Staff

Meet the farm staff…

Daphne:

Daphne dreamed of having an organic lavender farm for two decades.  She wanted it to be a healthy, sustainable, environmentally- friendly, peaceful place for the well-being of her neighbors, family, friends, local wildlife, and surrounding community. Her dream become a labor of love. In 2014, she started the farm.      

Through perseverance, persistence, and constant presence, Daphne strives to work with organic farming practices and do the lavender planting, weeding, and harvesting by hand.

With the helpful oversight of Monterey County Certified Organic, Daphne worked to obtain organic certification for Lion Springs Lavender Farm.  Daphne is also the designer, planner, and manager.  Daphne Nixon trademarked the names, designed the logos, dreamed of and created the Carmel Caramel recipe, and makes the lavender products by hand. She cooks delicious Carmel Caramels and hand wraps each piece.

Daphne leads Lion Springs Lavender Farm through good times and bad. The farm does its own beekeeping now, too. As a result, she gives private tours to small groups of school children to learn about the environmental benefits of organic farming. Daphne is very thankful for the kindness of friends who have helped at the farm.

Daphne’s first love is oil painting. She is self-taught and studied since childhood to become a realistic oil painter. Today, she’s a member of the International Guild of Realism and exhibits her paintings at the Carmel Valley Art Association Gallery in Carmel Valley Village.

Greg:

Our resident master mechanic. A wiz at machines and keeps the farm running. Nothing breaks down around here under Greg’s watch. He can fix anything and loves doing it. He works at Mercedes Benz of Monterey by day as a technician….but as our Lavender Master Tech by night. He keeps the vehicles around here fast…and the music loud.

Chloe:

Chloe is our resident herbalist. As a matter of fact, her name, Chloe, means “Goddess of the little herbs” in Greek.  She is knowledgeable about plants from studying botany and herbal medicine, and has that magic green touch. She also helps keep us up to date and hip with today’s hipsters. She’s great at candle-making and helping out at the Farmers Market Booth. Furthermore, Chloe’s also our animal specialist and keeps the family’s “wildlife” here healthy and in check.  Chloe has a knack for keeping it zen around here with her beautiful ukele playing and melodic gentle singing voice.

Ziggy:

Ziggy is one of our twin Siberian Huskies…each with one blue and one brown eye. Ziggy loves to help out by hunting gophers in the lavender field…and can be seen here cooling off in her drinking bowl after a hard day’s work. She’s a rescue dog that rescued us…Ziggy fought off a coyote that came up on our back porch and bit Ziggy’s neck! She helps out at the farmers markets as well.

Xena:

Xena, (Ziggy’s twin), the Warrior Princess, is part of our organic gopher control SWAT team as well. This sweet, Siberian Husky leads the charge on gophers with always a smile on her face. We’re very sad to say our beloved Xena passed on in 2021. We wish her happy hunting in heaven.

Ekko:

Our newest lavender husky, Ekko, the rescued puppy, is ready to take up where Xena left off. She’s teaming up with Ziggy to run gopher patrol at the farm.

 

Marley:

Marley keeps it merry around here. He makes sure that not a creature is stirring…not even a mouse…and that goes for butterflies, lizards,  birds, moths, flies, and beatles, too.   He’s our resident Turkish Van Cat that may look like an old grump, but he’s really a cat-dog. Although he doesn’t bark, he likes to play fetch and go swimming….once he even jumped in the bath tub to play with a yellow rubber duck.