Mindfully heading into 2022
The sun is shining brighter, the days are getting longer and it is a New Year, yay!
I don’t know about you but I am ready to embrace 2022!
Each New Year I feel like my mind, body and soul have finally recovered from the previous season. I doubt I’m alone in this. I think its a human thing! Spending the holiday season making human connections, hugging loved ones and eating delicious food recharges our batteries. The weather is dreary and forces us to finally begin to slow down, even though we may feel we cannot afford such a luxury! It is the time of year that I know I can finally digest the past season and begin to strategize for the upcoming one.
If you’ve read my other posts around this time of year then you know I am not a big New Year’s resolution person. I love goals but there is something about a resolution that just seems to set me up for failure and burn out. Rather, I prefer to reflect on the previous year to find an area in my life that I would like to work on refining. A running theme that seems to keep popping up and demands attention. This is usually a word, a quote or maybe a phrase usually prompted by hard lessons thrown at me for the last twelve months.
Reflecting on 2021
To put it simply, a ton happened in the year 2021. Honestly, I didn’t see it coming after all the antics of 2020 and it’s kind of a blur. Though a lot of the events of 2021 I’d rather not relive, I don’t think there’s anything I would take back. Between losing loved ones, illnesses, hasty decisions and wild fire smoke: it was a another year of growth.
I went into the season drained and exhausted from mourning the loss of loved ones, then it continued to get piled on during a time of year where I can’t normally handle figuring out what to make for dinner, let alone processing such heavy events. I did the one thing my mom told me not to do: stuffed it down. I had orders to fill and our customers were counting on us, I felt I had no choice but to stuff it down and focus on the business. Majority of plans and projects ended up getting tossed out the window. We were at the mercy of the volatile weather and life. With many weddings rolled over from 2020 it was not the year for weather to not play nice! Talking to fellow friends, growers and community members it seems like overall the year 2021 was bittersweet for most of us. We each had our down moments and we each had our successful ones. There were growing pains which are uncomfortable but ultimately are good.
The upside is 2021 was also quite beautiful. Things worked out really well… when they shouldn’t have. Somehow, everything all came together (even if at times it was a way closer call than my comfort!). It was a year of celebrating many life’s moments that were put on hold, making the commemoration all the more delightful. A year of ample healing rather than utterly surviving. Thanks to friends and loved ones who extended their support and comfort during my time of need, I was then able to return that upon others.
After all the tears from our brides in 2020 with wedding postponements, we had the honor to see their smiles as they prepared to finally walk down the aisle. There was a lot of pivoting of venues, dates and even in designs but it all turned out well and as it was meant to be. I need to be bragg-y for a minute and gush about how incredibly exceptional our 2021 wedding couples were. They were happy, grateful and highly focused on celebrating the reconnection with friends and families after being separated for far too long. To be apart of these fantastic couple’s wedding day was an absolute treat! Many of these couples we had been working with for almost three years by the time their big day was able to happen, making it a much more intimate experience. I think 2021 will always be a special year when looking back on the weddings with its particular energy and circumstances.
We filled our subscription spots with the introduction of our new Season Pass offering. I deem the Season Pass model, which is really a more traditional CSA model, a success and am looking forward to that being our new core subscription model. To be able to provide blooms to the same group of members was an absolute blessing and most of them became an extension of the Sierra Flower Farm family. They were patient, understanding and faithful when we had a crop gap, severe allergic reaction (I will never grow euphorbias again!) and wildfire impacts. To not have to retrain a volume of members in peak season was also a huge plus. Our Season Pass members truly valued their weekly or bi-weekly blooms. When some of our members were actively being evacuated due to the fires encroaching on their homes, we were able to get their blooms to them. At first, them still caring about a bouquet of flowers during such a chaotic moment in their life seemed silly then I realized: the flowers brought hope and comfort to them during the days and weeks when they were looking at potentially losing their homes. Flowers are so much more than just flowers. I was reminded that all over again.
The system of imported flowers was shaken this past year. Florists that wouldn’t normally source from local growers were scrambling for product. Somehow, seasonal blooms shined bright and were actually a more risk-free choice! It caught us off guard. Our field is small and we grow lean based on our subscription members and weddings. Though we couldn’t provide for every florist asking, we were able to provide blooms for some fellow event florists and made new flower friends in the process. I truly think the market is primed and ready for the influx of small scale growers that are here or still funneling into the industry.
Some other positive events that happened over the 2021 season were some really fun pop-ups! From getting to celebrate our friend’s release of her third book with a “blooms and books” event to hanging out at our favorite coffee shop moving extra product to even revisiting some sales outlets that we hadn’t done in a couple seasons. Making new connections and revisiting past ones, it was awesome to be back handing blooms and be involved in the community again!
Even though we had some crop gaps, we didn’t have complete failures. Some crops I wasn’t thrilled with their performance this past season but others it was the best crops we’d ever had! We had a great year for seeded cress, dusty miller and bupleurum, which really saved us for our weddings plus we were even able to tuck in some of our new varieties of peonies into bridal bouquets, after not so patiently waiting these last couple years. We finally found a patch in the garden that our rudbeckia hirtas loved! They had great stem length and they just kept churning out bloom after bloom. We also found the area that zinnias approved of, which has been a bit of a challenge at this property. We didn’t have the best tulips but we had enough. Thanks to our awesome wholesaler, we came up with a good game plan and are excited to see the tulips of 2022. We tried some new crop varieties that I personally fell in love with, such as artichoke greens. Thanks to our strange fall weather, we had heirloom mums trickle out of the garden through November, which was enough for us to fill our weekly restaurant order. Some varieties are getting cut from the 2022 season such as nasturtiums. They just don’t love us enough! Then again…maybe I’ll just have to tuck some in with the squash to still be able to add the blooms to salads…
The 2021 year was filled with reconnecting with friends and family while also gaining new ones. There were tears of joy and tears of sorrow, each accompanied with hugs and support. The field provided a place of healing for not only for our family but others that I didn’t anticipate. The plants persevered and provided us with what we needed even though, not the amount we planned, it was still a prosperous season.
In between the personal struggles I was having, many of you not only encouraged but shared your struggles and successes. Reading your comments, emails, texts and even drive-by honks and waves refilled my cup. Your words inspired and motivated our little Sierra Flower Farm family to keep trucking on when we had a moment of wondering if we could and I am forever grateful for that. At times, being a flower farmer can get lonely as you stay isolated in your field and wonder if all you say and do even makes a difference. Thanks to your feedback, I know we do.
The trials and challenges of 2021 did emphasize the importance of not getting too caught up in the everyday grind and forgetting to live life. To be honest, I think I was in a bit of a sixth year slump, and then allowed life to push me further down. I think knowing we should live in the moment and cherish the moment is a common knowledge amongst us but sometimes, we need those bittersweet moments to bring us back to the present. It is too easy to say to ourselves: “if I just get this done then I can finally do that.” Such a mentality is dangerous and a slippery slope for a flower farmer. The honest truth is: there is always something that needs to be done. If you are trying to get to the bottom of that checklist: it’s like chasing for that pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. It can lead to burnout, a sense of emptiness and even regret. I have just lost three family members in the past year with another one fighting for her life: I am not going to be “too busy” for my loved ones and live with that regret. I do not want to go into another season feeling numb and overwhelmed, unable to give myself permission to spend time with loved ones guilt-free. Reflecting on the past year, the good and not-so-good, in conjunction with my personal reactions to each has lead me to my word of the year 2022:
Mindful.
Mindfully stepping into the 2022 season
Too often, especially during the chaos of the growing season, I forget to be present in the moment. Hyper-focusing on getting the tasks done, orders filled and pushing myself to exhaustion. Sure, this is part of the gig but it shouldn’t be an everyday habit. I’ve allowed it to become an everyday habit.
Part of my trek on being more mindful seems to be simplifying life, which really means simplifying Sierra Flower Farm. How do I even begin to tackle that beast again?
Kind of like deep cleaning the house and moving furniture, I started with a fresh look on our website. To be more clean and concise. We have already begun to implement some ideas and are excited to continue refining our products, sales outlets, protocols and all that in between to be able to remain mindful throughout the growing season. Not only for ourselves but to better serve all our amazing customers, to better nurture those relations but not at the expense of ourselves. This means changing what subscriptions we offer, updating our wedding packages, having boundaries and practicing saying “no” when we know we really should.
This coming season I want to focus on continuously improving quality, presentation and execution. I’m thrilled we were able to get some big projects done to set ourselves up for a more efficient season ahead such as a full wash and packing station. After having an employee for the first time ever, we learned so much and I am excited to pull together resources and start the hiring process for the 2022 season. We couldn’t have asked for a better first employee and we see a lot of room for improvement on our part. A big one: multiple employees because most people aren’t crazy enough to handle all the different roles we, as the flower farm business owner, play!
I want to, hopefully, continue to inspire budding flower farmers and commiserate with fellow flower farmers as well. Each season we learn so much and we love to share those experiences with others (we also love to hear other’s experiences!). I truly feel our fellow humans need the cheerful beauty local flowers bring. We never know what another person is going through but the gesture of handing blooms, I think, can only improve the condition of the heart. They bring joy and reduce anxiety (true but weird fact!).
This is the year I want to…
…take chances but not at the beckon of others.
… see other budding flower farmers succeed to provide their communities a beacon of light that is becoming increasingly essential.
… divulge and enjoy the tiny junctures of life along with the bigger ones.
…see the beauty of the field of blooms through fresh eyes without only seeing the shortcomings.
… fall in love with flower farming all over again.
Colossal goals, modest goals and all those in between: I am so thrilled to plot them, try them and succeed at some of them. 2022 is shaping up to be a marvelous year. I am absolutely geeking out on the weddings we already have on the books and am excited for the ones to come. Our clan of subscription members already has me eager to deliver flowers to each of them all season long, along with some delicious produce. I am hankering to crop plan, get my hands in the dirt and to care for my piece of earth. I’m also working on being more patient and not getting hasty! We’re finally getting big projects checked off the list after having them there for far too long. We have torn down possibly everything we could on the property and are finally at the point that all is left is building up (rather filling up with all the perennials that have been on my wishlist for years!).
Whether you are a long time reader, just happened upon my ramblings, dreaming of launching into your flower farming journy or are well into the journey: be sure to stay present. As we build our flower farming business from scratch, the hunger and ambition to see it lift off: don’t forget to live life and enjoy the process. Before you know it, you can be several years down the line and not even realize your dream is now a reality. That it’s been a reality since the moment you decided to take action to put that dream into motion. Be mindful.
The year 2021 threw a copious amount of lessons our way. I am now looking forward to applying them to the 2022 season in a mindful, fully conscious manner to have a bounty of luscious blooms while living life.
Happy New Year my fellow flower lovers!
I hope that this coming year shines bright and is filled with fluffy beauties, conquered dreams and hope.
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Let’s make 2024 the most beautiful yet with all our locally grown blooms!