The Magic and Vision Behind Blue Dreams USA Lavender, Roses and Tea Farm Boutique
The First of its Kind Lavender, Roses, and Tea Farm Boutique
What once a barren land is now painted with hues of lavender, roses and tea, a journey that started over two years ago. It’s our baby and its name Blue Dreams USA. With a passionate dream to create a colorful oasis right in the USA for our family, a place to retire in the future, and for our community to enjoy, the choices we made were born out of our sincere desire to sustain the agricultural nature of our place. It was a dream to bring to our farm the three plants we love - lavender, roses and tea. A dream to live, work and play right in our farm was a yearning desire. Our vision to make it happen is a journey of faith and dreams.
What a challenge it was. After all, lavenders known as “Blue Gold” for its amazing value-added products require a certain kind of soil and a good drainage. A sudden streak of plant disease, weeds, harsh weather, or a snap of cold winter weather in early spring can also kill the crops. But, our dream is bigger in spirit than these challenges as we saw the beauty and value added potentials of these amazing perennial plants from the mint family.
Roses, the most beloved flowers in the world, can be also be picky; but we were amazed on how abundantly and radiantly they grew as if they were meant to be the star of our farm. Like a queen of flowers they are known for, our roses provided colorful grace to our farm. A gift of roses Jeff planted for me was also a saving grace. My practical mind said, "No need to buy expensive flowers from florists." I now enjoy them right in our rose gardens. When I look out from our bedroom window, the lovely roses make smile each and every time.
And who would even think of growing camellia sinensis in the US and even more so in Maryland where the winter can sometimes be harsh? After all the evergreen shrubs, a source of white, green, black tea and more is not easy to grow in the US. To date, there are only a handful of tea farms that are commercial in size, and about 30 small to medium-sized farms of 25 to 200 or so shrubs in the US. While there was doubt we could ever pull this off, we have faith and determination to make it happen. Our research and travel to far away places to get the cold hardy tea plants paid off. Today we have them right here in our farm.
The results of our adventure - what once a dream is now a reality with Blue Dreams USA becoming the first tea farm in Frederick County, Maryland. It is also the first of its kind lavender, roses and tea farm in the country. As a member of both the US League of Tea Growers and the US Lavenders Growers Association, we take pride in knowing these community of growers. We learned and we found these groups very helpful as we took baby steps in the world of farming. Like the "Green Acres" we made some mistakes and pains transitioning from corporate world, but there is nothing that have prevented us from pursuing something bigger. Our strategy to diversify and marry these three plants together in our farm was challenging, but it made our farm boutique a one-of-a kind in the nation.
NATURE INSPIRATION - Thoughtful Expression of Nature
We wanted to have what we truly enjoy and love, and we were confident that there is a market for such a lovely unique combination of plants in our farm producing amazing value-added products. These amazing flowers and nature also inspired us to create handmade creative gift items only found in our online store and farm boutique.
The inspiration for all these creative products are right before our eyes . Nature around our property for all its beauty is hard to resist. Our farm has become our creative playground bringing life to our "Thoughtful Expression of Nature" Collection.
VISION RIGHT BEFORE OUR EYES - If you build it they will come and they did.
Somehow, our vision to see our neighbors, friends, young and old to walk through our own field of dreams relishing the child like wonders of being close to nature will happen one day. And on June 10, 2017 it did. The silhouette of families walking in our field that was once a vision and a dream is now a reality. Young and old, familiar and not so familiar faces, neighbors and family, even business leaders and icon in the community were here to celebrate the beauty of nature. We welcome photographers calling us to take photos in our field as early as last year. More so this year, as soon as we opened to the public our first customers are several families wanting photos of their families and children in our fields. Such is a validation that there is something magical and worth sharing no laptop or computer can provide to create lasting memories for families.
The living breathing life of birds, butterflies, bees, and yes, even the deer, ground hogs, and foxes that show up to visit us every now and then add to a dimension of nature that can only be seen by living in a farm such as ours. For this we are blessed.
Like the well known 1989 movie, Field of Dreams - “If you build it, he will come," such an inspiring thought was not far from how we felt about our dream. Having our family and community enjoy what we have in our farm was after all a powerful inspiration to act on something against all odds.
Before we get too old to see the promise of what is in our hearts our vision to have others experience the magic of simple joy of living with nature is what we are all about. And on this sunny day of June 10th, the hot air balloon celebrated with us with child like awe and wonder for now our dreams has set to fly to continue its journey.
The giant hot air balloon that symbolizes the childlike awe and wonder as we entered a new life in our farm with dreams that one day what was once a barren land will be bursting with colors and excitement. And on June 10th, it arrived in our farm to celebrate with us and our family.
We say "Hello" and welcomed family, friends, neighbors, people we have never met before and even elected officials and business leaders to celebrate the birth of a dream. We took a leap of faith and with the community rooting for us, cutting the blue ribbon was a pure delight and blessings. On this day, we felt we have truly arrived to share our little slice of heaven with simple joy, peace and serenity for families and our community to enjoy! We thank everyone whose warm spirits made this day truly special.
Welcome to Blue Dreams USA. We are now open to the public every weekends, 11:00 am to 7:00 pm. Enjoy our piece of heaven in Frederick County, Maryland, where you can dream, sip and taste tea, and unwind with nature, lavender, roses and tea!
By Imelda Roberts, Co-Owner
BLUE DREAMS USA
https://www.facebook.com/BlueDreamsUSA
https://www.instagram.com/BlueDreamsUSA
(c) Copyright 2017