Lavender Festival at Araceli Farms

This was such a fun little outing with my friend Tiffany. We heard about a lavender festival up in Dixon and decided to check it out together. This was the first year Araceli Farms has held the festival, so we tried to keep our expectations very low, but tickets were only $8 for the both of us, and we had a great time and even got to pick our own lavender bundles to take home!

We decided to go right when it opened at 9am, which was the best decision considering it was 102 degrees that day.

A copper still used to get essential oils from the lavender. And a very much needed pineapple agua fresca.

They had a couple booths selling different lavender products and bundles and some unrelated vendors too.

We learned about all the different types of lavender grown here, such as Provence (the one you probably imagine), Royal Velvet (the darkest purple ones great for cooking), White Melissa (also velvety, but white), and Grosso (the best scent).

Then it was time to pick our own bundles!

Yay, hope I’m doing this right.

Here’s what the inside of their drying shed looks like. It actually doesn’t smell very good, because it mostly smells like hay from the drying stems. But don’t worry, it’ll smell like lavender when it’s all done.

A great #annatifftime date!

Anna Wu is a wedding and portrait photographer based in San Francisco. She compulsively documents and blogs all of her daily adventures. Follow her on instagram and view more of her professional work at annawu.com.