Viral posting shuts down Kenwood lavender farm’s festival

Gary and Rebecca Rosenberg had been holding their Lavender Harvest Festival under the radar and without rumpus, for years. But last spring, when they posted a little “courtesy” notice about the upcoming June fest on Facebook, it unexpectedly went viral.

Perhaps hungering for a bit of Provence without boarding a plane, some 5,000 people from all over the Bay Area descended on the couple’s lavender fields in tiny Kenwood - five times the usual turnout.

The Rosenbergs thought they had scaled back the scope of the event, doing away with wine tasting and other attractions and offering free admission. But the low-key affair of picnicking and lavender picking erupted into a ridiculous traffic jam, with cars backed up for a mile in each direction.

Inundated, the shocked couple saw no choice but to shut the festival after only a couple of hours. By that time, the Facebook post had been viewed by close to 1 million people.

“That day honestly was such a disaster,” Rebecca sighed. “We are just never doing it again. And it’s been sad.”

Gary maintains that they still find Kenwood every bit as charming as it was when they bought their 5 acres next to Chateau St. Jean 30 years ago as a weekend getaway. Then owners of an advertising and marketing agency with major national accounts, they decided 10 years later to move north for good and become farmers.

They raised two kids in Kenwood and built Sonoma Lavender into one of the largest makers of lavender products in the country, with a 14,000-square-foot factory in Santa Rosa.

“Instead of working and having kids in different schools, we felt we wanted to be a closer-knit family and a bit more involved in the community,” said Gary, who founded the Kenwood Education Foundation and sits on the board of the Luther Burbank Center.

The Rosenbergs don’t pass judgment on the development going on around them. If there are too many tasting rooms, they say the law of supply and demand will even it out.

“I think we should stay primarily agricultural and we are,” said Gary, who finds the mix of restaurants and tasting rooms create a “vibrant and exciting atmosphere.”

Having come from the Peninsula, he still finds traffic manageable, and never has to wait more than a minute to make a left turn onto Highway 12.

The Rosenbergs routinely sink into chairs under an oak tree amid the lavender fields at the end of a day, enjoy a glass of wine and take in the view of mountains looming on both sides.

“We travel the world and when we come back from Lake Como, which is gorgeous, we still say, ‘Wow. This is the prettiest valley in the world.’ You might say traffic is up. Yeah, it probably is.

“But I see the natural beauty and that really hasn’t been altered.”

Meg McConahey