Farm Update: Sweet Peas & Dusty Paths
It has been nearly three months since I have typed on the keyboard for much more than updating proposals or sending emails. Three months of doing so much in the background yet so little on social media. Living outside of the world of technology and… it’s been rather nice. Stolen moments of visiting friends and family face to face over a hot mug of coffee, park dates, walks and card games with our girls in between caring for the field and our customers.
Is this how we as humans felt back before a computer attached to our wrists or settled in our pockets? To be tied to the world on a constant basis? To feel you have to respond instantaneously to every text, message or email? To essentially be a ghost if not posting on social media? Yet, these last few months of not having my phone ding drawing me back to it… I feel more free and alive. A break was needed and it was good but it is also nice to be back reconnecting with each of you.
Last night, as I was harvesting the first bucketful of sweet peas, my girls skipped behind me scooping up the discarded stems too swirly, too short or too wind damaged to sell. Like they have every June for the last several years. A flash flew before my eyes. The years of flower farming and it was as if I was seeing our girls for the first time in seven years. I mean, I see them everyday, but it was like a movie where all the Junes of the years came whirling together. Janey was one year old when I started this journey of flower farming, Emma barely three.
Our girls have always known sweet peas to be in bloom in June. The sweet pea’s fragrance… it will forever be tied in their memories. Memories of the last days of school, late days playing in the field while Graham and I work until dark, and memories of the first ice cream of summer which is always so much more delicious for some reason. After seven years the girls still love to follow me as I harvest, collecting the stems thrown down on the dusty paths. It’s what we do, every June until the sweet peas tucker out: I harvest and they collect the rejected stems as treasures. It’s like our tradition and then the thought occurred… how many more years are they going to want to collect the rejected sweet peas from these dusty paths?
My first year plunging into flower farming I remember researching and researching in between snuggles, rocking, snacks and the glorious nap times. I remember planting, getting into a rhythm to have to completely stop as the girls needed their mommy. Every night when Graham walked through the door I would essentially thrust the girls at him so I could finish my tasks outside in the dwindling day light. Those days feel so distant yet as if it were just yesterday. Juggling figuring out how to merge my desire to be a flower farmer with being a mommy. The reality is, they were seven Junes ago.
This June, I feel a change that is brewing in the girls.
Sometimes mom guilt creeps in as I work long days in the field to be followed by long days designing for weddings, as it has every season. Earlier this evening, as I sat crouched delicately weeding the violas a small voice surprised me “can I help?” Emma had her gardening gloves and knee pad in hand. I welcomed her help. For the next hour, we sat and we weeded. We slowed down and chatted all things growing and life. Where did the time go? The girls have reached the age where all of a sudden it has gone from me distracting them with hoses, tiny shovels and “tasks” that can be done while alleviating too much potential damage to being… actually helpful. This is a bit of a mind trip! The little girls who “helpfully” deadheaded all my cosmos right before I was going to harvest them and filled their socks with dirt to pound against the asphalt out of boredom towards the end of a long day at market to the horror of customers: they have outgrown that stage. These little girls have been watching and learning over the years in between the shenanigans. As of last week, discarded sweet peas on a dusty path are no longer good enough for a proper bouquet or arrangement, still fun but not of quality for a flower farmer to use in floral design. This season I have seen the girls forage out in the field and create floral designs that are better than when I first started attempting any kind of designs.
Emma says she wants to grow up to be a flower farmer. Not an astronaut or movie star but something her wreck of a mom decided one day to take the leap into and brought them into without much choice. She is also only ten. There are many years between here and there where she can easily change her mind but in this moment: I will relish that my daughter is inspired and wants to grow up to be like her mommy. That my daughters have gained knowledge and skills that as a city kid, I was far removed from. I hadn’t smelled a sweet pea scent that didn’t come from a Bath & Body works lotion until I was nearly thirty years old! The first time I truly experienced their decadent scent was only once they were blooming in our garden.
After years of battling the dreaded “mom-guilt” I am finding it being lifted as the girls voice their love for the lifestyle we have as flower farmers. How our lives follow the ebbs and flows of the garden. I am getting pieces of their perspective in a new light that I have not before: those perspectives are encouraging.
I share these musings as a mom who first leapt into flower farming with young children, not an uncommon theme amongst many of the stories of other aspiring or active flower farmers. If you are finding yourself with mom guilt as you juggle being a flower farmer with kids, know you are not alone. Know that this time is precious and it is something you are bonding over with your children. You are giving them experience that is incredibly unique in this day and age. You are an inspiration to your children. Even if you are not flower farming with children of your own, know that you are inspiring someone out there. You do not need to be a celebrity or astronaut to impact someone’s life in a positive way. You are putting beauty into the world that is always needed.
Until next time, we are looking forward to handing you blooms soon!
Jessica & Graham
You’re the first to know!
We are excited (and nervous!) to be launching a new YouTube series. That’s right… we are going to be doing an actual series! In the name of time being our biggest assets as humans we have created a new series: Five Minute Flower Friday (FMFF). A video series where you can find almost everything you need to know to grow, harvest and design with all different types of fluffy beauties in five minutes or under.
Each flower has its own nuances from seed to vase, our goal is to help lessen the learning curve to learning these nuances to successfully grow some our favorite flowers! Hopefully, this helps you to learn more about flowers you want to grow in less time so you can get back to the other important things in life such as spending time with loved ones.
Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube Channel to not miss out on all the flower fun!