Willow Pond Farm is a certified organic herb farm near Gettysburg, and is the creation of owners Tom and Madeleine Wajda.  Retired from Foreign Service and having lived around the world, Tom and Madeleine purchased Willow Pond Farm in 1994 and opened in 1995.  Over the past 15 years the farm has grown into a beautiful setting and a wonderful place to enjoy Tom and Madeleine’s special brand of hospitality – a welcome smile, a relaxing day in the country, delicious food, and an appreciation for the beauty of the setting and the organic herbs grown on the farm.

With an emphasis on lavender for the farm, the Wajdas host the Pennsylvania Lavender Festival in mid-June each year.  Held for 3 days, the festival is a celebration of lavender – cutting your own lavender in their fields, buying plants to bring home to your garden, enjoying Lavender Lemonade, Chicken Salad with Lavender, and Lavender Sugar Cookies, listening to lectures about the benefits and uses of lavender, attending workshops to create lavender wreaths, and enjoying lavender-inspired art and crafts from vendors and in the Farm’s gift shop.

I can’t wait for the festival each June, and the smell of lavender was everywhere this year with the fields in full bloom and festival goers bending down with shears to pick their bunches of lavender to bring home.  This year I was struck by the beauty of Nancy Marshall’s Impressionist paintings and pastels – many showing the fields at Willow Pond Farm and a great memory of the festival during the year.  Lavender jewelry by Jean Designs is another way to remember the day as well with earrings or a locket filled with lavender.  The pictures here really say it all – a beautiful day in a beautiful setting.

The festival’s over until the next year, but it’s just as enjoyable to visit the farm during summer or fall hours and especially for one of the farm’s Boarding House Luncheons.  Diners benefit from Madeleine’s French cooking school training and natural talents as a chef, which is the reason to reserve your spot as the Boarding House Luncheons fill up quickly.  The next Luncheons will be held on August 18 and 21. 

Willow Pond farm is located in Fairfield, Pennsylvania near Gettysburg and is open Thursday-Saturday from 9am-5pm from April 1 until Christmas, and on Sundays from noon-5pm from mid-April to mid-June and during November and December.  Willow Pond Farm will be closed July 17-31, 2010.  Enjoy!