Page 40 - The Hunt - Summer 2022

Claire Rosen wanders the rows of lavender at her family’s farm.
(Opposite page) The Rosen sisters: Lillie, Claire, Camille and Charlotte.
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THE HUNT MAGAZINE
summer 2022
“This plant, lavender, has somehow brought together our family, each with our own specialized interests.”
On a sunny February day, Rosen and his first and fourth daughters, Claire and Camille, offer an off-season tour of Warwick’s fields and buildings. A professional photographer who travels the world on assignment, Claire begins the tour at a farm store stocked with mostly lavender-scented items. In her dark-yellow sweater and billowing skirt topped by a hooded brown cape, Claire exudes an earthy sense of style that would’ve made Jane Austen proud. “This plant, lavender, has somehow brought together our family, each with our own specialized interests,” she says.
Claire is the farm’s creative director, in charge of planning events and hosting artists-in-residence. The second-oldest sibling, Lillie, is an educator involved in social work and has just returned
from spending several weeks helping refugees get settled in this country. Next comes Charlotte, who holds yoga classes at the farm and is adept in Pilates instruction and pirouettes. Finally, there’s Camille, who had a brief career as a professional chef, an interest shared with her mother, Dolly, a food historian. She’s now working with plants in a nutritional capacity.
Above all, there’s lavender. “We have at least
16 lavender cultivars on the farm,” says Claire. “But there are more than 450 scattered around the world, including one native to Chester County.”
Claire explains this as she curates an array of waters, essential oils, salves, facial toners, bath
salts, soaks, sachets, dried bouquets and bundles. “Lavender soap is in the planning stage,” she says, noting that products are available online and by appointment at the store. “All the lavender is grown, harvested and distilled at the farm,” she says.
The store is located in a huge old barn that gives one the feeling of being inside a monstrous whale—and it may be the largest bank barn in the county. It also holds smaller rooms and warrens, including a production area, Claire’s apartment and her art studio.
Camille joins us on a walk up the muddy farm road that connects the old stone farmhouse and barn with the hilltop fields, first stopping along the way at a greenhouse. We go inside the large facility, where farm worker Jonathan Hayes is meticulously watering multiple rows of small lavender plants, all