A couple of weeks ago Anne and I took a trip to a local Lavender farm called The Lavender Patch in Hilton, Derbyshire. This is a pick your own lavender farm, but unfortunately it was a little early in the season for picking on this visit.

I have to say I felt rather daft that I’d never noticed this wondrous place before. It’s part of Hall Croft Farm which also runs a 5 star B&B. I love lavender and we often use it in our products, so to think that all this time there was a local source of many varying varieties made me somewhat shame faced.

The day we went was actually rather overcast, so I was very surprised when I walked into the cafe and it was jam packed full of customers. It seems that once you’ve visited, you don’t forget in a hurry and visitors are prepared to travel a distance for a cake. We had tea and cakes, huge cakes in fact that I ate too much of because they were just wonderful! I often whine at the state of shop/cafe bought cakes, they look fantastic but often don’t measure up to my expectations. But these were big, light and tasted homemade.

I took my youngest son who was mesmerised by the chickens wondering about and he absolutely loved running up and down the aisles of lavender.

The cafe sells various gifts as well as food, you can also buy dried lavender by the pot full. But I really fancy returning was they are in full bloom and picking my own. The fact that I will again visit the cafe followed by cake is merely a side benefit 😛