I want to start a lavender farm in PA for two reasons: honeybee production, I am a beekeeper already; and raising/selling lavender flowers. I want to make and sell soaps and natural oils I can extract from the raw products I harvest. I also want to continue my hobby cheese making venture.

I started beekeeping this year with three hives. Since February I have been doing a program with online classes, assignments and in person classes for which I should get a certificate of completion later this year.

I am a self-taught hobbyist cheese maker and plan to include a small dairy farm to make and sell homemade cheeses. I started by making soft cheeses and then I sourced milk directly from farms and started to do pressed cow and goat cheeses. I transformed a wine cabinet into a cheese cave and was aging my cheeses in that. I had great success making alpine cheese, Italian cheeses like Asiago, as well as “crottins” (goat cheese from France, where I am from.) I have been making cheese as a hobby for three years.