Gravel roads in southeast Nebraska don’t usually smell like anything except dust and cut alfalfa. Then you turn down one particular lane, roll the window down, and get a face full of something floral and clean that has no business being out there among the soybeans.
Two acres of purple rows sit behind a farmhouse, with honeybee hives humming at the edge and a shop set up inside the house itself. A five dollar tour gets you the whole story, and if the timing is right, you can walk out with lavender you cut yourself.
A Purple Field South of Lincoln
Firth sits in Lancaster County, a short drive south of Lincoln, and it is not the sort of town that announces itself. Farm ground, a grain setup, a few streets, and then more farm ground.
Out at 25700 S 38th St, though, the crop changes. Sleepy Bees Lavender Farm grows lavender across roughly two acres, planted in long tidy rows that turn a soft purple-gray by early summer…