The Whitebay Story
Welcome to Whitebay World of Lavender. Nestled against the hills in Hawke’s Bay’s picturesque Esk Valley, Whitebay is a wholly New Zealand and family owned business, which opens 7 days a week throughout the year.More than 20 thousand lavender plants are grown, picked and distilled here and used to create a range of cosmetic products, all of which can be purchased on site. Visitors can also enjoy an information packed tour of the lavender farm and distillery and while away some time enjoying fine food and coffee while viewing the lavender plants.
Whitebay is most striking in summer, when thousands come to enjoy the purple sweep of lavender in full bloom. Few people could fail to be seduced by the intoxicating aroma and persistent humming of the bees in a lavender field like this one. However Whitebay is a fascinating stop on a trip to Hawke’s Bay in any season. Owners Liz and Max Patmoy are passionate about lavender and always keen to share their knowledge and love of the plant.
With much of New Zealand’s population and the country’s major international airport located in the upper half of the North Island, Esk Valley is the gateway to Hawke’s Bay for many travellers. Driving into the valley from the north, visitors enjoy their first taste of Hawke’s Bay Wine Country, passing vineyards belonging to some of the region’s famed winemaking companies.
With much of New Zealand’s population and the country’s major international airport located in the upper half of the North Island, Esk Valley is the gateway to Hawke’s Bay for many travellers.
Driving into the valley from the north, visitors enjoy their first taste of Hawke’s Bay Wine Country, passing vineyards belonging to some of the region’s famed winemaking companies. From Whitebay it is just a short drive to Napier, the art deco capital of the world, on to the region’s unique gannet colony at Cape Kidnappers and the lush Heretaunga Plains, a food basket of fine fresh produce for New Zealand and the world.
Whitebay’s distinctive American-style red barn is a relatively recent addition to the Patmoy’s property. Max and Liz originally farmed the traditional sheep and cattle, but became passionate about lavender while travelling in Italy. Back in New Zealand months of intensive research convinced them that diversification offered exciting possibilities. They opted for the Grosso hybrid of lavender, a commercial strain discovered in France in the early 1970s, which has strong scented violet flowers and yields an excellent oil. Two hectares of the plants now flourish at Whitebay.
Lavender is both a beautiful and useful plant which of course existed in the wild long before it was farmed. In fact it has been cherished by virtually all cultures, not only for its fine fragrance but also its valuable medicinal properties. Lavender is one of the few herbs that has never gone out of fashion.
Lavenders belong to the Labiatae family, a group that includes many other aromatic plants such as mint, thyme, oregano and sage. There are 28 known species of lavender and many more subspecies and hybrids. The profusion of varieties makes it difficult to be certain of the plant’s origins. However, the modern consensus is that lavender originated around the Mediterranean, the Middle East and Northern Africa – where it thrives in the hot, dry conditions and light soils. Other places with native varieties include the Canary Islands, India and parts of Asia.
Cultivation of lavender oil is thought to have begun in the 16th century, although the plant provided riches for hundreds of years before that. Lavender is surrounded by a host of legends, fairy tales and religious parables. Adam and Eve are believed to have taken lavender with them when they were banished from the Garden of Eden and the Devil, that harbinger of disease and ill fortune, can apparently be repelled by lavender. A sprig of lavender has often been a token of remembrance between sweet hearting couples and, in folklore, the aroma of lavender promotes an almost drunken stupor in some men. It is said that the snake which poisoned Cleopatra lurked beneath a lavender bush and, indeed, lavender’s perfume accompanied every Egyptian through their life and remained with them after death. When Tutan Kamun’s tomb was opened in 1922, 3000 years after being sealed, traces of lavender fragrance were found.
The Romans are credited with beginning the lasting association lavender has with freshness. In fact the word lavender is thought to derive from the Latin lavare meaning to wash. The Romans scented their baths with lavender, used many lotions that contained lavender and burnt it as an incense or on hot coals to honour their gods and dignify ceremonial occasions.
The Greeks too thought highly of lavender, both for its fragrance and medicinal qualities. Dioscorides, a Greek physician and botanist, waxed lyrical about its perfume and believed lavender had laxative and stimulant qualities which made it useful for treating chest complaints.
In the Middle Ages the monks and nuns maintained knowledge about herbal medicine, cultivating lavender for its healing properties but also for its culinary uses – as a sweetmeat, or in jellies, jams and relishes. Elizabeth the First reputedly drank up to 10 cups of lavender tea and day and in Victorian times, no good home would have been without lavender smelling salts and a small blue bottle of lavender oil.
Lavender has been regarded as a healing herb through many centuries when the plants of the countryside were the people’s medicine chest. During the Plague of London in the 1700s, lavender nosebags were used to fight infection and its antibacterial qualities were also the reason lavender oil was doused on wounds on the battlefield during both World Wars.
Lavender is perhaps unique among natural medicines in that it can both soothe and stimulate – on one hand being an effective tonic for healing infections and abrasions and, on the other, a mild sedative to relieve stress and insomnia. Many of its legendary uses, as a pain killer, a relaxant and an antiseptic, have proven to be legitimate, after modern scientific testing.
Lavender is an essential ingredient in aromatherapy as the oil, when burned, will scent the air with a romantic and soothing fragrance. It is also a central agent in many cosmetics, including creams, salves, balms and in rejuvenating toiletries such as lavender water. And, let’s not forget that the world’s first perfume was lavender water and that some of the most reputable perfume companies, such as Yardleys, founded their business on products based principally on lavender.
Whatever its purpose – for magic and ritual, as a good luck charm and protector, a medicine, cosmetic or an ornamental attraction – lavender is an essential garden plant. It was one of the first plants brought to New Zealand by immigrants in the 19th century and now graces gardens, in its many forms, from the far north to the deep south.
Hawke’s Bay’s Mediterranean style climate is ideal for growing lavender. The plant is both versatile and resilient but does best in light sandy or gravely soils that are well drained and positioned for plenty of sunlight – just what Whitebay can provide, Very few pests or diseases bother the lavender and any enemies that do enter the fields here are controlled with environmentally friendly practises, using birds and insects not pesticides.
The productive life of these lavender plants varies from 8 to 15 years. At Whitebay new plants are propagated on site with any not needed as replacement stock, being sold to would-be growers. The planting of lavender in neat rows has been common practise in lavender fields since the mid 1950s, when machines began to ease the toil of harvesting by hand.
The lavender begins to flower in October but harvesting doesn’t begin until the height of summer in January. The first cuttings are by hand – armloads of lavender are gathered, tied in bunches and hung inside. When the flowers are dry, they are manually rubbed for use in lavender bags, sachets, soap, incense and pot pourri.
The harvest for oil takes place on a dry, warm and sunny day when the scent is heavy on the air and the flowers are alive with bees. For Liz, determining when to start is not an exact science but a case of practise makes perfect. As the right time approaches, she picks a selection of stems, running her fingers through the florets to gauge whether the fragrance is sweet enough to signal optimum maturity. The crop must be dry before it is the cut so Whitebay’s harvester, a machine specially created for the task, never begins its journey up and down the rows before the dew has dried on the leaves. With a whole year’s work dependant on the outcome of a harvest completed in just 5 to 7 days, all hands are on deck to ensure the process runs smoothly.
To produce top quality lavender oil the flowers need to be distilled as fast as possible after cutting. Sacks of fresh lavender blooms and stalks are trampled by foot, transferred into a metal basket and weighed, before being hoisted up and into the stainless steel boiler.
Jets of steam will shoot up through holes in the bottom of the basket, opening the flower calyx and allowing the oil to be extracted. It is vital to screw the lid tightly down and carefully check the pressure and temperatures if quality oil is to be produced. Distillation is an extremely delicate process and any errors at this stage can change the make-up of the fragrance and render the oil virtually worthless.
After about half an hour in the still the lavender has released its oil and, together with the steam, forms a vapour, which passes through a condenser. As it runs through a myriad of tiny pipes in the condenser, the vapour is cooled by water, a process that separates the two liquids and allows the honey-coloured oil to settle on top. (piece of Liz describing this)
In line with the clean, green philosophy at Whitebay, nothing goes to waste. The steaming hot lavender debris, which can take more than 6 weeks to completely cool after coming out of the still, is composted and sprinkled between the lavender rows in autumn, once pruning is finished.
Oil yield and quality varies from season to season, depending on the age of the lavender plants and the all-important weather conditions. Plenty of sunshine in the weeks before distillation is the best guarantee of fine oil.
Whitebay is proud of the quality of its lavender oil. As members of the New Zealand Lavender Growers Association, its oil is regularly tested for purity and quality and to ensure it reaches internationally recognised standards. Whitebay belongs to a co-operative of lavender growers from around the central North Island who combine their oil to produce a range of products under the Villa Wood label. The oil is sent to Lincoln, where it is analysed and tested by qualified chemists before being used in natural recipes for hand and body creams and washes, bath soak, talcum powder, salve, balm, soap and talcum powder.
In summer Whitebay is a hive of activity. Tours can be organised any time, any day, giving visitors a unique snapshot of lavender cultivation, from planting through to end products. Depending on the time of year, our friendly staff will guide you through the lavender fields and the distillery, concluding with an opportunity to smell and sample the inviting range of lavender products on sale.
No visit to Whitebay is complete without stopping to relax at the café. In warm weather visitors dine al fresco, and can enjoy wonderful coffee, herbal teas, a range of culinary temptations and award winning Kapiti ice creams.
Seeing a field of lavender in bloom is a sight never forgotten. Just standing near this truly magical plant can cheer the spirit and induce a feeling of calmness and well being, while its sweet heady perfume may well leave you enamoured for life.
We hope you have enjoyed your tour through Whitebay World of Lavender, a place where service is not forgotten. Do visit again and share our passion for lavender, the gardener’s delight.