SPRING WEEK 6

BOUQUET INGREDIENTS

sunflowers, rudbeckia, statice, feverfew

The fields are pumping out so many blooms, the volume is becoming a problem! Most of you know by now that I grow on leased land and operate the farm from our home. We use a converted upright freezer for limited cold storage, but this week the harvests have been so abundant I've found myself yearning for a walk-in cooler. These are growing pains that many businesses face, but lacking cold storage with such a perishable product -- plus the slower sales we tend to see in summer -- means we'll likely be taking a loss this week. Constructing a walk-in cooler at our rental isn't an option, so I'm brainstorming other ideas and drying as many stems in the meantime as I can! Thankfully many of the blooms we're harvesting right now make beautiful dried flowers.

I've been reflecting today on how the farm has changed since this spring subscription started just seven weeks ago. At the beginning of May, we were harvesting buckets of stems out of our high tunnel, which now has been mowed down and covered for weeks. Our field had yet to produce a single stem (the same field that is overwhelming me now!) and we were just beginning to transplant crops like cosmos and zinnias that are now coming into bloom. I've even begun cutting down spent beds in the field this week, mowing and tarping our calendula and our first bed of sunflowers.

I always feel the summer solstice as a turning point in the season. Our crops -- and the weeds -- grow so quickly in the months preceding and following the solstice. As the days begin to shorten, many of our flowers are signaled to bloom and many of the tasks I've been frantically juggling for the past several months begin to ease up. We have a few rounds of transplants to get in the ground yet, but we hope to be done transplanting by July 15th.

We have a few spots remaining in our summer subscription session if you haven't signed up yet, though many of you have! Thank you so much for letting me flower your home, and I can't wait to bring you more blooms in August.

Cheers,