SEQUIM – A man from the Southwest picked up a sock and asked its owner, Mary Jendrucko, if he could copy it.
“I thought, if you’re going to do that, at least quietly take it,” remembered Jendrucko, owner of the Sequim Lavender Co.
Her signature sachet socks, like Sequim, are full of lavender. Toss one into the dryer and it’ll make your clothes smell nice.
They’re just one among a plethora of products, from shave cream to ice cream, laid out for visitors like that guy.
In the past several years since that visitor and his Albuquerque-area cohorts came to the Sequim Lavender Festival, herbal revelry has sprouted in New Mexico, New Zealand, Oregon, Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania – and Blanco, the Hill Country town that declared itself the lavender capital of Texas.
Jendrucko, president of the Peninsula’s Lavender Growers Association, doesn’t blame them for having lavender festivals.
According to a report by Sequim festival director Scott Nagel, the July extravaganza lures 30,000 people and pours an estimated $3.65 million into the local economy.
That figure exceeds last year’s $3.6 million tourism promotion budget for all of Washington.
Fortunately for the state’s hoteliers, restaurateurs and retailers, Gov. Chris Gregoire signed legislation in April that will add $4.5 million to that budget.
And at the same time, Lavender Festival organizers are planning the biggest party yet.
The 11th annual festival includes jazz concerts in downtown Sequim on Friday night; two salmon dinners and a barn dance on Saturday; an Audubon Society-sponsored dinner cruise out of John Wayne Marina; tours of wineries and artists’ studios; and a tractor show and a golf tournament.
