Happy Friday y’all!   We’ve got all hands out in the fields this cold and windy week and it feels good to be making big progress on a few large projects before the rain comes in and turns the fields into a muddy mess.   These kind of projects are usually tackled by 3-5 of us, but for the last few days, we’ve had a crew of 8 and it’s been a pleasure to sweep through such grueling work.  Full days of digging clusters of dahlia tubers out of the soil, shaking the moist clumps of dirt off, cutting the stalks, loading them into crates, lifting the crates onto pallets, moving them across the farm, lifting them onto the top...

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...

Happy Friday y’all!   It’s been a mumtastic week out here.  We’ve been holding off harvesting the flowers for quite some time so we could have gorgeously full tunnels of flowers in full bloom for Southern Living’s photographer who was just out here shooting everything.  It’s always weird walking around the farm in nicer clothes than we’re comfortable in, pretending to be candid, casual, and charming.  It’s an unnatural state for us to strike a pose and we’re filled with self consciousness and a strange sense of being an imposter in our own life.  Fortunately we got on well with the photo team, which always makes it easier.  Then yesterday, we made up for lost time by having as many...

Howdy Folks,   We’re doing our thing in this oddly pleasant weather.  We’ve been having 60 degree nights and 70-80 degree days for awhile.  No frost yet.  Our first year out here in 2011, we already had a 19 degree night by this time of year. This is massively different. Consistent weather patterns are a farmer’s friend.  Inconsistent weather patterns, even if they are occasionally pleasant, are more challenging and can often be a threat.     Oh well.  Constantly practicing being okay with unwanted change out here.  Accept what is, release your grip on what you hoped “now” would hold, take notice of what you have to be grateful for, revel in that gratitude as fully as you can, and adjust to...

  Happy Friday y’all!  Some of y’all are struggling with candy hangovers and others with boozy costume party hangovers.  Hopefully all had fun and are recovering well and looking forward to a nice weekend.  Perhaps the last calm weekend our nation will collectively have for awhile, so soak it in.  Hopefully not for too long awhile….hopefully.  Spooky.  I blame social media.  Let’s all remember to be nice to our neighbors.  Perty please.   Out on the farm we are doing lots of work in the greenhouses.  Once again I’m struggling with our gigantic archaic steamer, which is essentially a large boiler that I tow from place to place, while dragging huge tarps and hundreds of pounds of trucker chain all...

Fall Y’all   Happy Friday y’all! Fall has been beautiful thus far as we narrowly averted an early freeze and have maintained enough of our dahlias to feed the monarchs, swallowtails, bumble and honeybees.  Every time I frantically run from one overdue project to the next and a monarch floats past my head, I feel my whole body unclench a bit and find a smile drift onto my face.  Their numbers did diminish significantly after 2 nights at 33 degrees, but enough stayed to maintain the magic.   I didn’t write last week, because we had friends in town Thursday-Monday and they’re the kind of friends that keep your belly full of laughter and your cup full of libations.  Some of...

Hello and happy Friday y’all   Our hearts go out to everyone suffering from the impact of the hurricane.  We’ve heard from customers whose towns were heavily impacted and just learned that our dear friend’s mother lost her home and vehicle in Asheville.  She herself was not hit as hard as her mother, but also suffered from the storm and is still without power.  She did share though that despite the significant hardship and loss, that  “It’s been really beautiful seeing people come together around this.  It’s been really powerful.”  Telling stories of whole communities coming together in her little nearby mountain town to try and rescue stranded people and salvage beloved storefronts and businesses that were waist deep in water....

  This Wednesday morning, we lost one of the most magnificent beings I imagine has ever walked the earth.  To go through life in pain and suffering for a half a decade with a melange of illnesses and maladies, yet remain not only upbeat, but endlessly charming, funny, and perpetually thinking of how to help others until his final moments is a magic that I wish to carry, but don’t believe that I’ll ever achieve, or even come close to.  An integrity that permeates throughout his history in the corporate world (not known for its emphasis on compassion, generosity, and selflessness) is something of a marvel to me.  The stories that poured in about his good deeds, from old colleagues...

Happy Friday y'all!   Wondering how many of you saw the Harvest Moon/Super Moon/Lunar Eclipse celestial triple feature the other night.  We caught the moon over our neighbor's field the night before and it was gorgeous, but unfortunately had full cloud cover during the main event.  I hope a few of you got a glimpse and it was a good one.   We got our friend and studio lead back on the farm and shipping off flowers to your homes this week.  Kali worked as a floral designer in Atlanta for many years before we kidnapped her for some farm work and rural living 4 flower seasons ago and she's been living on the Broad River and working with us every shipping...

Happy Friday folks.   Tomorrow our heirloom chrysanthemum cutting pre-sale goes live to everyone!  If you are looking for a late fall flower for your market booth, look no further.  Every single variety has been vetted by us to be a perfect cut flower.  All big yielders, strong stems, long stems, beautiful flowers, with super long vase lives that make customers giddy with excitement.  We make tons of bouquets with them for Thanksgiving and people love them.  We've been trialing and selecting the best of the best for a decade, so you don't have to waste years figuring out which ones look good in a photo, but turn out to be a dud as a cut flower.  There's so many options...