summertime
Our Iceland Poppies bursting open!
It’s been an interesting summer so far to say the least! There have been so many challenges and a few wins. The first year of farming learning curve was not lost on us when we started, but that doesn’t make the hurdles any less difficult to jump over. But let’s talk about the exciting wins first, because those are more fun.
Farmers Market
This year we were able to jump into our first Farmers Market in Westminster at the Orchard Town Center! It has been such a blast getting to know our community and enjoying Sunday’s with them. It’s also been a surprisingly fun family day, the kids love walking around with bouquets to see if they can find a buyer and earn $5. They don’t like when we skip Farmers Market days. The Farmers Market is one of the best ways to get our flowers at a great deal so please come see us, you can find our schedule for 2025 on our story page.
The whole family (minus the baby) at the Orchard Town Center Farmers Market
Growing in Design
When we first opened the farm we expected to sell primarily wholesale for the first few years. This was mainly in light of time constraints as both Jason and I work full time jobs. However, it turns out I have a nack for floral design and a passion for it as well! We’ve sold more floral arrangements than I ever expected this year, so much so that we’ve had to supplement our farm’s flowers with other local farmer’s. This has been a blast but means we have some pivoting to do. Instead of growing large quantities of a single flower, we plan to plant varieties that go well together based on the season so we can use as many of our own flowers as we can in bouquets, arrangements and event work.
Growing as Famers (challenges and opportunities)
We have had one hell of a season, complete with epic winds, tornadoes, hail galore and that’s just the weather! We’ve also faced major soil challenges, even when we’ve ordered a truck load of top soil we’ve found the quality to be incredibly lacking. This has pushed a lot of growing backwards, along with the weather, we have not been able to produce as much as we had hoped. And just when things were getting good we had a hail storm that was so intense that the hail sat on the ground, in the summertime, overnight- still melting.
We tried to put some physical insurance in place but found it to be lacking in practicality. That said, we have some plans for next year to hopefully protect our crops better in 2026.
We’re excited about the direction we’re going in, but we’re also eager for more flowers to share with our community.
Hail destroyed some of our spring flowers that were just beginning to bloom.
The Coming Months
For the remainder of the season, we’re still planting, still harvesting, and still selling our flowers. We have some really exciting plants coming, including dahlias, sunflowers, cosmos, zinnia’s and more. We are also focusing more on delivery of flowers, and booking some events.
We’re so grateful for each one of you who have supported our flower journey and can’t wait for the days and years to come.