LAVENDER IN THE LITTLE KAROO
"lavender, sweet lavender;
come and buy my lavender,
hide it in your trousseau, lady fair.
Let its flovely fragrance flow
Over you from head to toe,
lightening on your eyes, your cheek, your
hair."
Cumberland Clark Flower Song Book 1929
The history of essential oils dates back thousands of years, tracing back to Egypt over 6,000 years ago. Valerie Worwood, author of The Complete Book of Essential Oils and Aromatherapy, quotes Hippocrates as saying, "the way to health is to have an aromatic bath and scented massage every day." Survivors of the plagues in Europe from the 14th to 16th centuries were those who used or worked with aromatic substances. Essential oils have long been used for healing practices, but were not studied scientifically until about 100 years ago.
If you were travelling through Oudtshoorn
in the Little Karoo while you were on holiday, I am sure the last thing you would associate with the region would be essential oils, yet there are farmers cultivating various fragrant herbs here in the heart of ostrich country.
The lavender fields of Mr Mark Walker’s farm, Breytenbachsfontein, 60km south of Oudtshoorn are a pleasant surprise where purple lavender fields in full bloom contrasts charmingly with the natural vegetation of the Little Karoo.
The Walkers established 3.5 ha of lavender in 2004 and had their first harvest in 2007. “The roots go down approximately 700mm into the soil so don’t hold back on soil preparation, because you
only have one chance, and if you don’t attend
to it before establishing the lavender plants, you will not get optimum results. ” says Mark. “I learnt the hard way that the salinity of the Karoo’s water built up in the soil, only manifested during the 3rd harvest in December 2009 and I had to compensate by adding gypsum. I could have saved a lot of time, energy and money if only I had compensated for the effect of the sodium build-up by adding the gypsum whilst preparing the soil”.
Mr Mark Walker