Happy Friday y’all!

  We’re flipping through seasons over here.  We just finished cutting, packing, and shipping all the mums today with part of the crew and the other half was out pulling the netting and stakes off the plants, cutting their tops, pitchforking their soil, and pulling up all the roots, replanting them in small pots, and shuttling them to our propagation house for a whole new life.

 In what felt like our first actual day of Fall weather, we finished our Fall flower program and began Spring.  Well, at least in those tunnels.  I guess we already started Spring in most of the other tunnels.  Winter happened today too though as we are likely to get a frost this evening, so the ritual of closing up the tunnels (my nightly winter ritual), cinching them off from wind and cold, and setting up the heater has begun also.  3 seasons in one day.  One for each porch.

  Speaking of mums, we had some feedback that some of the flowers we just shipped out unfortunately showed up to their new homes looking worse for wear and it was a bit gutting.  When shipping out lots of packages, we anticipate a couple of delays or maybe a box that might have sustained damage, yet almost never get feedback that our flowers look old, brown, or wilty.  Unfortunately there were a handful of emails to that end this time around and we think that a portion of our packages must’ve been exposed to extreme temps en route that resulted in the deterioration of the blooms.  Not much else can explain shipping freshly cut mums that easily last 10 days and having them arrive the next day looking like they aged 2 weeks overnight.  Fortunately, we also got elated emails with photos of beautiful arrangements, so we know it didn’t happen to all of them.

  It’s heart wrenching to read the emails of those whose flowers were affected, but I’d like to request that if you also received our mums in this condition that you please let us know, so we can refund your flowers.  I know some of you are enthusiastic supporters of our farm and would rather not complain and we appreciate your generosity and consideration, but we truly sleep better at night knowing that we had the opportunity to make amends in a situation like this, so please send an email to let me know if this happened to you and we’ll make it right.

That’s about all.  We’ve got a lot of family coming into town next week and we are so grateful for that.  I can’t wait to see everyone, share space, meals, laughs and maybe a few tears.  I love what we do and am grateful for the life we’ve built, but it does come with the cost of missing time with loved ones due to the constant demands on our time.  The silver lining though is that we really really appreciate the time we do have and are looking to make the most of it.  To that end, we’ll be stepping back from deliveries next week and the newsletter will be spare.

  I hope that you all find time with folks you love and are grateful for.  And for those of you struggling to keep connections with loved ones who don’t share your worldview or politics and are feeling that chasm grow, I have a piece of hopeful news to share.  For folks who love each other, but can’t agree on a news source that seems to be devoid of bias toward the left or the right, a new resource has surfaced to help people bridge that ever growing chasm: Tangle News.  It was developed by a politically independent journalist who decided that this was a huge problem in our country and aimed to provide a solution.  They basically read all the articles and arguments from both the left and the right on any big news stories, summarize them all in succinct format, mapping out the main points, and connecting them with actual data that support or refute them…also removing triggering language that journalists on both sides may use to rile up emotions in their readers.  The current readership of Tangle is split fairly evenly between liberals, conservatives and independents and from what I’ve seen it provides a level headed view at our political world, allowing us to find common ground to discuss our opinions about.  Unless we can agree on the underlying facts of a situation, healthy communication won’t come, so I view this as a priceless resource that can in some small way, combat the caustic nature of our bubbles and echo chambers that result in further divisions.  Give it a look.  You might find it helps you reconnect with someone important to you.

 Wishing you gratitude, yummy vittles, and some proper relaxation.

Steve