Small farm beginnings to small business owner…
Old Time Flowers in Montpelier, Vermont.
Home garden. High school internship. Volunteer. Apprenticeship. Employee. Crew leader. Farm owner. My farm journey has been quite an adventure leading me to where I am today!
As a kid growing up in Bozeman, Montana we had a huge garden. My mom gave me my own little patch to tend; we grew ‘sumpmkins’—squash/pumpkin crosses—and played in the hog wallow, a mud pit in the corner of the garden made by letting the hose run. My official organic farming education started in high school in Alaska—a summer internship at the National Outdoor Leadership School in Palmer. I learned about composting, grew veggies for the outdoor programs students and staff, and slept in a wall tent, going home on weekends to do laundry. I finished high school early and immediately started volunteering on organic farms as a WWOOF'er (Willing Workers on Organic Farms) out west. Navigating the adult world on my own for the first time had its own challenges, but volunteering was a good intro to the organic farming world.
I went to massage school in Boulder, Colorado in my early 20’s and spent the next decade traveling around, alternating between seasonal massage jobs and farming endeavors. I’ve apprenticed on homesteads in Maine through the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardener’s Association (MOFGA), worked as an employee (on several organic veggie farms, a wholesale plant nursery, and seed companies across the US), WWOOF’ed in New Zealand, been a crew leader on an organic farm in Oregon, started a mixed market garden in North Carolina, and finally started my own small flower farm here in Vermont. Throughout my whole educational journey, I knew being involved in organic farming was meaningful work that I wanted to center my life around, but I didn’t feel deeply passionate about any particular enterprises. For the longest time I just wanted to be a self-sufficient homesteader and eschewed everything related to commercial growing. It wasn’t until I ventured into the world of self-employment that I started to warm up to the idea of farming as a livelihood and really come into my own.
My apprenticeship garden through MOFGA in Maine. I grew a lot of cabbages!
One of the most formative experiences that led me to start my own flower farm was being a crew leader on a small organic farm called Backyard Gardens in Joseph, Oregon. This tiny town in rural northeastern Oregon was one of the top three most beautiful places I’ve ever lived. Gorgeous high, dry mountains on the edge of the prairie, alpine lakes, canyons, wildflowers galore including a rainbow palette of Indian Paintbrush (my favorite wildflower), meadowlarks calling (my favorite bird), one main road through town, quiet and seemingly undiscovered. Joseph is definitely worth a visit if you’ve never been!
As a crew leader on this market garden operation, I developed an incredibly valuable skillset that I still use every day in my own farm business. Being able to multitask, manage small groups of people, keep track of many little details while maintaining a broader perspective, plan for CSA and market, have foresight and prep for what’s coming down the pike, work efficiently and manage time, identify bottlenecks and troubleshoot on the fly, and communicate instructions. All important skills that have helped me along greatly in business and life. The farm owner has passed away but I still pause in my garden and silently give thanks for how much that opportunity has helped me along in my journey.
Backyard Gardens in Joseph, Oregon where I worked as a crew leader for one summer.
Backyard Gardens booth at the Joseph, Oregon farmers market.
The second stepping stone leading me to my flower farm was starting my own mixed market garden, Homestead Gardens, in western North Carolina in 2019. I found myself down there after doing a work-study at the John C. Campbell Folk School. I was offered some land to grow on and that planted the seed in my brain for being self-employed. I worked 4 days/week at a wholesale plant nursery and devoted the rest of my time to my little farm. I discovered I loved everything about being my own boss! Managing my time and schedule on my terms, the responsibility and incentive, wearing all the hats, the self-discipline. I primarily grew veggies and experimented a bit with patches of flowers, including dahlias, which miraculously bloomed their heads off despite my limited knowledge. Looking back, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing with cut flowers. I sold $5 and $10 bouquets at a tiny farmers market an hour away. On my best day there I made a whopping nearly $200. I briefly had a one-person flower CSA which sadly ended in flames as I had to fire my only member for being rude and unreasonably demanding! Hard lesson in customer service and setting good boundaries.
Throughout the season I quickly learned how nuanced cut flower production could be—I was going to have to up my game and apply myself harder than I ever did with veggies! I realized there was the haphazard, dabble approach to flower production, which was an ok place to start but yielded unpredictable and mediocre results. And then there was the dedicated, obsessively detail-oriented approach to flowers, which was necessary to becoming a professional flower farmer. Learning a whole new realm of minute crop-specific details seemed both daunting and exhilarating. It fit my personality to a tee and nudged me further along the path towards my future flower farm.
My tiny, very humble farmers market booth in western North Carolina.
The third most formative educational experience I’ve had that really cinched the flower deal for me was working as a Gleaning Coordinator at the Johnny’s Seeds research farm in Maine the pandemic summer of 2020. My job was to harvest produce from the trial fields and distribute it to company employees. I also started experimenting with drying flowers and making wreaths, inspired by several small flower farms in Maine. This was by far one of the most unique and rewarding jobs I’ve ever had. The best part of my work was harvesting blooms from the flower trail fields, making bouquets and delivering them to employees at different job sites. Watching people light up when they received flowers moved me like nothing else in the farming world had. Someone described me as being a ‘Bringer of Joy.’ Ah, my heart! I realized this whole time I wanted to be a ‘Bringer of Joy’ and I had found my farm niche. I could combine my passions for flowers, organic farming and self-employment…It was time to start my own flower farm!
Delivering bouquets and veggies to Johnny’s Seeds employees in Maine.
In 2021 I finally started my own micro cut flower farm, Old Time Flowers, in Montpelier, Vermont! I found 1/10th acre plot of land to lease on a generous couples’ property, researched cut flowers in earnest all winter, made lists and spreadsheets and crop plans, hired a guy to rototill in the spring, and jumped right in. I joined the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers (ASCFG), the big trade organization for flower growing professionals. I learned a ton through their resources and asking questions. I started a cute honor stand in town that did well, had a small 10-person CSA—a much better experience than my first flower CSA in North Carolina!—sold dried wreaths + bouquets to local businesses, and did a few DIY weddings. That first season I worked a part-time job at a local native landscaping business to make ends meet. Once I got a taste for serious self-employment though, I found it difficult to work for other people. So my second growing season, 2022, I decided to work full-time for myself on the farm and it things took off! I increased my growing area using no-till methods, doubled my CSA, did many more special deliveries, increased my dried flower production and sales (including opening an online shop with shipping), sold part-time at the Montpelier farmers market and some lucrative winter holiday markets, and did more DIY weddings. I also took a farm business development course through NOFA VT which helped me organize my recording keeping and crop planning.
I’m excited to be going into my third year now at Old Time Flowers! I’ve learned and grown so much, both personally and professionally, over the past two seasons, I’m looking forward to seeing what 2023 brings!
