acreage to an organic dairy farmer.
His major equipment expense, he said, was a tractor for tilling the land, but he’s cut costs elsewhere and learned virtually everything about lavender cultivation via books and YouTube.
This is also how Knudson said he learned the arts of harvesting, distilling lavender oil and making soap.
“I use a goat milk base (for the soap), and then I add my own essential oils that I produce from the distilling process,” he said of the latter.
Other than his parents stopping out to help pull weeds, Knudson said Lavender Homestead is “pretty much a one-man show.”
However, he said he does get some other local help, and although it’s not the sort he can rely on – the price sure is right.
“(Lavender plants) are deer-resistant, so the deer, when they do come out – I’m not running out there to kick them out of the field, because all they’re doing is eating the weeds,” he said. “They’re helpful, and you don’t have to pay.”
Beneficial blooms
Knudson said between lavender’s natural drought tolerance and its expected winter die-off – “10% loss each season” – growing lavender has been about as difficult as he expected.
However, the benefits of lavender, he said, continue to be revealed.
Though the plant is best known for its relaxing scent – to which Knudson said he’s unfortunately somewhat “nose-blind” at this point – he said it’s also applicable in the kitchen.
“Our English lavender is what’s used commonly for culinary purposes,” he said, “so the little bit that we harvest of that, we sell in tins, and people can cook or bake with that. Or, they can make their own simple syrup, and that’s how you can enjoy things like lavender lemonade or use it in cocktails. So, not only can (visitors) take home the fragrance, but they can also taste the fragrance.”
Especially for the sake of the culinary lavender, Knudson said he does not use chemicals in his operation – and insisted on leasing the remainder of his property to a similarly organic operation.
This dedication, he said, incorporates yet another benefit of lavender.
Though “it’s not a foolproof method,” Knudson said the plant can play a part in repelling pesky insects and arachnids.
“If you combine (lavender oil) with other essential oils that mosquitoes and ticks don’t like, then you’ll have better luck with it,” he said. “Those products – they work out here. We use them on ourselves, because we are an organic farm, and we try our best to not use chemicals, especially within the field, anywhere on the farm.”
Reveling in lavender
Though lavender’s oil can help keep bugs away, Knudson said the plants sure do attract people.
Heading into Lavender Homestead’s third season, he said he’s grateful the farm already has its regular visitors.
“There are some customers who I know by name now, they come so often,” he said.
Knudson said the farm’s Oconto County location has worked well.
“Everyone always says, ‘There’s (a lavender farm) up in Door County, but we have to drive two hours and take a ferry to get there’ – and now they have one here, in their backyard,” he said. “We’re on a route that is easily accessible to people who are going up north. There’s an allure to Door County, too, and there are other lavender farms around here in Northeast Wisconsin… I don’t know if it’s just the energy I put out there (that leads them to choose Lavender Homestead) or if people really are just excited to see this right here.”
Since clientele commonly pose for pictures at Lavender Homestead, Knudson said he’s collaborated to bring in a new service for this season.
“We partnered with a local photographer so that every Saturday, guests can come in (for a professional shoot),” he said. “They can even schedule in advance or, if she’s available, they can do an impromptu photo session.”
Knudson said guests needn’t worry about another appreciator of the plants – the bees from a neighboring beekeeper.
He said though “the bees are going to be on (the plants) 100% of the time throughout the summer, as the buds continuously open,” over the years, he’s the only person who’s been stung – perhaps once a year, he said – at Lavender Homestead.
“I’ve never had a customer get stung,” he said, “but I get stung, probably because I’m rushing when I’m harvesting… It’s usually when I’m rushing that I catch a bee in my hand and I’ll get a bee sting there.”
Fortunately, Knudson said his crops offer yet another soothing benefit.
“The great thing about lavender is that you put the oil right on the bee sting, (and) it takes the pain away, instantly,” he said.
Planting ahead
The bees, Knudson said, are also part of his future plans for Lavender Homestead.
He said he’s collaborating with his beekeeping neighbor, Bruce, to keep two hives at the farm, “hoping to concentrate the flavor of the lavender into the honey by having the hives right here.”
“We’re hoping to time that right and get a nice crop of lavender-flavored honey,” he said.
Another new venture for this season, Knudson said, is selling potted lavender plants.
He said he’s also introducing a charitable component to Lavender Homestead this summer, wherein he’ll donate half the farm’s admission payments to a local animal shelter – a tribute to his late, long-time companion, Ruby.
“My border collie passed away last year, and she was a rescue (dog), so I wanted to honor her,” he said.
Other plans for new Lavender Homestead products may be developed after the U-pick season, Knudson said, as the offseason sees him focus on production and prototypes.
Come winter, he said he’ll pursue several ideas in his lavender laboratory, such as lotion, Epsom salts and simple syrup kits, bolstering his year-round product offerings.
Knudson said he also has plans and ideas for the property itself, as he hopes to host more private and public events and live music.
“We want to grow into a wedding venue as well, while maintaining the part that’s important to the community, which is the U-pick,” he said. “That’s the immersive aspect… the big thing with agritourism – they want to get hands on (and) into a farm.”
Expanding the farm is another goal, which Knudson said will also draw more visitors and business to “the local community – I’ve seen how much it’s impacting them.”
“I want to do everything within balance, but how I envision growing in the future is adding more rows of lavender,” he said. “So, we’ll have another field, and after having these first couple of years and seeing what the demand is, I’m going to be planting more English varieties, which will produce more culinary lavender.”
Knudson said by keeping his operation balanced, he’s able to help visitors achieve the same.
“There are so many people who come here and they’ve said, ‘I needed this,’” he said. “It’s a big sigh of relief to them. There are even some moments (when) some families stopped (here) just because they needed a break when they were coming back from a funeral, and that’s really touching when you can impact someone’s life like that.”
Lavender Homestead is appreciated for a variety of reasons, and Knudson said heading into this season, “the excitement is starting to build” for customers, as well as himself.
“(I) can’t wait, because the first thing people say when they pull up here, get out of the car (and) they take a big whiff of it – take big breaths in – (is something) like, ‘This smells so good’ – they can smell it right there,” he said. “That never gets old, seeing that look on people’s faces and hearing them say that.”
Visit lavenderhomestead.com for more information, and find Lavender Homestead on social media for seasonal updates.
