Tracy and Chad Smith, co-owners of Long Row Lavender Farm, make bath and body goodies for their love of flowers. “I wanted to create products people would be proud of having in their homes,” Tracy explains. “It’s true that lavender’s soothing smell offers plenty of aromatherapy benefits,” she says, “but I also wanted to make products that would be beautiful, like our flowers.”
Originally a hobby farm, what would become Long Row Lavendar Farm (a thriving flower farm, cafe and the host of maker’s markets three times a year) started out gradually. “We wanted a place where our kids could grow up with their hands in the dirt, growing things,” Tracy says. So, the couple bought the farm in 2007, when their four kids were still little, and they started planting vegetables. “But by harvest time, we discovered the deer and racoons had eaten everything,” laughs Tracy. “Which is why I started looking into plants the deer wouldn’t eat.” It was then that she had the great idea to grow lavender.
The lavender grew well and produced a beautiful harvest. “But then what do you do with so many flowers?” Tracy asks. After visiting other farms and thinking about what she could do with all the bountiful blooms, it dawned on her that she could create handmade, small batch bath and body goods. “It’s really a versatile herb, when you think about it,” she says.
A novice at first, Tracy taught herself how to make the best lavender bath and body items. She set about making items she likes and felt others would gravitate towards as well. She spent an entire winter perfecting her recipes for sugar scrubs, body butters and facial mists. “First, I started with a sugar scrub, learning how to make a high-quality product that could still be homemade and full of natural ingredients. I spent an entire winter investigating that.”
After mastering this, Tracy started making other lavender infused items. “I love our body butter,” she reveals, “I just love how my skin feels after using it.” There’s also the farm’s lip balm made with lavender and peppermint to create a pop of menthol, while plumping lips. “I use the cuticle bath too,” she says, “It’s great as a relief from gardening.” She uses the brand’s facial mist as a makeup primer and a splash of fragrance. “It can be very cooling and has such a great fragrance that I tend to use it as perfume. I use this daily.”
Altogether Long Row Lavendar Farm makes 15 different bath and body goodies, and for a long time, Tracy and Chad were selling them at the Lake St. Louis farmer's market. “But people started asking if they could visit the farm, and it was then that we started thinking about expanding.” In 2015, the family built the property’s barn and gift shop, and officially opened to the public in the spring of 2016. “By this time, with so many products, it was nice to be making them in the barn instead of in my kitchen, and then people could come and see us at the farm.” Four years later in 2019, they added the café, and the farm tours were in full swing.
Tracy still dreams about what else the farm could be doing and looks ahead to expanding their Christmas market and offerings. Every year, she says she tries to make it just a little bit bigger. “We might not have set out to do all this originally with the hobby farm,” she says. “But it has been really fun.”
