River Ridge Farm- Lavender, Weddings, Events, Classes, Camping all in Emmett, Idaho

2012 Lavender Festival

2012-01-12T10:57:00.002-07:00

Mark your calendar for July 14 and 15, 2012! Get your friends together and carpool to various lavender farms this weekend in July. You'll enjoy great times as you relax and experience lavender as a plant, food, crafts, message oil, body and bath products, etc. Stay tuned to learn more. Keep updated and friend River Ridge Farm on facebook.

Event Planning

2012-01-08T14:04:00.003-07:00

River Ridge Farm is now taking reservations for 2012 events. We like to limit our events to 100 people. We provide the farm, garbage cans, water, limited electricity, and a farm hand on the grounds during the event. You will need to provide your out house(s), set-up, clean-up and all tables, chairs, decorations. We are a working farm and are a 99% chemical free farm. You will have the whole day, starting at 8:00 a.m. and ending at 10:00 p.m., to set up and have your event. You must be cleaned up and gone by 11:00 p.m. We do have a 10:00 p.m. neighborhood quiet policy. You can rent the farm for more than one day and have a camp-out (only fire in the fire pit). We are a working farm. We welcome phone calls and will work to customize your event. Price ranges from $400.00 to $800.00 per day, which includes the farm rental only. We have a covered back patio behind the farm house that would be a nice spot for brides to get ready or make their finishing touches. We are a lavender producer and can have lavender bouquets for decoration, lavender sachet bags for wedding gifts, and other lavender accented products for your event. Garden produce may be available for purchase if you or your caterer would like farm fresh produce for your event. We want you and your guests to enjoy a special day on the farm.

Lavender Buds and/or Fresh Lavender!

2011-08-15T18:54:00.002-06:00

Dried Lavender Buds 2011 are available and great for sachets, eye pillows, animal beds, rice bags, dryer bags, etc. #1 Clean buds are $10.00/pound plus shipping #2 Buds with some stems are $5.00/pound plus shipping When in bloom come to the farm and cut lavender. $15.00/4 year old bush or come to the farm and we will cut for you $20.00/4 year old bush e-mail your orders to: case2312@vandals.uidaho.edu or call in orders or set up a cutting appointment: 208-631-4577

Loving Garlic Lavender Rub

2011-08-15T10:39:00.001-06:00

If you have a favorite Recipe

You Love With Garlic Lavender

Post & Share!

Lavender's Friends - Sunflowers and Birds

2011-08-14T18:05:00.000-06:00

Nice to have birds to share my

morning coffee with every day!

When we first bought the farm

there weren't many birds, moths,

or dragon flies, now they fly around

all the time.

What's Been Happening?

2011-08-14T17:36:00.001-06:00

My family took the first two months of the summer off and went to Europe. While we had a great time so did River Ridge Farm's weeds. Perhaps winter vacations are best for a farm. Well we are doing the best we can. Now that our week of vacation recovery is over we will start to cut and hang more lavender, weed, water, etc. It is nice to be back.

Garlic Lavender Rub Now at the Boise Co-op

2010-10-31T10:30:00.000-06:00

This delicious herb blend is our best seller. Use it as a rub or an ingredient in your favorite spread or dip recipes. Everyone has their favorite use: pork, eggs, bruschetta, chicken, beef, bread, salmon, etc.

Tent & Stay on the Farm

2010-10-31T09:52:00.001-06:00

We had our first couple stay in our Tent and Stay. It was a great experience. It was so nice to know that there are people who still love getting away. Here are some picture of the tent and stay. I still have a lot of things I want to do with the tent and stay. A circle of changes; that's life.

Festival 2009 Recap and Relaxation!

2010-07-29T09:51:00.004-06:00

Thank you all the volunteers and visitors. We enjoyed your visit on the farm! Everyone in the family has one love in common. Water!

Lavender Festival Success!

2010-07-29T08:30:00.001-06:00

The lavender festival was so much fun this year. We would like to thank everyone for coming out and enjoying the farm. We decided to have a cheese sanwich this year for two reasons. Cheese is so diverse and fun plus whatever we bought that may be left over can be frozen. We provided various choices for the cheese sandwich. Blue, feta, herb cream cheese, parmesan, cheddar with tomato, turkey breast, garlic lavender herb blend on potato or wheat bread. Most people chose to have their sandwich grilled. This was a delightful sandwich that was served with cold watermelon. Think about it for an easy summer meal with friends.

The Lavender

2010-06-27T10:39:00.001-06:00

All the lavender looks healthy and is thanking the rain and now the sun by growing tall and showing off its beautiful buds. The festival is July 14 & 15 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. where you can enjoy lavender products, food & beverages, making your own lavender crafts/paintings, and just enjoying the solitude of River Ridge Farm. We will also have our tent and stay on preview. We are excited to share the farm experience with people who wish to camp on the farm in a real bed. We can't wait to see you at Festival 2012. 907 Jackson Ave, Emmett Idaho.

Farm Sustainability Ideas

2010-06-27T10:29:00.001-06:00

Now that the sun has decided to come out we are enjoying drying our clothes outside. I positioned the clothes line over a row of lavender to impart a nice gentle lavender aroma. I have found that undergarments take up a lot of space and work (attaching one clothes pin per item). So I use our field fencing to dry those items. Instead of spraying everything to death I use the sun and some clear plastic left over from my cold frame. I use the clear because it helps the plants to germintate because of the nice warm environment. Then it gets too hot and kills them. Black plastic will work but it won't germinate seeds. If it is not real hot where you are you can add water on top of the clear plastic to increase the temperature. If you can leave it on a couple extra days in order to kill roots that are deeper in the soil.

Directions To The Farm

2010-06-17T09:17:00.000-06:00

There are many opportunities to visit the farm. Give us a call and arrange an event or family visit of camping with your own tent or ours. 208-365-3896 or 208-631-4577 From State Street (Hwy 44) turn right (north) on Hwy 16. Stay on Hwy 16 for about 15 miles and Turn right (north) between the Chevron & Maverick gas stations onto Washington. Drive (north) through town on Washington & over the Payette River Bridge. Drive up the hill and turn left at the flashing yellow light onto E. Idaho Blvd across from the Sinclair. Drive 1.4 miles then turn left (south) on Jackson Ave and drive through the Sunset intersection. Turn right (east) onto the private gravel lane Thawed Dog. Zig-zag right and left and continue to the lane marked 907. Now relax and have a good time.

Lavender Festival 2010

2010-06-17T09:01:00.001-06:00

This year was suppose to be a lot easier. Well, not with all the rain and cold weather. Beds that normally need 1 to 2 weedings now are on their third and fourth. Winter rain, ice, and snow just sat on the ground because it was so saturated and killed a new bed of lavender. We are replanting with raised rows and culinary varieties. We use our horses to do an initial prune job around the lavender bed in the lower pasture. They do a good job, while saving us food costs and weedwacking energy. We hope to see you at the Lavender Festival July 10 and 11 from 10 - 5 pm.

Chicken Pictures

2010-05-29T12:38:00.001-06:00

Here are some of our little chicks. I have included a picture of a hen who grows her bottom beak out and it twists. I cut off a leg from an old pair of sweat pants to act as a holding device. I put her in the sweat pant leg so I can use both my hands to trim her beak. I use a goat hoof trimmer to cut her beak.

Spring 2010

2010-05-29T12:29:00.000-06:00

Well it sure has been wet. This is the most rain I can remember since we moved here five years ago. I love it. Everything is green and growing like a weed. Unfortunately the weeds have taken off and show no signs of stopping. Our lawn mower quite working and we are way behind on the trimming and mowing. We ordered a bush wacker and it is on back order unti June 15th. We have plans to borrow the neighbor's mower. Plants in the greenhouse are growing well and much of the lavender needs to be repotted into 4" pots. We have 8 pigs this year. It will be a challenge to keep the pig "aroma" away from the lavender during the festival. We plan to dry out their pen and are contemplating moving them temporarily. We bought 15 buff orphington hens and they are doing so well. When I look out to the chicken coop they look like little speckles of sunshine. Now that school is out many of the get-to-laters are going on the hurry-up-and-get-done lists. I will work to keep up the blog in my spare time. Hope to see you at the festival July 10 and 11, 2010.

Spring Has Arrived

2010-03-28T08:48:00.001-06:00

Well, we are ahead of where we were last year. That is a true blessing. We have 15 Buff Orphington chicks in a large rubbermaid ready to go out to the chicken coop and two 4-H weiner pigs in the pig pen. One cut his right front shoulder on something and we have been putting on a topical cleanser. Pigs don't like to be handled when the handling causes any discomfort at all. We grab them by the back legs and it is like holding on to a small jack hammer. Tony has spent a lot of time with his trees on the side hill. Getting rid of vegetation around the tree trunks, shading the small trees (1 to 2 feet tall), and fertilizing them takes a lot of time. We are attempting to stabalize a hillside with trees, grass, and proper watering techniques to avoid erosion. I planted three cherry trees. I have a bing and it has never flowered because I had another bing that died. Come to find out it wouldn't had mattered because bings can't pollinate other bings. A cherry farmer suggested I use Rainer cherry trees to cross pollinate and the lady at the nursery suggested a Stellar cherry. I bought two Rainier and one Stellar. We'll see. We are also putting a fence between us and the neighbors. The boys are excited to be using the post hole digger. The fence will help keep in the dogs and define the property boundaries when we have guests. The garden has the first till and I moved the spot where we'll put tomatoes. They say it is good to move the tomatoes to decrease pest problems. We had great success planting rye grass to limit the amount of punture vine on the west side of the house. This year we decided to go a bit more drought tolerant by planting thick spiked Critana, which is a wheatgrass that grows well in sandy soil. We tilled and planted two weeks ago and it is starting to come up. I planted 5 Lincoln rose bushes in the front patio area to try to prevent the dogs from sticking around in that area and trampeling down my herbs. The information says they are great smelling and beautiful all summer. Hope it works. Once I find my camera I will post some pictures. Happy planting. Remember you can plant in small containers or include vegetables in your landscaping. Lettuce worked great as an edible ground cover last year in my side flower/herb bed.

Summer Lavender Memories

2010-01-13T19:47:00.000-07:00

The beautiful lavender driveway grew into a winding fragrant focal point. I have decided that I prefer the curved lines to the straight rows. I will be experimenting with curved planting designs this summer. :) We had a bee man set two hives out and I really enjoyed all the bees. It is amazing how many different bees came a visiting.

Mini Barn for Steers and Horses

2010-01-02T11:30:00.002-07:00

Pictures of the mini barn being built and a late season use of greens in landscaping. They have bolted and still beautiful. The slant roof off the the left was enclosed on three sides. This is a great shade source and wind protection area for the animals.

2009 Review!

2010-01-02T10:55:00.000-07:00

- Well a new year is upon us and we are starting to plan out the season. It is probably a little late, but nothing seems to be on schedule with the rest of the world on a farm. Yesterday it was sooo wet from the snow melting that there was water standing an inch to two inches all around the horse paddock and the fields looked like they had all just been flood irrigated. This morning it was much better. - Last May we ordered 25 meat chickens and ended up taking 21 to the poultry processing plant. Some broke their legs because they were too heavy and some just got too hot and died. This year we will buy them earlier to prevent the heat stress. We also ordered 25 hen chicks. To order hen chicks we spent twice as much as a straight run chick. A straight run is when they just scoop in and get 25 chicks. You get what you get. Well, not happy with the results. We paid hen chick price for 13 roosters. We have killed 10 of the roosters. We decided to skin them. It is a lot harder than I thought it would be and I don't want to do it again. The meat was tough so we stewed the meat all day in the crock. - Tony is making a small loafing barn/shed for the horses. It gets so muddy that we want a refuge for them in the muddy wet winter weather. They can use it in the summer for shade. I bought treated 4x4's last summer for my outdoor kitchen that hasn't gone anywhere so we used those for the barn. FYI those 4x4's twist and bend even when they have a flat dry barn to reside. So if you buy them use them soon. So some of our posts are twisted. So what, at least we are not wasting resources. Perfection is overrated sometimes and definitely more expensive. The boys and Tony are going out to wall up three sides of the lean to section today. Christmas Break is over family. Happy New Year. -I have lavender plants in the greenhouse that I am attempting to propagate. It looks good so far. Last year I had a great start but then they all stressed and died. I spoke with a nursery friend of mine and she gave me a mini lesson and some tips to try this year. -We raised two steer with our neighbor's Holstein. The Holstein got out one day and went to live with ours. Every time we put him back in his pasture he hopped the fence. So we raised them all together and shared field pasture. We sold one steer and kept the other. We learned a lot and feel good about eating "natural" beef from our land. We had a great tomato harvest and froze a lot of tomato sauce. I only canned salsa this year. That was a mistake because the beef took up a lot of space. We had to eat a lot of tomato sauce recipes because we did not have enough room for all the sauce and the beef. I did dry some food and plan on drying more this season. I planted lettuce and various greens among my landscaping and was please with the edible results. A nice edible ground cover among the plants. I suggest you give it a go. -We moved about 40 lavender plants from the flood irrigated field to a patch that is not flood irrigated that I tried growing buffalo grass on last year. The grass did not grow, but the weeds did and I am not willing to try growing grass there again. I decided to move my lavender plants to the patch. I planted them in a 1/4 circle fan shape. I like the wavy design the lavender exhibits along our 300' driveway and am going to try planting rows with visual texture in mind. We are planning on replacing the empty lavender spots with some cut flowers that received a lot of attention during the lavender festival last year. Helenium 'Zimbeistern' (Helen's Flower) and a favorite of mine Echinacea. - Changes for this year are minimal. I would like to add a side yard of grass. I normally don't like lawns but have found them to be useful to keep the weeds down. So I used the west side of the house as a test. I planted annual and perennial rye grass seed to see if the time spent on the area would decrease. So instead of weeding time we spent time mowing and it did help cool that area down. I would rather mow than weed. Plus less puncture vines (goat heads) grew and made their way into the house. So, I am a fan of lawn as long as it serves a purpose and doesn't get doused with chemicals. :). Tony spread grass seed on the hillside during the first snow. It is suppose to help the seed grow in early spring by providing a wet mushy soil environment. We are keeping our fingers crossed. Most of my time will be spent improving the plans I have in place from previous years. Believe me that will keep me busy!

River Relaxation

2009-09-20T15:59:00.002-06:00

We love going to the river and the local resevoir after working outside. Sometimes the boys just want to lie around and read or play video games. Once they get to the river they have a great time. One nice thing about September is that less people are at the river. We like playing a game on the concrete pillars. You move upstream and once you get to the last pillar you try to keep others from taking your position. It is very similar to king of the mountain. Our other favorite game is to stand at the edge of a rock or dock and keep someone from pushing you in the water. The sun was setting and I liked how the shadow pictures presented themselves. September 2009.

2009-08-06T12:38:00.000-06:00

Time to feed the steers. We call in the stock by bellering "come boss" in a low voice. We have staying with us this week and we took the youngsters out to feed the steers. The dogs also like to eat the cracked corn. We mainly feed them grain right now so they come to a grain bucket. This helps us move them easily from one field to another. It should also help walk them in if, cross your fingers, if they get out. Right now it is all about watering and maintenance. One of my sons left the garden gate open and the horsed went in and ate all the corn. I was not a happy person. It looked so good and now it's gone. Luckily everything else seems fine. The 20 broiler chickens have been butchered and are in the freezer. We decided to take them into a poultry processing plant. It was easy and very clean. We are still cutting and hanging lavender. Some of the lower field got a little dry so I am watering an extra dose to get it caught up. Always something . . .

Dog Gone Hot!

2009-07-21T11:49:00.000-06:00

Jack, our cow dog, likes to sit in his pool as he gets driven from one chore to another. We just fill up this old plant container with water and he loves it. He even drives down the road sitting in his pool.

2009-07-01T15:07:00.000-06:00

We are getting ready for your visit. July 11 & 12 10am - 5pm. 907 Jackson Ave, Emmett ID. See you soon . . .

Lavender Festival Is Coming !!!!!!

2009-06-25T11:05:00.000-06:00

The work never ends. But the lavender helps relieve stress so it is a good thing. The culinary lavender loved all the wet weather and has decided to bloom a little earlier than it has in the past. I have the horses working to eat down the pasture grass so I can mow. The lavender festival is July 11 & 12, 10am-5pm. Silver Fox Farm is also opening up their farm for the festival. You will be able to visit two lavender farms within 1 mile of each other. To get to Emmett go north on Hwy 16, off state street (Hwy 44). You will drive on a 65 mph road for about 13 miles. Once in Emmett turn right or north on East Washington street. It is between a Chevron and Maverick. Continue through town. You will cross the river and take the next left on to Sunset. Stay on Sunset and you will reach Silver Fox Farm at 1825 Sunset Drive, Turn left or south on Jackson and right on a private drive Thawed Dog. Stay to the right on the gravel drive and turn in towards River Ridge Farm at 907 Jackson Ave. If you need more details mapquest 907 Jackson Ave, Emmett ID, 83617. www.mapquest.com Bring cash or your checkbook for purchases. We will have plenty of food and drinks, crafts you can make, lavender products to purchase, u-pick, preview our tent and stay where you can come back and stay on the farm. Come to River Ridge Lavender Festival where relaxation takes place.

2009-06-04T09:11:00.000-06:00

It is time to get chickens. We adopted a cow dog this winter and he was not a chicken friendly dog. Jack, the dog, is getting better and can be in the same area with chickens without going on an insane chicken kill. So we are adding back to our flock. We purchased 12 Aracouna's, 12 Black Australorps, and 25 White Broilers. The broilers are for eating. The picture shows one Aracouna in the dish surrounded by broilers. Here is a during picture of my lawn I am attempting to grow. I purchased the coday buffalo grass and it seems to be taking its own sweet time. But the weeds are having no problem thriving and trying to choke out the grass by providing lots of shade from their large leaves. I am now at the point that I can mow the tops of the weeds to allow sun in for the grass. As I mow I have to stop every 4 minutes to turn off the mower and wipe out all the wet weed mass. The weeds hold lots of moisture. The empty frame will be removed shortly and I will begin, with the help of my family, build the outdoor kitchen area. There are two small lavender fields off to the right (east) of the frame. Here is one of the beds east of the frame. I had a lot of water kill last year and need to replant a lot of this bed and the one next to it. What happens is that too much water will kill the lavender and the flood irrigating of the grass bordering the lavender seeps in too much and kills it. I have dammed up the top of the fields to reroute the water. I hope this helps. Here is a row of lavender growing along the driveway. It looks very good and is in its second full growing season. I have been working a lot weeding, planting, and watering. It has been nice to have cooler weather. It allows me to work longer! I decided not to plant a huge variety in the garden this year. I am experimenting with some purple potatoes. I just planted them 6-2-09 and realize it is a little late. Landscaping with vegetables. I have decided to incorporate vegetables in to my landscaping to try to decrease the amount of weed production. I am using pumpkins, squash, watermelon and cucumber vines. I am also planting tomatoes and a few odds and ends. I will enjoy not having to walk out to the garden if I want a quick tomato. Some days I work and work and look out and cannot see where I have done anything! But two days ago I worked in the backyard and saw a huge improvement! Finally, a result. A lot in farming is slow and it is nice to get a quick fix once and awhile. This week we are working on finishing the chicken coop. I have been teaching my 14 year old nail pounding technique and plumb lines. I did smash my thumb and pointing finger once in the process. OUCH! Next the tent and stay and outdoor kitchen!

Spring Time

2009-04-04T08:56:00.000-06:00

It is spring for sure. April weather is snow, rain, sun, and a little warmth (55F). I am experimenting with propagating this year and am having some success and some failure. I will try again. Weeding around the lavender plants are a priority right now. It takes some time but the rain has really helped to loosen the clay soil to aid in pulling weeds out and not the lavender plant. We have a lot to do this year to get ready for the lavender festival in July. I have researched lawn grass and have decided to go with cody grass. It is a drought tolerant grass that fills in real nice to crowd out weeds and only grows 6-8 inches tall. I purchased seed from

link: http://www.stockseed.com. 
I had the area tilled and am awaiting the seed.

I have also started some seeds inside.  The basil is doing great. 
Today my two sons and I are going to a hog auction to check out
pricing for their 4-H hog projects. My husband is working on a
holding paddock for large stock, mainly our sassy horse,
and should be able to finish that Sunday.

My husband, Tony, has purchased two feeder steers and has them
out in the pasture. We are going to move them to the arena
because we found out at our living on the land class that
the type of grass we have needs to grow taller before the
steers eat it down.  We always feel like we are one step behind. 
That's better then 10 steps.

Photo's of Change

2009-03-02T14:16:00.000-07:00

The first week we moved in was very busy and hot. August is in the 100's, and for this fair skinned red head, 80 F is hot. When we moved in there was nothing growing. The picture with the barn and a small dog house is how the field looked when we moved to the farm. The picture of the house is how the house looked. The view with the trees is what you see out our back patio. It is beautiful. We got the field tilled and began sewing our first crop of cheat grass, a noxious weed! It is so pretty and soft when it first comes up. When we were not working we were checking out Black Canyon Reservoir's swimming hole. The chickens we brought from town loved being out in the field looking for bugs. After a couple crops of cheat grass, one crop of oats, and finally grass hay. The picture with the hay bails was taken summer 2008. We harvested two cuttings and will be feeding the horses with that hay through the winter.

Lavender Festival

2009-03-02T13:59:00.000-07:00

River Ridge Farm will be holding the Second Annual Lavender Festival July 10 & 11 2010! There will be u-pick lavender, crafts you can do, water color class or products to purchase, music, food, horse shoes, relaxing, and more... Get back to nature. River Ridge Farm ~ Where life slows down ~ riverridgefarm@q.com

Moving To The Farm

2009-02-16T12:10:00.000-07:00

We moved to our farm August, 2005. We chose the property because it had some land, 6.8 acres, and a nice house, only 6 years old. There is an upper flat area, ~4 acres, a fairly steep hill and a lower pasture. When we first looked at the place my husband, Tony walked down in to a grove of trees in the lower pasture, and flushed out a couple of deer. The people who owned the property prior to us raised Alpacas and did not grow any plant matter. They had not even watered the upper pasture for ~ 6 years. The lower pasture was somewhat watered by an irrigation ditch. There was a lot of work to do. Our boys were 3rd and 6th grade students and loved being able to go outside without worrying about traffic. We spent the rest of the summer swimming and cultivating weed seed in the pasture. A lot of cheat grass was sprouted then tilled. Thanks to Karl and Sue, our neighbors, we were able to start getting somethings started before winter. We had soooooo many mosquitoes. When we would go out to irrigate the upper pasture with gated pipe we would suit up, wear a hat, and put cheese cloth over our faces. When we would put our hands down near the pipe it felt like someone was brushing a feather over our hands. So many mosquitoes.