Celebrate lavender with events in Los Ranchos de Albuquerque, Balloon Fiesta Park

July is peak lavender season in New Mexico, and the Rio Grande Community Farm in Los Ranchos de Albuquerque is hosting its 18th annual Lavender in the Village Festival on Saturday, July 26.

Unlike in previous years, Lavender in the Village will not actually be held in the Village of Los Ranchos de Albuquerque this time, but at Balloon Fiesta Park.

“The festival has definitely grown significantly, to the point where this year the event was moved from Downtown Los Ranchos to Balloon Fiesta Park in order to accommodate the growing number of attendees, as well as the number of vendors and activities,” said Dean Strober, who has managed the festival for the past eight years.

The festival, which Strober said is now the largest in the Southwest, boasts over 120 vendors, offering every lavender-infused product under the sun, from ice cream to candles, as well as dried lavender and live lavender plants.

“Lavender lemonade is always a huge hit. And there’s lavender hard cider and lavender sangria for the adults. We also have lavender ice cream and lavender cookies and lavender scones. Lavender baked goods and lavender salt water taffy,” Strober said. “If it can be made with lavender, it’s going to be out there.”

The festival is part of Lavender Week, which kicks off Saturday, July 19, with the Lavender Soirée at the Hartnett Park farmhouse in Los Ranchos. Both of these events are organized by the Rio Grande Community Farm and serve as major annual fundraisers for the organization.

“The Rio Grande Community Farm is a 50-acre regenerative farm located on the Los Poblanos Fields Open Space, and we are one of the nation’s largest community farms,” said Jamie Welles, the farm’s executive director. “We have 16 acres dedicated to both 100 community garden rows and 44 micro farmers. We have another 4-acre field reserved for educational demonstrations on regenerative farming and healthy soil, and we offer many community activities and workshops.”

Part of the mission of Rio Grande Community Farm involves helping local families start micro farms that can later expand into profitable businesses. Welles mentioned Bluefly Farms as an example of one of the vendors at this year’s festival who started out as a micro farm.

“They have grown into a much larger farm, and they do a lot of really great products with lavender,” Welles said. “You can get lavender bath products, and they have great lavender sparkling drinks.”

In addition to food, drinks, produce and lavender-infused products, the Lavender in the Village Festival will host community workshops on farming and gardening, and there will be many activities for children, as well, including a meet and greet with llamas. There will also be a variety of family-friendly music.

“We have two music stages,” Strober said. “We have an outdoor stage that’s going to have everything from country and folk to classical and world music. Then, indoors, we’ll have a trio of musicians from the Albuquerque Youth Symphony, a barbershop quartet, a classical guitarist and many more.”

Strober expects over 8,000 people to attend the one-day festival.

“We keep admission prices low, so attendees can continue to shop and support the local vendors,” he said.

Welles said the Lavender Soirée and the Lavender in the Village Festival are the farm’s main annual fundraising activities, which are critically important to support their programming for the rest of the year.

The Lavender Soirée is a four-course dining experience featuring a locally-sourced, lavender-infused menu by Bedrock Kitchen and handcrafted lavender cocktails courtesy of Los Ranchos Winery. There will also be a live band and a silent auction. And all proceeds will support the community farm.

On the two Saturdays leading up to Lavender in the Village — July 12 and 19 — the Los Ranchos Art Market will host its own lavender-themed arts and crafts market at Hartnett Park in Los Ranchos. While not as big as Lavender in the Village, Los Ranchos Art Market has one clear advantage, according to longtime Los Ranchos Art Market vendor Leslie Kranz.

“Ours is free,” she said.

The art market occurs year-round every Saturday morning, not just during lavender season, but its dozens of vendors have taken on the challenge of making special lavender versions of their necklaces, scarves, furniture, watercolor paintings, greeting cards, quilts and other handmade arts and crafts items to suit the season.

“We’re all going to concentrate on interpreting our own art with lavender concepts,” said Kranz. “So, it’ll be purple everywhere!”

Kranz plans to present a selection of her hand-dyed silk scarves, watercolor paintings of lavender and hand-felted soap bars made with wool shorn from her own sheep.

Gordene MacKenzie is a jewelry designer who collaborates with the artisan Matthew Mitchell, a bird lover and falconer from San Antonio, New Mexico, who carves miniature stone birds. For Lavender Week, MacKenzie will be presenting a series of necklaces in purple Mojave turquoise and amethyst featuring Mitchell's carvings.

Meanwhile, Paul Doyle, a retired Boston schoolteacher who has reinvented himself in New Mexico as “the Celtic Caner,” will be offering a high-backed lavender chair with a hand-caned seat.

Dozens of other vendors will sell leather goods, cutting boards, knick-knacks, wind chimes and home decor — all with a lavender theme.

Then, on the evening of July 19, the Los Ranchos Art Market will reopen for an evening session outside.

Organizers of both the Rio Grande Community Farm events and the Los Ranchos Art Market said they are united in their mission of supporting local micro farmers, artisans and small businesses.

“At the heart of what the Rio Grande Community Farm does, and a lot of the fundraising from the festival, is our micro farmer program,” Strober said. “So, we love having micro farmers out there (at the festival), selling fresh produce.”

Editor's note: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated where Matthew Mitchell is from. He lives and works in San Antonio, New Mexico.

Celebrate lavender with events in Los Ranchos de Albuquerque, Balloon Fiesta Park