Beagle Ridge Herb Farm: Celebrating 20 years of passion and pollination
How does a woman who was born in Singapore and attended boarding school in Switzerland and London wind up running a farm in Wytheville? Well, for Ellen Reynolds, it has been a long, strange trip leading up to her opening the popular Beagle Ridge Herb Farm in 2001.
“My family moved to Cleveland when I was in sixth grade after living in Asia and Europe,” says Reynolds. “A while after getting married, Gregg and I moved to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and started Beagle Ridge over in Wytheville. A year after opening, we moved to Covington, Virginia, and were commuting on weekends before finally moving to the farm full-time in 2010.”
And what a farm it is! This family-friendly attraction has lush gardens, lavender fields, miles of hiking trails, a Butterfly House, classes, and much more to be enjoyed when you make your way to the scenic, quiet property south of Wytheville that is open from May to October.
We spoke with Reynolds to find out more about Beagle Ridge.
How did you get started with the farm?
Ellen Reynolds: The short story is I started gardening, and it got out of hand!
We wanted to be in agritourism, and I’d gone to a local workshop and learned a lot about how to attract people to visit the farm. We didn’t live here full-time at that point, and [my husband] Gregg said, ‘If we can open it and people will come see us, go for it.’
You can really get away from the masses here. We are in the middle of nowhere, about 3.5 miles from a hard-surface road. People don’t just drive by and find us; they have to come looking for us. Having such great outdoor spaces and places to walk and get away really makes a difference, especially during COVID. People who are stuck in the city finally felt they could go somewhere and get away from everybody and be safe.
What can people see and do when they visit?
Reynolds: It depends on the season. We open in May, and the gardens aren’t awake yet because of our elevation. But we will have plants and other products for sale in the shop, and people can hike.
In May, we have a Mother’s Day tea, and then the next weekend we open the Butterfly House. Everybody gets their own butterfly, we do an educational program, and then they get to feed their butterfly and release it into the Butterfly House. That’s a great way to start our season.
In June, the lavender is in full bloom and by July we start to harvest it; the gardens will be pretty then. By August, the butterflies are our biggest draw, and lots of people come to hike. In the fall, families come in and catch a butterfly, put a tag on it, and release it outside of the house so it can fly to Mexico as part of the monarchs’ migration.
We also offer the Lick Mountain Excursion and have regular classes from May through the end of September. The classes draw in people who want to learn something new or want to get some advanced knowledge on topics that interest them, and they are free. In fact, we don’t charge for anything except the Lick Mountain Excursion and to visit the Butterfly House.
Education is clearly a major focus at Beagle Ridge.
What types of classes are available?
Reynolds: [My coworkers] joke that I do everything with a teacher’s hat on, and they are right. I love to teach, and I love to see the light-bulb moment when someone understands for the first time.
Our classes go from May to September, and there is one class every Saturday from 1 to 3 p.m. We cover a lot of topics, such as Herbs 101, annuals and perennials, lavender wreath-making, and essential oils and distilling. With all of them, guests take a finished product home with them at the end. It’s not a demo, it’s a class; everything we do is hands-on.
We also reach lavender growers from all over the U.S. with our Lavender Academy, which takes place in April and then again in July and September. This April we had students come from Washington state all the way to Maine.
You mentioned the Lick Mountain Excursion; what is that?
Reynolds: From May through the fall, we do the Lick Mountain Excursion. If people don’t want to hike because of our elevation—2,800 feet up to 3,500 feet—but they want to see the best views, they can join our 1.5-hour guided Lick Mountain Excursion and hear about natural history and the Civil War history, as well as all the stuff we have here on the farm.
We do a fancy package that includes wine and cheese up on top of the mountain. We drive them up there, drop them off, and then they radio us when they are ready. They can just sit at the table up top, relax, and enjoy their picnic and quiet time before they tell us to come get them. That is an add-on to the excursion.
This year marks your 20th anniversary. What special things are planned to commemorate it?
Reynolds: Since this is our 20th year, we are working with the city town of Wytheville on a number of things, many of them related to lavender.
We are teaming up with the vineyards and some of the brew pubs on lavender drinks and beers and other products, and on lavender desserts in some of our restaurants, to really tie all this together. A lot of people don’t know that lavender is edible; it is wonderful in sweets and cocktails and has myriad other uses.
At the farm, we’ll have a Mother’s Day Tea (May 9) and then host Lavender Time, which is an educational day with a lot of mini classes, on June 19.
Over all the years I’ve learned that if I can share and get someone else excited about something here, then I’ve done my job.