A Morning on the Farm in Photos
For this week’s blog I want to share a photo journal with you. Ann-Marie VanTassell, an amazing photographer I met after doing a wedding last fall, came to visit our farm about a month ago to capture our early morning harvest. These stunning photos will give you a glimpse of what we are up to every day. Enjoy!
This is how we organize what we will harvest each day in our “Headquarters”, which is really just a tiny shed off the house.
We walk out to the field to harvest. Imagine the sound of birds chirping, bumblebees still asleep on flowers. It’s serene. But as soon as the sun hits the fields the insects wake up, all buzzing around, butterflies fluttering past and sweat starts dripping. Then we are in a race to beat the heat. Flowers don’t like heat!
Here are the Amelias busting it out! It can be hard to hold a conversation while also trying to count stems!
We move quickly to harvest but also check for quality while in the field. Pro tip: deadhead flowers that are old/ not perfect so the plants keep producing more flowers!
Our trusty Toro gets us and our flowers around fast!
Once all the flowers are harvested they come up to the barn so we can double check it’s all accounted for and then it goes into our walk in fridge until delivery time which is usually the following day. As of now, our flowers are delivered to florists/shops five days a week. This week we are supplying flowers to Whole Foods Market in Baltimore (twice a week), 8 Baltimore florists, 4 DC florists and a CSA. Late August is usually a slow time of the season which is why we had planned on taking turns enjoying vacations this month. But demand is greater than expected so we have called on friends to help with the harvest! Oh and daycare is closed this week so we are scrambling with childcare. It’s take a village!
Iris is always around to boost morale and is Chef of Rodent Management.
Yep, this is us, or at least part of us! This photo is missing Alison, Kaiti, Ali (our market manager), and David (our farmer in training). From left to right: Amelia Phillips, Samantha Brekosky, Elisa Lane (me) and Amelia Hazen. (note: we don’t usually dress this nice for work. I’m even wearing eyeliner!)
Thank you for following along! Now we look ahead to the fall wedding season and pawpaws in the month of September. October is all about the ginger and then November is wreath madness! Winter is all about the naps. Who’s ready for a nap?!
At market this Sunday: heirloom tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, bouquets and a build your own bouquet flower bar.