Hello friends and family!

Here's a brief 2019 season in review! Jennifer had a Lyme disease diagnosis in late September and so - a hard time keeping up with the blog this season. She's just completed four weeks of antibiotics, and is feeling much better. Not 100% yet, but so. much. better than two months ago. We're all thankful for that!

We're also so very grateful for your support during our seventh(?!!) season, and hope you enjoyed the flowers, plants and food this year.

We'll be in touch early next year with updates,etc. Until then - best to your fall and winter holiday season. We have so much gratitude and love for you all. 

We love our crew, and a special shout out to Uncle Eric on the mower - next year I'll be sure to take a photo of you showing off your superior tractor skilz. 

THANK YOU ALL!

We started in February and March, digging out the greenhouses from the million feet of snow, and hustling plants to keep them warm and happy. 

We delivered those babies in a rented U-haul in a snowstorm. This is me and my wingman returning the truck. :)

 

Pretty soon it was time for field planting...

 

And farm fun, 4th o'July...

And flower harvest!

UFO Days at the end of July...

And a quick birthday canoeing date!

August and September silliness is essential in maintaining peak season sanity!

And oh how we loved the hoophouse dahlias this season!

Soon it was our last delivery...

 In October we started schooling at home and enjoying the beautiful fall!

So much to be thankful for this season. Best to you and yours from your HPF farmers!

photo credit - Renee Whisnant

xoxo Jennifer, Mike + Earl (and Meeks:)

Hello dear HPF supporters!

Well, we've made some progress from freezing and windy and rain deluges, to 85 and sunny and boom! The new normal as our climate changes gives us one definite - EXTREMES! Woofdah. It's intense out here. Evermore important to support your local growers. - as you all do! Thanks a million!

Finally, the sun is shining!!!

We delivered a whole bunch of plants. This fuzzy pic is me, my wingman, and our little wingdog. We had our Auntie's shitzu staying with us for a coupld of weeks, and he fit right in.

 

We have a few blooms coming out of the field that will go to florists because we don't have enough for the retail markets. Retailers - we'll have flowers for you that last week of June if the sun shines, and the 80+ degree weather continues. It's a sloooowww season given the cold and gloomy conditions, but we seem to be picking up this week.

 

 

    

 

Mostly now, we've been planting and planting and planting, and playing in the mud kitchen, and taking a few breaths in between starter plant season, and field and hoop growing season.

Thanks to the Lakewinds Organic Field Fund, we were able to order a whole semi of black gold - fresh, sweet compost for our fields. We've been repairing the soil, and building fertility since we moved here four years ago, and this is something we've wanted to add for years. WOOT!

We're looking forward to seeing your faces as we start delivering in a few weeks! Happy June!

xxoo J,M+E, your HPF farmers

 

All the photos in this post are the work of Barbara O'Brien - she came to visit this summer along with our home school friends. She's an amazing artist!  (We thought you could use a little summer).

Heeeyyyy friends!

Streeetch! That's me, flexing my unused blogger muscles. :) I'm going back to my roots. We tried Mail Chimp last year, and it has benefits for sure but I prefer a good old-fashioned blog. 

It's been (and still is) a long, long winter. But we promise spring will come sooner than later, and we have plant babies in the greenhouse to prove it. 

We're plowing snow like crazy, and hustling hoses and frozen potting mix and flats in and out of the cooler/insulated seeding room and greenhouses. Farmer Mike finally put an 8 foot tall flag on the water hydrant, as we've already lost it in the 6-foot blowing snow drifts twice. :)

This year feels good coming upon us. Our 7th year of farm business - woot!

We're blessed with the gifts of greater wisdom and experience, and they come in handy. Farm business is risky. Farming in the new norms of climate change is very risky. We put up a new, beautiful plastic covered hoop house and greenhouse this year. While we need it so badly, we've been scared to do it because of the increasing winds and storm events and now, heavy snow. But the bottom line is that we can't continue to do what we do without a better set-up, so we take these steps in faith. That the storms will be gentle, our houses strong, and if we do have damage, our skill set and resilience help us to take next steps to problem solve and begin again. So it goes in farming, and all of life.

One of the things I love so much about the "farming food and flowers lifestyle" is the seasonality of it. We can hunker down and rest during the winter season, so that we can emerge in spring with our strong bodies, rested minds and renewed resolve to farm like our lives depend on it. Because they do.

We're offering certified organic bedding plants, watermelon and garlic this year! And our flowers will continue to be farmed with organic practices, but we chose not to certify them directly because it's too complicated, expensive and not practical for our purposes. 

Hope you're all very well - we'll see you very soon!
xxoo

J,M + E

Well, we're all still smiling, mostly! It's the end of September just like that, and we are ready to rest. To be honest, it's been a long, hot, dry, weather-extreme season, and we're ready for a break. We're so grateful for your support, and the flowers and good food that we've enjoyed from our fields. Now we'll take a break as we do, sleep and sit down more, and plan for next season.

Thank you, CSA members, for your loyal support. We appreciate you so very much. Until next season!

Retail buyers and restaurants, we'll have a couple more weeks of limited blooms depending the approaching frost. We'll keep you posted.

xoxo
J,M+E

Why it matters that you're choosing farm field-grown, organic flowers...

Those pretty flowers above are field-grown without chemicals. They came to life from mostly organic or at least untreated seeds, in organic potting mix made from cow manure and peat moss and vermiculite, a very small rock. They were fertilized with fermented fish parts, and organic minerals, and hand-planted in soil that has had cow manure, and cover crop biomass added to it. 

We have no bactericides, or synthetic nitrates or weed or insect killers running into the water supply and residing in the soil on our farm. Insects love these flowers - we leave a portion of them in fields to feast upon. We have giant bumblebees, honeybees, hummingbirds, monarchs and countless other birds and beneficial insects flying around our fields and little piece of land constantly.

Our flowers are hand-harvested into clean buckets with no preservative added except a little non-chlorine bleach residue leftover from cleaning. They are put into the cooler to take out the field heat, and kept there for a maximum of three days when they are put into beautiful, handmade small-batch mixes or single-variety bunches and delivered to stores. Most flowers are delivered within a day of being harvested. So they're really fresh. Depending on how they're cared for, they will last up to three weeks. If their water is not changed, they will die much sooner because there is no bactericide in the water killing the bacteria that builds up from the fresh flowers.

We mostly use kraft paper sleeves because we try to use as little plastic as possible in our farm business. It's one of our tenets. The paper sleeves are also a symbol - they mean that these are happy flowers that you can feel good about. These flowers are grown by a family that cares about the environment, and wants to make it better, and produce a beautiful, quality product that is beautiful and healthy.

Most of our flowers are not produced in a greenhouse or completely controlled environment. They may have a few wind blemishes here or there, and they may have a slight curve in a stem occasionally. This comes complimentary with the "flowers that are field-grown on a family farm with love" package. You're welcome. :) 

Thank you ever so much for supporting our family flower farm. Hopefully you know that when you choose to buy our flowers, you are buying so much more. The flowers are just a vehicle - a part of the process to build healthy soil and water, and beneficial animal life while making a little living for our family. That's what you're buying when you choose our local, field-grown flowers. Health for the land and the people. Way to go. We love you!

xo

J,M+E