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CACHE CREEK LAVENDER
Vendor: Charlie Opper + Linda Barrett
It is nearly impossible for some of us to pass by Charley Opper’s Cache Creek Lavender stand without stopping to breathe in the heady scent of his fresh and dried lavender bunches. Once you’ve bought one of Charley’s lavender sachets to sweeten up your sock drawer, you’ll find yourself buying more and more of them, until you have one in every drawer and closet in the house. Charley and his wife, Linda Barrett, have been bringing their home-grown lavender and home-made lavender soaps, sprays, sachets, and oils to the PAFM since 1999. They hail from Rumsey in the Capay Valley, where they bought a house in 1995 on 1.5 acres. Charley was doing property management in the area, and Linda was working in Woodland. They wondered what to do with their new land – should they grow herbs? Vegetables? A friend suggested they might consider lavender. They spent the next 6 months educating themselves about the herb and, in 1996, they planted 2000 small lavender plants. After the plants were in the ground for about a year, it was time to figure out how to sell them. Linda’s friend was selling at the Menlo Market, and Linda accompanied her one Sunday with several bunches of fresh cut lavender. They quickly sold, so the next Sunday Linda arrived with even more lavender. They sold out again, and after several more Sundays of this, Charley and Linda knew they were onto something. It was at this time that Nancy Pleibel, Market Manager for PAFM, saw Linda at the Menlo Market and invited her to sell at PAFM. Although farming was something completely new to Charley, it appealed to him in an intellectual way. He enjoyed the initial challenge of starting something new, and continues to have fun with managing the business, as well as improving his soaps and other products. It’s the fun and challenge of developing new products that drives him to continue. The additional income doesn’t hurt either – the lavender business is a full time job now and Charley has been able to stop his property management work. What, besides the heavenly scent, keeps people coming back to Cache Creek’s stand? Charley and Linda think it’s the uniqueness of their products, the great prices on dried and fresh lavender bunches, and the relationships they’ve developed with customers over the years. They say that PAFM is definitely special, a “comfortable place,” where “Nancy, the Market Manager, as well as the volunteers, work to give PAFM a homey feel.”
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