Farm Stress and Floral Fun
Greetings, farm friends!
We’ve lost count of how many weeks of heat wave we’ve endured so far this summer, but it doesn’t look like it’s going to let up anytime soon. I’m not going to lie, it’s been really hard on us all. Our crops are somehow thriving despite the heat(I think a lot of credit goes to our pulse watering irrigation system here), but your farmers are taking a real beating these days. There’s a point in every summer during which it feels too hot, but this year feels different, and unrelenting. We’ll enjoy a brief break from the intense heat this weekend, and then it’s back to brutal heat for the beginning of next week. We’re doing our best to stay hydrated, take care of challenging tasks early in the day, and take lots of breaks, but at the end of the day it’s still incredibly difficult to slog through farm work in intense heat and humidity for weeks on end.
Fortunately, we did manage to get some work done and have some fun this week! On Thursday we had an absolute planting marathon, attempting to get everything in before the rain arrived. We managed to plant lots of marigolds, snapdragons, phlox, and sunflowers, undersowed cover crop in more mature plantings, and put down grass seed in areas that were recently disturbed by machine work around the farm. Hopefully the rains will give everybody a good leg up before the heat sets in next week.
Dave and Wren planting, with Elisa looking on
On Tuesday, with the help of Maya from Hillen Homestead, Kate Campbell, Mallory Wilson of Violet Florals, and Ellen Frost of Local Color Flowers, we hosted the first ever Maryland Flower Camp.
We welcomed 60 flower farmers and florists to the farm to spend the day roaming the fields, congregating, and playing with flowers. As farmers and florists, we all love flowers, but seldom get to spend a day devoted to play and enjoyment. We got to meet many florists we work with regularly but had never encountered in person, spend time with old friends, and hopefully lots of flower farmers and florists were able to connect with one another and build new relationships.
We spent the morning getting to know each other and touring the farm, and enjoyed a delicious potluck lunch. Due to both the heat and our overly-optimistic outlook regarding how much we could do in a day, we had to scrap some of our plans, but we had a great time nonetheless!
The farmers who participated brought loads of blooms for us to enjoy, and for the last activity of the day we all split into teams and created floral installations around the farm. Teams decorated a swing, an empty bathtub, and even the porta-potty we rented for the event! For our installations, we got the chance to play with some sustainable floral mechanics that New Age Floral sent us for the event. It was such a treat to get farmers and florists together to create installations with no guidelines or limitations, and to try some new mechanics in the process!
Flower Camp was a smashing success, and we hope to do it again next year!
Porta-potty florals!
We’re at the Baltimore Farmers Market this Sunday, July 14th from 7:00- 12:00!
We’re planning to bring bouquets, eucalyptus, snapdragons, rudbeckia, assorted bunches of flowers and Two Boots merch.
And, of course, the Build Your Own Bouquet bar is back!
Thanks for reading, and we hope to see you at the market!
Amelia & The Two Boots crew
Another delightful Flower Camp installation
Farmers brought an extraordinary bounty of blooms to camp on Tuesday!