Hvar, the island of lavender. It is one of the great claims about the island, and seeing (and smelling) lavender in bloom in June and July is one of the highlights of the year for me.
I can only imagine what it used to be like – see below for a shot of the fields of Hvar a few decades ago, when large tracts of the island were covered in this healthy aromatic plant.
Sadly, such pictures can not be found these days. A combination of emigration, devastating forest fires and other factors have meant that the lavender production today is just a fraction of what it was 50 years ago.
But there ARE great lavender fields on Hvar, and even an annual lavender festival in Velo Grablje each year, which has done much to revive both the lavender tradition and its heritage.
But while tourists expecting to see fields in the picture of yesteryear above are sometimes left disappointed, that does not mean that nothing is being done. My favourite lavender field on Hvar belongs to celebrity photographer Jadran Lazic, who has a rather stunning piece of land on top of the island above Zavala and Gromin Dolac. In addition to his 950 olive trees, Jadran bought 300 young lavender plants and replanted them in a field on the very top of Hvar. It was an honour to witness his very first harvest at 06:00 one early July morning, which you can read about here, but also spare a thought for the skill and speed at which the lavender is harvested in the video below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knV4lT2ac-c
Jadran’s face beamed with pride, as his first harvest yielded 0.2 litres of oil from the distillery in nearby Humac, and his field has grown from strength to strength in the ensuing years, with the rest of the photos of his family during the 2016 harvest (pictures by Mario Romulic).
A wonderful example of returning a small piece of Hvar to how it once was, and wouldn’t it be wonderful if Jadran’s initiative could be replicated on a wider scale to restore one of Hvar’s true treasures to its former glory?
