[Kohlsdorf] Roadtrippers will notice the Loess Hills are filled with vast grasslands, forested hills and an abundance of flowers.

At Loess Hills Lavender Farm outside Missouri Valley, the beauty of the landscape is as powerful as the aroma.

Let's take a look around.

♪♪ [Kohlsdorf] Tracy, tell us about Loess Hills Lavender Farm.

[Tracy Porter] My family bought the farm in 2021.

We have an agricultural background with corn and beans, so we had a lot to learn about lavender.

The farm is 17 acres.

We also have 10 acres in a CRP, so we don't touch it, spray anything on it.

And we have two walking trails cut in there for people to enjoy.

[Kohlsdorf] What draws people from the byway to your lavender farm?

[Tracy Porter] I think people just overall like to come here to connect with nature.

Lavender is known for relaxing and I think we all need that in our lives right now.

[Kohlsdorf] Amen.

[Tracy Porter] Lavender has 450 some varieties.

So, it's purple, white, there's kind of a pinkish lavender.

So, they get to see all of that as well.

They can come and pick their own lavender or buy a bundle.

[Kohlsdorf] You mentioned part of the experience is people cutting their own lavender.

I'd love to try.

Can I?

[Tracy Porter] Yes, let's go cut some bundles.

[Kohlsdorf] Okay.

♪♪ [Tracy Porter] We're going to start picking you a bundle.

So, on this plant, which is going to be fun, you can see it's got really long stems.

I'm going to grab about that much and then I'm going to take my sickle here, I'm going to cut here still up in the green flimsy alive part.

You can see down here there's some brown parts and that is where we want to avoid.

We want to cut above that.

And I'm just going to kind of slice through that.

And that is going to be the start -- [Kohlsdorf] You've got your bundle.

Okay, we've got this neat little basket here.

[Tracy Porter] You do.

So, you will just go around the plant and grab that.

So, grab what you want.

[Kohlsdorf] Is this good?

[Tracy Porter] That looks pretty good.

Yeah.

Yeah.

♪♪ [Kohlsdorf] Tada.

That's not too hard.

And then you've got this beautiful bundle.

[Tracy Porter] Yes, we do.

♪♪ [Tracy Porter] We have a lot of people that come out and they want to bundle but they may not want to come out to the field to cut it themselves.

So, I do cut my bundles and we dry those inside for people that just want to have a bundle and take home for joy.

So, do you want to come inside the store and see what else we have?

[Kohlsdorf] I would love to!

Do a little shopping.

[Tracy Porter] Good.

♪♪ [Tracy Porter] Okay, so you can see we have some hanging bundles here and we're going to get a bundle for you also.

This is a drying rack and the reason that you hang your bundles upside down is that we want our lavender to dry nice and straight.

And it will take a couple of weeks for these to completely dry and then you can do with it what you want to.

So, are you ready?

[Kohlsdorf] I am ready.

Show me how to do this.

It doesn't look like it's too complicated.

But there must be some kind of system here.

[Tracy Porter] No, it is not.

So, first thing we want to make sure is all the pretty buds are going the right way.

And we do want to get all these little tiny leaves off there.

So, I'll give this to you and let you start with that.

[Kohlsdorf] Okay.

[Tracy Porter] We make a lavender spritz that you can put on your pillows, in your bedding for that wonderful smell.

We also make a lotion, just a general purpose good hand lotion.

We also have some wonderful culinary products here.

But we make a lot of other things too.

♪♪ [Tracy Porter] So, we got our bundle all done.

And you're probably wondering what do we do with it now?

And mainly, most of our products that we've talked about we steep the buds.

[Kohlsdorf] Tracy, thanks for having us out on the farm today.

I've learned lots about lavender.

[Tracy Porter] Thank you very much for coming.

But Brooke, before you leave, I need for you to try some lavender culinary.

We have some lavender kind of shortbread sugar cookies here.

Please try and I hope you enjoy.

[Kohlsdorf] It's part of the job.

If I have to do it, I will.

♪♪ [Kohlsdorf] Mmm, this is good.

[Tracy Porter] I'm glad you like it.

♪♪