Naramata Bench Botanicals
A half-acre on the bench.
We grow lavender on a small plot on the Naramata Bench, the same warm, dry slopes that ripen the Okanagan’s wine.
The place
Wine country, in lavender.
The Naramata Bench is a narrow shelf of land above Okanagan Lake, lined with wineries and orchards. The heat, the light and the long dry summers that make the grapes also suit lavender. Our half-acre sits among it, a small operation by design.
We grow a single variety, Grosso, and harvest twice a year — a summer cut in early July and a second late-summer cut in late September. Everything is made in small batches we can stand behind.
How it is made
From row to bottle.
We cut the lavender by hand at peak bloom, dry the bundles, and strip the buds. Those buds, never an essential oil or an extract, are what we steep into the syrup, together with butterfly pea flower for a natural blue. We watch the steep closely, because the difference between floral and soapy is a matter of minutes.
A roadside stand is in the works for the bloom season. For now, the syrup travels to your door. Read more about the syrup, or plan a visit.
The family behind it
Two generations on the bench.
Bench & Bloom is a second-generation family farm. Nelson Jatel grew up here, on three acres above Okanagan Lake on the Naramata Bench. Two of those acres grow grapes for Hillside Winery; a half-acre is our lavender. The same warm, dry slopes that ripen the grapes give the lavender its bold aroma.
It is small and hands-on, worked by hand harvest by harvest, alongside family. The syrup carries the place it comes from.
