Jenny Steineger was crafting lavender-filled eye pillows with sex trafficking victims when she had an epiphany. It was 2018, and she was volunteering at Veronica’s Voice, a nonprofit dedicated to ending prostitution by providing transitional housing and other programs. Jenny returned home that evening, sat down with her husband, Joe Steineger, and said, “I want to be a lavender farmer.”
And so began Lavender Hill Farm. On a hill in KCK, across the street from Joe’s childhood home, the couple now grow and harvest around 1,500 lavender plants with the help of their youngest son, Ben Steineger. The crops are used to create various organic lavender products, which they sell at the City Market’s farmers market three Saturdays a month. A portion of all proceeds is donated to Veronica’s Voice.
Jenny says that she never intended to take their products to farmers’markets. But now, she loves “meeting every kind of person” and “seeing repeat customers” on Saturdays. Joe greets every visitor of the Lavender Hill Farm booth with a light mist of their hydrosol spray.
At its inception, the Steinegers received help from women at Veronica’s Voice during harvest. After picking lavender, they would enjoy burgers and hot dogs, grilled on a firepit at the top of the hill, covered by trees. Jenny and Joe built a gateway to the shaded area at the back of their farm using spare wood. Above the arch lies a sign which reads “Hope Garden.”
“They’re special ladies,” Joe says. “Once they feel love from a stranger and find out how there are good people out there, then they come out here. There’s nothing like the sun on your back, the good Lord over your head, and you start to feel better.”
Jenny says that when she made her decision to become a lavender farmer, it seemed unplanned, but now, it feels like fate.
In July 2024, Veronica’s Voice merged with ReHope, a similar organization out of Harrisonville, MO. The distance has lessened the “day-to-day” interactions between Lavender Hill Farm and the women supported by the nonprofit. The pair wrote on their website that “joining the effort to shine light on this crisis was the core reason Lavender Hill Farm was born,” and they continue to support the fight on sex trafficking in the area. But with the women living farther away now, if the farm needs extra hands, the Steinegers hire men from Welcome House—a sober-living halfway house.
“Lavender is perfect,” says Ben, who is currently studying herbalism at PrairieWise Herbal School. “Spiritually, that plant is really good for people in recovery, because it’s all about rebirth, tranquility and peace. It’s really interesting when you think about all the plants that [Jenny] could have chosen that [she] picked lavender, and then the farm ended up being a place of people in recovery. I don’t think it’s accidental.”
The Steinegers say they especially cherish seeing Ben’s involvement in the farm. Ben currently rents Joe’s childhood home across the street and monitors the crops daily. Ben says he became fascinated with herbalism through his work on the farm—it’s what inspired him to enroll in the herbal school. He recently started his own company, Cicada Creek Herbs. Toward the bottom of the hill, beneath the lavender bushes, Ben has planted approximately 400 herbs.
Lavender Hill Farm is truly a family business. Aside from seasonal help by members of Welcome House, Jenny, Joe and Ben run the farm and create their products independently. Joe grew up in the farming industry but lost his farm in the 1980s due to the farming crisis.
In addition to Joe’s farming experience, the Steinegers credit the United States Lavender Growers Association with teaching them the ins and outs of lavender growing. The association promises to teach the trade so long as each farmer promises to teach others when they inquire about the growing process.
As for their products, Jenny and Joe sell myriad options, with each recipe researched and crafted in their home without the use of chemicals. Joe says that hearing stories from repeat customers teaches them something new every day about the uses and benefits of their lavender-based products.
Jenny and Joe will celebrate their 51st wedding anniversary in October. Joe says the farm has been their “biggest blessing.” Despite the grueling summer sun and the challenges that come with a midwest winter, Joe says he never worries about what the next day will bring because every morning, he and Jenny enjoy a cup of coffee and “work out a solution.” Even on the hottest days, with the Steinegers taking cool refuge in the Hope Garden, they say that they admire the “beauty” of the farm that they created together.
“We spent 40 years out in the working world, and her lavender idea got us back in the dirt,” Joe says. “I feel like our marriage and our lives have been totally blessed all these years, but to be back in the dirt with Jenny being the ramrod of the farm is really neat.”
To learn more about Lavender Hill Farm, visit lavenderhillkck.com; for Veronica’s Voice, visit veronicasvoice.wixsite.com; and for ReHope, visit rehope.org.
