Happy Friday Y’all.

We’ve been sweating in tunnels and fields all week, but a shift in temps arrived today and we’re now looking at cool and cloudy temps of low 80’s and high 70’s for the next 10 days. We love it, the crew loves it, and the dahlias love it.

The dahlias have just leapt into action this week!  We were reserving almost everything for our subscription customers and stair-stepping up our yields from week to week in un-dramatic and “why the hell aren’t they growing faster” fashion, when all of a sudden, they literally doubled in production from the week before.  This cool shift in temps and added rain we are getting should only accelerate that trend, so if you are a dahlia lover….these next 2 weeks are for you to get some for yourself and send some to loved ones to thank them for that thing you’ve been meaning to thank them for or just to spread cheer while it’s here. 

We are in the heart of dahlia season, and they are thriving!

They are beautiful and abundant, but of course as it is with nature, it is ever so fleeting and we are at the peak of the crescendo. We stop harvesting each year in mid-October. Regardless of plant health, day length effects the expression of the blooms from that point, so we stop selling them. We only want to sell the best of the best.

So, come on by the Farm Store today, tomorrow, or Sunday or get some to take home with you. You read that right, the Farm Store is not typically open on Sundays, but we are opening up this Sunday only from 10a-1p to share more dahlias and Farm Store goodness with you!

The Farm Store is stocked with bunches of dahlias, beautiful mugs and vases, fall teas, and more!

I’m a weed seed, born of weed seeds, blown from one land to the next. Each generation setting roots. Each new generation blowing with the wind to a new patch of soil. My grandparents blew over to San Francisco from Ireland and Italy. My parents blew out of the city and up to Petaluma. I blew from there over to Georgia. The culture I knew back home had similar backgrounds of each generation moving locations in search of better life. I discovered that Californians have less of what I call “cultural gravity”. There are pros and cons to that as with everything. I’ll explore that further in another writing, but it took me a minute to get my bearings around cultural differences here and to begin to discern the subculture differences too, of which, there are many in these parts.

One thing I did learn was that there is a substantial cultural significance to a certain publication.  Our amazing potter and my dear mother in law, Linda Rovolis, has been an avid reader and gainer of inspiration from Southern Living since she was a youngster in Savannah.  When we got the cover of Garden & Gun during its peak, I thought it was the zenith of Southern magazine exposure.

It was hip, bourbon infused, pork laden, farm curious, trendy as heck, with gardens …..and guns??? Does it get anymore southern? Linda let me know that the true gem in that category though was Southern Living. We still had work to do.

Southern Living isn’t just a magazine, it’s a cultural institution (or so I’ve read). “A 2005 study described Southern Living as a “rhetorical mirror” that helped the South sell its own mythology back to itself. It shaped a post-agricultural identity for Southern suburban households, blending nostalgia with modern leisure. Southern Living isn’t just important—it’s formative. It’s part scrapbook, part blueprint, and part love letter to the South.”

Linda’s incredible artistic vision, both in the garden, on the easel, at the potter’s wheel, and in the home itself was shaped in part by this magazine. Mandy’s artistic vision, which is at the core of so much about our farm (and our life), was shaped tremendously by her mother. So, I guess, in ways that I didn’t understand until typing this now and thinking about the lineage of an aesthetic, Southern Living has influenced our farm.

So, we were very pleased to be part of Southern Living's latest publication, with a story on our farm and a focus on our heirloom mum program.  We made sure to include Mandy’s maiden name in the article, so Linda could see her family name in the publication that has been such a big part of her life.

Mandy & Steve looking at the 3 Porch Farm feature in September's Southern Living magazine!

We also were featured with a great piece in Flower Magazine recently that also focuses on heirloom mums.  There’s a great shot of Sarah with an armload of River City in that one.  Such a great flower! Flower Magazine is especially geared towards folks who are passionate about interiors, gardening, entertaining, and travel.

And for a more varied take on mums that we were also featured in this month, you can check out this article by Garden Gate.“Featured” might be a bit heavy of a word.  “Mentioned” is more appropriate here. But there is a $100 mum giveaway associated with this article and it discusses gardening and container growing if that’s your thing.

Behind the scenes of the Southern Living photo shoot on the farm with our heirloom chrysanthemums!

Judging by all this, it’s fair to say that mums are hot right now, so if you are farming, now’s the time to get involved.  When we started, they were almost a punchline.  Now people have discovered what we discovered…that the right ones are truly stunning and a great addition to the farm and garden.

That’s all for me. I hope y’all have a great weekend!

Steve