Over the past month or so we’ve been riding a pretty hectic flower farming roller coaster. Everything feels precarious in a start-up business. There’s no money to spare. You’re making do with pre-loved equipment, so things break down often. And you don’t have the infrastructure and systems in place to do things efficiently, so the days are long and hard. Farming adds extra challenges because we can’t control the weather, we’re distanced from town amenities, and the infrastructure costs are painful. But there are some incredible rewards as well. Here are a few of our roller coaster moments over the past month or so.
1. Up↑ We were featured as a Capital Region Farmers Market Grower in their newsletter and ads. It was really validating and encouraging to be a featured grower amongst all those farmers I’ve admired for years while shopping at the markets
2. Down ↓ We had to deal with some misinformation spread in comments online that attacked our core business principle of ‘grow local, sell local’. It was time-consuming and not a lot of fun.
3. Up ↑ Our flowers are featured in the centrefold of the new Capital Region Farmers Market calendar. It’s an honour that had me in tears with Ineka as she showed me the calendar.
4. Up ↑ We made our first visit to Sydney flower markets to buy in some special flowers for a wedding. It was a huge new step in the floristry side of our business.
5. Down ↓ Our gorgeous crop of pink and white everlasting daisies finally bloomed. And days later more than 80% of the flowers had little caterpillars in the centres.
6. Down ↓ We have a big infestation of thrips attacking our foxgloves and a couple of other crops as they come into bloom.
7. Up ↑ We got ramps on the van so we can wheel on and off at the markets, reducing the workload significantly. We even got the winch working so they can be loaded afterwards by a single person.
7. Up ↑ We did a full service wedding at an amazing venue for a dream couple. The flower requests were my ultimate favourite - bright colours with an emphasis on natives. Everyone loved the flowers, my friend Lou helped with the design and getting us through the very long nights beforehand, and it was a beautiful wedding day.
8. Down ↓ My van broke down the day after the wedding. I spent about 6 hours by the roadside and riding in the tow truck. Apparently a piston has failed in the engine and the entire engine needs replacing at a cost of more than $21k.
It’s been a roller coaster ride. Our relatively young and reliable van breaking down is a particular challenge, especially since we’ve also arranged to return to the Old Bus Depot Markets from this Sunday (8th November). We’ve had lots of people asking when we might be back, and we’re very pleased to let you know you’ll be able to find us there every Sunday in November and December. And we’ll be at Capital Region Farmers Market every Saturday until the end of the year too. We'd love to see you, so please drop by and say hi!
