Event

Making Dreams Come True

March 10, 2022 by Adrienne Crombie Leave a Comment

Every year since we started growing lavender in 2014 we have visioned and prepared for a new installation on the farm. In 2018 our dream of erecting a tipi came true. We ordered the lodge poles and canvas for a 26 foot tipi from Nomadic Tipi Makers in Oregon. We leveled the ground and built a wood platform to receive it, sealed the 30 foot lodge poles with 3 coats of turpentine and linseed oil, viewed the instructional video countless times and organized a tipi raising party to raise it and wrap it. Voilá, we had a magnificent tipi. It was a long overdue gift to my inner child who always wondered what it would be like to be inside this wonderful cone shaped space that was home to the original people.

This month, March 2022, we dismantled our beloved tipi. The combination of wind, rain and mold has taken it’s toll and it is time to turn a new page. Our hearts are sore and we know so many of you grieve with us. We’d like to share with you some precious memories and photos that capture those moments.. Over the years our tipi has sheltered our goat yoga parties, picnics and workshops from summer rain. Kirt & Laura of Creative Frequencies (now permanently based in Hawaii) blessed us with otherworldly sound healing sessions in the tipi. Kelly Kinney gifted us with a Women’s New Moon Circle that was just magical.

Some folks go on vacation. We invested in a magical experience right here on our farm.

Next chapter in our Mad Lavender odyssey is our vision for a Green Witches Garden that will be planted in the 26 foot circle footprint that was our tipi, replete with medicinal herbs, a pond and a waterfall.

And so, the journey continues.

More to come!

tipi at night — Tipi illuminated at night.

Magic Circle — Kelly Kinney presiding at her Women’s New Moon Circle in the tipi.

baby goats — Kids Goat Yoga party in the tipi.

Mad Lavender Goat Yoga Team

March 7, 2022 by Adrienne Crombie Leave a Comment

The air is warming a bit, Spring is on the way and pretty soon we’ll be enjoying Goat Yoga again on Mad Lavender Farm. I’d like to introduce you to our incredible team of goat yoga teachers; Lea Ostner, Jenn Stas, Ava Marino and Shannon Keelyn. Goat yoga teachers are a very special breed. They must have a big call to adventure, an unflappable inner calm, a love of goats (naturally) and a sense of mischief to match. Folks of all ages and levels of yoga experience attend our sessions and so our teachers need to be responsive to all their needs. It also takes a big dose of creativity to run a goat yoga session because goats are unpredictable and they don’t always follow the “lesson plan.” In addition to all that, Ava, Shannon and Lea bring their talents in playing sound bowls to produce our Sound Bath Goat Yoga sessions. On the continuum of super chill to crazy fun, Sound Bath Goat Yoga brings it all together. Jenn Stas is the G.O.A.T. at Partner Goat Yoga, possibly the best date you’ll have this summer.

We are so lucky to have these amazing, talented and warm hearted women on our team. It makes all the difference when you are working with people who truly love what they do. Big, big shout out to you all. We are so looking forward to making it happen with you all again in 2022!

Sound Bath Goat Yoga sessions start again in May. If you would like to book a private goat yoga event, please check our website for available dates.

Bachelorette Goat Yoga Party — LOVE pose at a Goat Yoga Bachelorette Party.

Wild Woman Tea Blends for Divine Feminine Health July

May 5, 2021 by Adrienne Crombie Leave a Comment

Wild Woman Tea Blends

for Divine Feminine Health

Sunday, July 11th 1:00pm

Schedule Here

Sustainer Rate: $45 sustains all

Supporter Rate: $40 with code SUPPORT

Community rate: $35 with code COMMUNITY at checkout

Limited to 12 people

Tap into your intuitive witchy wisdom in a meditation and plant medicine making journey. Learn about the history of menstruum making and how to work with herbs specifically beneficial for women’s health. We will discuss our desires and challenges as women and herbs that can become supportive allies for learning to relax, finding focus, hormonal and menopausal balancing, boosting our vitality, connecting to our heart center and deeper purpose and more. We will meditate in the garden and discuss practices for honoring our powerful wellbeing as divine creators. Each participant will leave with their own Wild Woman Tea blend and tools of empowerment.

Katie O’Neill believes that the right tools and wellness practices are what is most needed for our evolution into this new paradigm. Katie is an artist, a floral designer, an Herbalist, Flower Essence guide, and student of Medical Astrology specializing in rituals from her lineage of Celtic traditions. Her love of exploration assists in her creative process to capture ancestral nostalgia and a spiritual essence in her work. Katie hopes to empower women and men by holding space to reconnect in community and to our individual divine nature as creators. By being close to nature she believes we have the ability to strengthen our own intuitions. Katie grew up at the shore and in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey, studied ancient Crafts and Cultural Anthropology at UArts in Philadelphia and currently calls Pennsylvania her home and discovery playground. She is available for private consults.

Agni Hotra Fire Ceremony – May

March 7, 2021 by Adrienne Crombie Leave a Comment

Date: Friday May 24th

Time: 7:oo-8:30 PM

Tickets: $25.

Schedule Appointment

Agni Hotra is an ancient fire ritual performed to purify the environment, reduce pollution and increase an atmosphere of healing. First found in the Vēdic scriptures, practice of the Fire Ceremony blesses Mother Earth as well as the practitioners. We will be chanting the Maha Mrytunjaya Mantra, a mantra to aid in healing on all levels. This simple yet powerful tool is used around the world with amazing results to help transform lives and heal the planet.

Please dress in layers, as the Fire Ceremony will be held outdoors.

Agni Hotra Fire Ceremony with rose petals

I have been practicing Agni Hotra for about 25 years. At first it was as a participant, adding literal fuel to the literal fire, chanting the appropriate mantras and helping to support the group intention and energy in whatever way I could. I remember the first time I was in India and encountering a group of people who did an agni hotra every day, regardless of where they were. It was a group of about 20 people, of all ethnicities and ages. They were part of a larger organization that vowed to have at least someone lighting this healing fire at all hours of the day, across the entire globe. They kindly invited us to join and it was a spectacular experience. Another trip to India I was honored to be invited to lead an Agni Hotra on a farm where they had been performing Agni Hotras just about every day. They claim their lush fields, healthy livestock and abundant harvest, compared to their neighbors, was a result of this practice. Last year in India I was happily surprised to find that the managers of the retreat center we were in were devoted practitioners of Agni Hotra. The two “fire brothers” as we called them were sent to an ashram at the early age of 10ish to study with a Guru whose main practice was this Vedic Agni Hotra. Their father had stumbled upon the practice when he was in the military in India and it had such a profound effect on him, transforming him from an angry violent person, to a serene and spiritual person, that he sought out this Guru and entrusted his two young sons to the Ashram’s care. We were happy to be able to participate in the twice daily ritual with people who had really studied and devoted their lives to this ritual. I was thrilled to once again stumble upon dedicated practitioners and experience a fire lit by them in the same way as it has been done for more than 5000 years.

I have, weather permitting, been doing Agni Hotra in my small yard in the middle of Frenchtown for some time. I can definitely tell the difference in my yard when I am doing it- the birds come more often and the plants grow steadily. I can tell the difference in myself as well. One of the things I love about this beautiful practice as it allows you to participate on a grand scale- sending healing energy as far as you can conceive of (and beyond), a more personal scale (healing for friends and family) and then also the effects are clearly felt ones own body. Energy channels are cleared, the mind is cleared, your vibration is raised, and if all that wasn’t enough, it smells good.

I hope you can come join us for the fire ceremony. Every voice added helps us to bring just a bit more peace and healing into this world which really needs it. We can join in the energy of the others who care deeply about our earth and those who inhabit it, and add our voices, intentions and fires.

Bonnie Pariser
Yoga Loka

Certified Yoga Therapist

T.R.E. Provider

Smudge Therapy

January 10, 2021 by Adrienne Crombie Leave a Comment

Mad Lavender Farm smudge sticks are made from homegrown Sage and Lavender, wild-foraged Mugwort, Sweet Annie and Rosebuds. The combination of the scents and properties of these herbs and flowers create a lovely and powerful smoke with therapeutic value.

Sage, aka salvia, is latin for healing. We grow four different varieties on the farm and I love to use combinations of sage in our smudge. Sage smoke is antibacterial and antimicrobial, so the smoke actually cleanses the air of pathogens. Burning sage also produces negative ions, which can act as an antidepressant and energy booster. Our bodies accumulate, over time, a redundancy of damaged positive ions and the negative ions produced by burning sage help to clear them away.

Lavender is a bit sweeter than sage and they balance each other well. Lavender smoke is ultra calming and relaxing. It’s a visual treat, too – the purple buds look so pretty with the sage.

Mugwort and Sweet Annie grow wild on our farm. Mugwort is used to enhance lucid dreaming, visions and protection. Healers also burn mugwort to ease superficial irritation.

The benefits of Sweet Annie aka Artemisia Annua are still being studied, particularly in relation to cancer cells, but it is most commonly used to treat Malaria. Sweet Annie’s anti-parasitic qualities are desirable for smudging, as well. The scent is sweet and fresh.

Rose helps to open your heart chakra up to love and compassion. Rose is said by some to attract fairies.

I heard a wonderful story this summer from a young woman visiting the farm about her experience with smudging. She had been in a bad relationship and it was ended but she was having a difficult time moving on. She was in a rut and she didn’t know the way out. She scheduled a massage, which was a great first step. Her massage therapist strongly advised that she take a purifying epsom salt bath and that she smudge every room in her house. She said that after she had completed smudging, she felt that a dark cloud had palpably lifted and her energy had shifted. After that, she got a great new job. And she met someone new.

Does it really work like that? I think the gifts of the natural world are here to partner with us and play with us and support us in growing to our full potential. I like that there is scientific study to affirm my experience but I trust my intuition and my experience to be my guide.