Happy Friday Y’all!

We just had a nice visit from a few friends old and new. One a flower farmer, one a photographer from Milan, and his old photography school buddy who is briefly visiting from Sicily. We shared stories about life in rural Georgia and life in rural Sicily over a couple of beers and had a few laughs and easy conversation…mostly in English, though I forced my fledgling Italian in there as much as possible.

We rarely host guests during the week due to our schedule, but as someone who’s basked in the unbelievably generous hospitality of strangers in Cuba, Indonesia, Sicily, Costa Rica, Panama, Mexico, Chile, and Argentina, I’ve made it part of my heart to do my best to extend a hearty welcome to other travelers when the opportunity arises.

Helping a family harvest olives in Sicily (left), and a family Steve stayed with in Costa Rica (right)!

Before I ever had any thought of owning a home, let alone a farm, I studied ecology by day and worked nights and weekends hoarding every penny I could save, just to get enough to buy a ticket to some place exotic. I’d stay in huts for $2-$3 a night, eat street food, and hike, bus, or hitchhike my way through a country…sometimes volunteering in construction or giving ecological tours in exchange for room and board. I was enamored by the adventure, the novelty, the unique beauty of wildlife, forests, jungles, mountains, rivers, volcanic lakes, and fascinating cultures. The different foods, customs, dances. It was all so mesmerizing, intoxicating, and even overwhelming at times. So much emotion for a young mind that was cultivated in suburban America in the 80s and 90s. The rest of the world was so vast and so different than school, church, t.v. or movies could have ever prepared me for.

Indonesia! An active volcano lake in Lombok (left) and generous hosts in Bali (right).

Steve spent a summer in the cloud forest of Costa Rica giving ecological tours at the Monte Verde Butterfly Gardens in 2001 (left) and helped this family build a family temple in Indonesia (right) – work done in exchange for a place to stay!

The one experience that I kept having time and time again though, was hospitality rooted in extreme kindness. An unexpected deep well of generosity from people that I would meet at a beach, a lake, a restaurant, a bar, or on the street in a village, that would just invite me into their homes and roll out the red carpet as though I was a long lost family member that they would spare no expense to welcome home. The food always seemed more than they could afford, and there always seemed to be extended family showering me with heartwarming smiles and conversation in a bit of my language and a bit of theirs. We’d share local drinks, I’d learn their songs, we’d make each other laugh, and my heart would fill up more than I thought possible. No ask. No hitch. No catch. Nothing wanted from me other than a brief period of shared human kindness.

The streets of Havana, Cuba!

He was interested in knowing what the local food traditions are here. He was excited to hear about Mandy growing up shrimping and crabbing in the waterways behind her childhood home near Savannah. He was discouraged by the sprawling expanses of chain stores and corporate eateries he encountered in more populated areas, but seemed to breathe deeply and enjoy fully our very rural and isolated air. He was endlessly amused at our old veggie oil powered school bus and the story of how I met Mandy while driving it across the U.S. doing renewable fuels outreach 23 years ago. He was even more enthralled by the huge painting of a sweet eyed country kitten that we hung in the staff break room in the barn. He giggled and giggled at the sight of it.

Steve standing on top of the veggie oil powered school bus he drove across the country (left) & the beloved kitten painting with Mandy standing next to it for scale (right)!

I may have read into it, but I almost felt like I saw his shoulders drop and his soul go “ah ha.” He was looking for rural Georgia in a way he could connect with a piece of it, and it felt like he got a glimpse of that here, with his Italian friend, his flower farming fiancé, and their two pals who run a farm tucked back against Watson Mill Bridge State Park.

Even Mandy, who leans towards introversion and might be a hermit if she could get away with it, immediately said how nice a visit it was as they drove away. That’s saying a lot too, cause weeknight visits in spring can be anxiety inducing for us. There’s still work to do, and we wear a thick coat of exhaustion by this point, but this ended up being easy and lovely. As they drove away, all those kind people that hosted me in years past flashed through my mind and in some small way I felt like this was just a link in that chain of human kindness. As Lucca calls it: “Human exchange.”

It’s good to keep an open heart.

We have fresh poppies & ranunculus in the Farm Store this week + lots of unique goods & wares!

The Farm Store is open, so come on through.  Flowers are slowing down, but poppies keep right on giving.  Heirloom mum babies are doing amazing as our crew, led by Sarah, has just dialed everything in superbly this year.  We’ve far surpassed all our projections and previous years’ production levels due to having such incredibly healthy plants, and we’re now offering a lot of varieties that had heretofore been sold out for months.  Check out our “ready to ship” offerings if you wanna get those varieties you couldn’t get ahold of before.  They’re ready to find new homes NOW.

Our amazing mum team, rooting cuttings (left) & loading up the mum boxes to ship to you this week (right)!

California growers ….Attention Attention!! We’ve been in talks with our department of agriculture, and we may be getting permission to sell unrooted mum cuttings to y’all! These will be for experienced growers only. We are not allowed to root them and send them to CA, but if you’ve got experience rooting out cuttings, you may now have an option of getting some of these hard to find varieties in your beautiful state. Keep an eye out for further updates.

That’s all for me.

Have a great weekend!

Steve