August 15, 2023 • 39 mins
Emily Pek is a flower farmer and the owner of Frayed Knot Farm, a small flower farm in Newbury, Ohio, where she produces beautiful, diverse cut flowers and herbs that share stories, bring joy and support equitable and regenerative farming.
In this episode, we visit Emily on her farm and discover her journey to becoming a flower farmer, the family roots and community behind her farm, the flowers behind the Saison beer at Great Lakes Brewing Company, and her grandpa's punny joke that inspired the name Frayed Knot Farm.
If Emily were a flower, she says she would be Foxglove. It's delicate but tough with "tough" being the operative word behind being a farmer. Starting with just a grass field in 2018, Emily now grows over 100 varieties of annual and perennial flowers and foliage on less than an acre using hand-scale farming practices. She demonstrates how hard work and a "why not?" attitude can turn dreams into reality. Join us on this episode to discover the heart and hard work behind Frayed Knot Farm and Emily's passion for a more sustainable and healthy environment. Her journey will inspire you to pursue your dreams, no matter how big or small.
Resources:
Frayed Knot Farm
Follow Frayed Knot Farm on Instagram
Event Florals
Flower Shares through Ohio City farm
Wholesale - The Collab
Community Partners - Rustbelt Fibershed The Flax Project
The joke - a string walks into a bar....
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
You're listening to EcoSpeak CLE, where the
EcoCurious explore the uniqueand thriving environmental
community here in Northeast Ohio.
My name is Diane Bicke and myproducer is Greg Rotuno.
Together, we bring youinspiring stories from local
sustainability leaders andinvite you to connect, learn and
live with our community andplanet in mind.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Hi everyone, thanks for listening.
A brief note before we startthis episode we'll be taking a
break for a few weeks while wecelebrate my wedding to Diane's
daughter, hailey, and our nextepisode will air on September
19th.
So I hope you enjoy this oneand think of us on September 2nd
while we are tying the knot.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Hello friends, today Greg and I are out in Jogga
County.
We're visiting Emily Peck ather flower farm in Novelty, Ohio
.
The frayed knot farm grows over100 varieties of annual and
perennial flowers and foliage onless than an acre, using hand
scale farming practices.
Emily's mission is to growbeautiful, diverse cut flowers
(01:09):
and herbs that share stories,bring joy and support equitable
and regenerative farming.
Thanks for joining us, Emily.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Thanks so much.
This is the farm, so you havean acre, an acre.
It's total it's three acresincluding the woods, so there's
about an acre that goes backinto the woods.
But I'm technically, if I addedup all the growing space, it's
(01:36):
only an acre that I'm actuallygrowing on, so there's plenty of
more room to expand into.
And, yeah, this is kind of themain growing area up front here.
I have this high tunnel herethat helps extend the season.
(01:59):
We built that in 2020 and kindof have progressively added on
fields each year of growingspace, so, and then the back
half is kind of a meadow areathat I kind of just let go do
(02:22):
its thing as like a placeholderand kind of be a pollinator area
until I need to use it forproduction, but in the meantime
it allows me to not have tobuild the grass and creates like
an ecosystem for things backthere.
So, yeah, most of these areannuals that you're seeing.
(02:47):
And then I do have sprinkledthroughout different perennials
that I try to add on each year.
So, like here, the Yaro is aperennial that will come back
every year, and you grew flaxfor vegetable fiber.
So we just pulled that lastweek actually, and I have some
(03:08):
drying in the high tunnel andyeah, we'll dry that, store that
and then, as people want to useit, they can do what they want
with it.
There's a whole list ofprocessing that goes with that
that I'd be happy to share morein detail.
But but yeah, this is kind ofthe time that it gets harvested.
(03:30):
It was over there where thatRuscolt Linnum Project sign is,
so it's just a small plot.
This year, the first year wedid it, it was, as it was, where
the high tunnel is, so it wasas large as that space.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Yeah, big area, yeah.
So there's a lot to unpackthere in your mission statement.
I think most cut flower farmerswould be like, okay, grow
flowers, cut flowers, sellflowers, and you're in this for
for, on a much more meaningfullevel, it seems like I don't
(04:05):
know if that's a really goodidea to put it.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
I hope so.
Yeah, I mean, I think thebusiness part is kind of implied
.
So that's why it's not, for meat least.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Yeah, it's not part of the mission statement.
We're assuming you're growing,you're cutting and you're
selling and you're making money.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
I do want people to know that I would like to make
money, but there's there'sdefinitely more, yeah, more to
it than that.
That is like part of the ethosof what I do, yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Well, I've heard about your farm and, like over a
year ago I think, from MichaelRobinson, congratulations on
your marriage, by the way, thankyou.
Michael Robinson is theco-founder of Rust Belt Riders,
so you guys are both in thissustainability world.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Yeah, as my mom put it at our wedding a match made
in soil A match made in soil.
Yeah, we just, we're always,we're just on brand, we're in
our personal lives andprofessional lives.
We just can't help it so yeah,Sounds like a perfect match.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Yeah, Well, tell us about.
So I've always been curiousabout the name frayed knot Like
it could be interpreted like I'mnot going to be afraid of being
a flower farmer, or I'm lookingat a piece of twisted twine.
So what's the?
What's the origin of the name?
Frayed knot farm?
Speaker 3 (05:22):
That.
Wow, I've never had someoneactually say that that's 100%
correct.
Which one?
Speaker 1 (05:30):
You know what?
Speaker 3 (05:30):
we actually asked a friend for somebody to bet on, I
think you both situation moreso the I'm not afraid to be a
flower farmer.
It has a little bit of anorigin story.
So where the farm is locatedwas previously owned by my
grandparents.
They were the stewards of itbefore me and obviously why I
was able to have access to theland.
(05:52):
They have their house that theybuilt next next to the farm.
When I got the land it was itwas not a farm yet, it was just
grass that they mowed for manyyears.
But my grandfather's familyowned a grocery store for a long
(06:13):
time in this area and he, yeah,was really active in this
community and he was also ajokester and he loved telling
really punny jokes.
To the point where I love agrandpa can tell punny jokes.
Yeah, like, just kind of likeyou would have to at a certain
(06:36):
point because he had a rotationand at a certain point you would
just kind of you knew the punchline, you know you can tell the
joke, but you would just kindof be like, ah, good one, and
even he knew that he had told itbefore, but it was just kind of
his thing and but it brought alot of joy to our lives and was
really special and the one thathe told the most was about a
(06:57):
knot that is trying to getserved at a bar and is not
getting served and so has todisguise itself and and and
tries to, yeah, change its lookso that it can get served, and
the punch line is that thestring says it's not a string,
(07:17):
it's a frayed knot, it's noteven that's the that's the joke,
that's a joke but why I decidedto make that the name of the
farm.
It's not only for like that, butmy grandfather passed a few
years ago and actually beforethe farm was even a thing, so he
(07:41):
didn't get to see it come tolife, unfortunately.
But I wanted to really keep hismemory alive through that joke,
and my mom used that joke as ametaphor at his eulogy talking
about how he wasn't afraid tolive his life.
He was actually.
(08:02):
He was born on this streetwhere manja manja is now at the
corner, and he lived his lastdays here at his house.
So he never he.
He lived his whole life here,but he wasn't afraid to grow his
business and travel.
(08:23):
And yeah, I just really wantedthat energy when I was starting
the farm of you know, havingcommunity roots but not being
afraid to take risks and, yeah,just just go for it.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
So that that's the story I love the deep traditions
and you probably played here asa kid on the farm and have a
have a emotional connection tothe land here for sure, yeah,
definitely, yeah but what?
What made you?
I mean, did you wake up one dayand say I want to become a
flower farmer?
Speaker 3 (08:57):
not exactly, and when people ask me kind of the
origin story, I I tend to tellvery long stories so please cut
me off if you need to move italong.
But I I feel like, yeah, it wasan evolution of a lot of things
and I think, like the, when Ithink about what the turning
(09:20):
point for me was was like myfreshman year of high school we
read fast food nation.
I'm not sure I'm familiar withthat book, but it just talks a
lot about our food system andspecifically fast food, but just
the general way that animalsare treated in mass production
(09:41):
of food, and it just likecompletely opened up my eyes to
not only the food system butother systems that I was
starting to question as, like ayoung person and that kind of
was the the starting point oflike me kind of starting to
think about how, um, yeah,deeper connections with where,
(10:03):
resource things and fast forwardto um, graduating high school
and then going to college?
I actually studied psychologyin college so I went to Ohio
State.
A lot of people ask if I wentto the ag school.
No, I studied psychology as youdo, to become a farmer um and.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
I was can analyze yourself about why exactly.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
It definitely comes in handy.
I mean, it is not it.
It was not um, yeah, it was, itwas completely worth it.
So, um, yeah, I was still,though throughout that whole
experience of of college, reallystill interested in um, like
food systems.
(10:47):
I was had been vegetarian, likesince I read that student
nation.
I, you know, tried to live itin my personal lifestyle, but
then I also wanted to make itmore of my career and just learn
more about, um, yeah, theaccessibility of food, local
food, um, and then, of course,naturally, when you learn about
(11:07):
that, you want to then grow yourown um.
So that led me to, um believeit or not, new York City.
Um, so I moved from uh, yeah, Imoved from Ohio to New York
City to learn how to farm, andthat's why I learned how to farm
?
um, wouldn't I guess that?
Yeah, so, um, yeah, that, canyou know?
(11:32):
I was really entrenched in thefood aspect of it and, like I
worked at restaurants, at onepoint when I was living in New
York, I was doing the full farmto table experience where I was
growing food at this urban farm,um in the middle of Brooklyn,
and then I was working at therestaurant that one of the
restaurants that we sold food at, um as a server to to pay my
(11:54):
rent in New York City, um, so Igot to see, literally like the
fruits of our labor, um, youknow, get taken to this
restaurant and people do enjoyit, and then they also composted
, so I got to see the full umcycle of things.
Um, so that's all about food,but what about flowers?
(12:16):
I know I always had to tell thatcontext part of it um, because
that's kind of what got me intofarming, but the flower aspect
of it.
At that farm and then atseveral farms that I worked at
after that, we also grew flowers.
So, similarly to how I kind ofhad an awakening moment about
(12:36):
food, I had the same thing withflowers, because I never really
thought about I wasn't, I mean,who doesn't love flowers?
But I wasn't particularlypassionate about them.
I didn't really think aboutwhere flowers come from.
I mean, you see wild flowers ormaybe a landscape, but I didn't
(12:57):
even conceptualize that youwould have to farm flowers you
know and that most of theflowers that we're getting
either at the grocery store or aflorist those are farmed, yes,
exactly.
And so I learned about thatwhere most of our flowers in the
United States the rough numbers70% are imported and grown
(13:19):
either in South America or theNetherlands.
And so that blew my mind and Ihad no idea.
And then just to learn that youcould grow so many of those
flowers here, either, you know,on the East Coast or in this
region now, and so I just, yeah,fell in love.
(13:40):
Similarly to my passion forfood and food systems, I, you
know, got really excited aboutflowers.
So that's, I'll stop there.
But that's kind of what turnedme on to flowers in the first
place was that farming kind ofsystem thinking journey.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Well, it's so beautiful here.
Before we started to record,you walked us around.
You have a high hoop tunnel.
Is that what you called it?
Yeah, you could call it.
Sort of like a metal enclosure,kind of greenhouse type
structure.
So you do some indoor, notindoor, I wouldn't call that
indoor.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
Yeah, I mean yeah, yeah, undercover, yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Then you have perennials and annuals growing
out here to the right, andhundred varieties.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
Yeah, that's the rough estimate.
I think it's probably more thanthat.
And yeah, within thosevarieties are a lot of different
colors as well.
But that's kind of my roughnumber, so I actually no one's
gonna go out and count.
Yeah, but I did.
I do know that, based on mycrop plan, like I can see those
(14:52):
numbers, I seeded 30,000 flowers.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Wow, you do all that work by yourself.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
Here I have two wonderful friends that helped me
out our little team.
They are here part-time tomostly manage the CSA
subscription program that wehave here, but they also helped
do most the planting and dailytasks.
(15:22):
So, yeah, I don't do it alone,is to say, and I also have a lot
of amazing community partnersthat I work with that help share
some of marketing and pickupand things like that.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
So, yeah, and you started with just a grass field.
Yes, so how daunting was thatto envision okay.
I'm gonna turn this lawn into aflower farm.
And how do you prep the soil?
And how did you just do allthat work to dig it up and
nurture the soil so it couldsupport the flowers?
(16:01):
Yeah, is that where?
You tilt soil.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
Oh yeah, Is that how you?
Speaker 1 (16:06):
met Michael yeah pretty much.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
I mean yes, I mean so .
I mean independent of my, ofcourse, bias.
I am so, so grateful to kind ofhave come up with them in my
farming journey.
It's really hard to find goodsoil and I was really lucky
(16:30):
enough that.
Yeah, naturally I gravitatedtowards those folks because I
knew I needed a lot of work here.
It's mostly kind of a clay siltso it's got poor drainage and,
yeah, kind of hard to work with.
So I knew that there would behave to be a lot of intervention
(16:54):
to grow flowers here.
But I think, as far as yourquestion of was it daunting, I
think I was just so crazy tolike start this in the first
place that nothing fazed me atthe time, so I wasn't even I
knew what I had learned fromstarting or working at other
(17:17):
farms is it just takes a longtime.
I'm not a very patient person,admittedly so it's kind of weird
that I'm in this profession,but you just have to be really
patient in farming in so manyways, and I knew that it wasn't
going to look like what it lookslike right now, the first year.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
Yeah, and that was in 2017 or 18?
.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
Yeah, so I started it like the business aspect of it.
So I kind of started all theback end, like getting a
vendor's license andestablishing the actual business
, into the winter of 2017.
But I couldn't actually doanything farming wise until the
following excuse me spring.
So technically my first likeseason was 2018.
(18:03):
And kind of the thing thatreally was motivating me is a
mutual friend of ours.
It was having a wedding.
My dear friend.
I had been growing flowers at acouple other farms and she had
seen what I was doing and I wasgetting really into it and had
(18:26):
decided I was going to start,you know, this flower business.
My grandmother generouslyoffered this space to do so and,
you know, lauren asked me youknow, will you do the flowers
for my wedding?
That's great and again, I wascrazy enough to say yes because
I hadn't like the farm was notestablished yet I was just like
(18:51):
yeah, I got this.
I got this.
Yeah, of course, like how canyou say no, you know, I don't
want anyone else to be thefather of your wedding, of
course.
So that was really the.
I wanted to do it anyway, so Idon't want to put all the
pressure on her, but it was.
That was a good goal to haveand a deadline.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
And a deadline.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
Yeah, and that really put some fire under me to
figure it all out.
So I think it was definitelystressful but I did it and I did
have to supplement some flowers, but that was kind of my first
introduction to working withother flower farmers, which is
something I'm really passionateabout doing now.
(19:35):
So I worked with yeah, Isourced some flowers from Sunny
Meadows, which is an awesomeflower farm done in Columbus,
but I grew a lot of them as wellhere and was able to meet that
goal.
I've since done bouquets andother things for weddings, but
yeah, you, kind of just trial byfire is kind of my MO, I think
(19:59):
Very spunky.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
So you're young, You're what?
29, 28?
Speaker 3 (20:05):
Thank you, I'm 33.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
33.
Well, I think I'm seeing a lotof younger farmers in this
community of yours.
We met several of them at theGreat Lakes Brewing, ohio City
Farm Brewmasters Dinner lastweek.
Yeah, there were four farmersat our table, the one I wrote
(20:32):
them down Kyla from AXPO Orchard, sasha from Purple Brown Farm
and Annabelle and Eric from BayBranch Farm were just sitting
near us.
But I was struck by not only howdelicious this was at Ohio City
Farm as you know, you werethere and the beers were crafted
(20:59):
and paired with the food.
It was all local farm to tablefood and there was a big, long
table right down the middle ofthe farm probably 100 people,
and every farmer got up to telltheir story, to talk about the
food that was.
There were six, five or sixcourses and the farmers would
talk about the food that theywere eating in their farm and
(21:21):
then the brewmaster would talkabout the beer and every farmer,
I think, got up and said I'mnot a public speaker, I just
grow food or I just grow flowers.
But they all had an amazingstory to tell.
Tell us about the story of howyour elderberry flowers and rose
petals got into the saison.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
That was delicious oh thank you.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
Yeah, I think so too.
I hope everyone tries it.
Yeah, so I saw I was inspiredby another this is a theme but I
was inspired by another farmerfarmer in Pittsburgh, soul Patch
Garden.
They did a collab with abrewery there with Tulsi basil,
(22:13):
which is one of my favoritethings to grow, super fragrant
and has a really distinct flavor.
So I was just really inspiredby that because I just never
thought oh, I love beer andflowers and so I kind of just
did a call out to be like hey,who wants to do a flower beer
(22:33):
collab in Cleveland?
Speaker 1 (22:34):
Yeah, so you're behind it.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
That was so best for you, yeah, so fortunately one of
the folks that is here atFreidnaught, lexi, also works at
Great Lakes.
Oh, she's the local food personfor Great Lakes.
Yeah, so she's the coordinator.
So of course she was like, well, let's do it at Great Lakes and
(22:56):
I will coordinate that.
I was like, oh yeah, it's 100%,that makes so much sense.
And, yeah, it's awesome thatthey've supported that position
to help her get more local foodinto the Brew Pub and then also
collab with Steve Foreman who'sthe Brew Pub brewmaster there to
(23:16):
do different beer collabs.
So yeah, that's kind of whatstarted the conversation.
And then we talked about earlierin the spring Luckily I had
kind of seen that and earlyenough where we could kind of
like there wasn't anythinggrowing yet, so we still had
time to harvest and plan it outfor the year and we thought of
(23:38):
like everything that we couldthink of that might be edible
and possibly tasty for a beer.
And, using Steve's knowledge,we came up with elderflower and
rose.
We thought that would be a nicecombination and they also kind
of bloom around the same timeand it timed out where it would
(23:59):
be early enough where he couldbrew the beer and it would be
ready for this dinner and itcould be a really delicious
summer farmhouse style.
Oh, I had no idea all that wentinto it.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
That's amazing.
Yeah, what do you think, raikin?
You're a brewer.
Can we try?
Speaker 3 (24:15):
Oh nice.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
You and Tim will have to come up with some unique
combinations with your nextbatch.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Oh yeah, yeah, we can't even make a drinkable beer
, your first batch was prettygood.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
There's time, there's time.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Well, yeah, that's a very cool story you talk about
in your mission statement.
You know you want to sharestories, and that's a great one
about how what you're doing iskind of supporting you but also
interconnecting with this largercommunity.
Fine, regenerative farming.
How do you practice that here?
Speaker 3 (24:53):
Yeah, it's a good question.
I think for me it's definitelymore of a philosophy than like a
prescriptive way to farm.
I think it means a lot ofdifferent things to a lot of
different people and I think themost important and kind of
probably common thing is thatit's based on kind of a circular
(25:15):
system and kind of what you'retaking out, you're putting back
in to the soil, and not only areyou doing kind of a sustainable
model, but you're taking it astep above to try to regenerate
some of the disrepair that hasbeen done by farming or other
(25:39):
industries.
So a lot of people talk aboutcarbon sequestration as a part
of that.
So we're not only just tryingto be even, we're really trying
to regenerate and improve ouratmosphere by trying to
sequester more carbon into thesoil or doing, you know, erosion
(26:02):
prevention or water catchment.
So I think sustainability iskind of just the baseline.
We need to go a step furtherand do some repair, and I feel
that using the land in aresponsible way can can do that.
(26:22):
So love it.
So how?
Speaker 1 (26:27):
so you mentioned water.
There was that big drought wehad in May, I think it was May.
So when I ran into you youlooked a little stressed how do
you capture water on the farm?
Do you have a big rain barrelhere?
Do you have an irrigationsystem?
And how did that drought affectyou?
(26:47):
Because it was just at thestart of your, your CSA
subscription season.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
Yeah, yeah, that was.
That was probably the worstdrought I've seen here.
I think it was close to a monthof no rain, and especially,
it's harder to do that in thespring than it is the summer,
because you need rain to growlike seedlings.
That's when it's needed themost and that's when it's
(27:14):
typical.
But yeah, we didn't have that.
I currently do what would beconsidered dry farming, because
I don't have my own well, soeverything in the fields is
watered by rain.
Oh, wow, yeah scary.
Exactly so.
(27:35):
Oh yeah, hummingbird.
There's also hummingbird mothshere, which are very cool.
Maybe you'll see one, but um so, oh no, totally fine, there's a
lot.
That's the point.
We're creating an ecosystemhere.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
We need to do our bird episode.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
That's like the fourth time I've interrupted an
episode of the Colorado bird.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
Yeah, it's pretty cool, though, to see just
hummingbirds out here it'sbeautiful here.
Yeah, so I everything on thefields is I do irrigate a little
bit.
When I first put in like I'llput, I'll carry water over,
essentially with hoses, to plantthe seedlings and then after
(28:24):
that they're on their own.
Wow.
And the way that I get water isI do have two very large tanks
at the front of the farm thatcapture water off of the high
tunnel, so it's a really longhigh tunnel so it's able to
capture a pretty decent amountof water when it rains.
When it doesn't, I there's alocal spring company, sunrise
(28:48):
Springs.
They carry water from thespring and deliver it here and
fill up the tank.
So that's kind of my backup If Idon't get enough rain catchment
.
And because the tunnel iscovered, you have to have rain.
So I can well relatively relyon the rain out in the fields,
(29:09):
but I can't do that in thetunnel because it's not getting
it, except for the ground water,which we do have a very high
water table, so it gets somewater.
But yeah, so it was difficultand I definitely the next big
investment for the farm in orderto continue is going to have to
be a well, because I definitelycan't.
(29:31):
Yeah, I've gotten so lucky andkind of yeah, you can't put
yourself through that again.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
No, it's not worth the stress.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
Yeah, and I mean it's better for the flowers, too, to
have more control over thewater.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
that they're getting.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
It stresses them out, and when plants are stressed
they're more likely to get pestsand disease.
So, yeah, it's not good for thefarmer, not good for the plants
.
I mean I am grateful that I'vehad a low impact as far as using
water and by the reality isthat things are only going to
(30:07):
get worse in my opinion.
So it's just not worth thestress.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
How can our listeners support you in like giving you
enough money to dig that?
Well, so you have a CSAsubscription, so those are sold
out for the year, right?
Speaker 3 (30:25):
They are.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
Congratulations on that, Thank you.
Is that your main source ofincome?
The CSA subscription.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
Yeah, it's about.
I kind of yeah, that'sdefinitely the main.
And then the other.
I have like two other kind ofoutlets which are wholesale.
So I work with a collaborativeof other growers to aggregate
our product locally and we sellto florists and Fred and I is
(30:53):
like kind of the hub for that.
So that's been an amazing wayfor not only myself but others
to have an outlet of wholesaleflowers.
And then I also do weddings andevents, as we mentioned.
So those that with the CSAsubscription are kind of my
three outlets and I do have afew retail partners.
(31:18):
Some of the folks that alsohost the bouquet subscription
also sell bouquets every week.
So Shad Chagrin and our ShadBoutique in Chagrin Falls and
Room Service Boutique in Shakerhave bouquets every week.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
What is your specific day of the week that you get
your fresh bouquets to theretail.
Speaker 3 (31:37):
Yes, so those are on the weekends at Shad, starting
on Friday, through the wholeweekend or until they're sold
out.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
I will stop and get something.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
Yeah, and then Shaker Saturdays.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
Saturdays and Sundays there's bouquets there, so okay
, yeah, and do people ever visitthe farms?
You have a little farm stand, Isee by the road.
I do have a farm stand.
Speaker 3 (31:59):
It's like a lemonade stand, but for flowers, yeah, so
basically yeah, the farm standwas really great in 2020 when we
were doing contactless pickupof everything, and that's kind
of what started that.
However, it is a lot of work tostock it every week with all
the other things I have going on, so I've kind of focused it on
(32:23):
doing more of an open housething, where people can shop the
farm stand and come see thefarm at the beginning of the
year, kind of around spring, andthen around kind of fall when
the season's ending.
So, yeah, that's the best wayfor people to see the farm as
well, because we are aproduction farm and so we're not
(32:47):
technically open to the publicduring the week, but I obviously
want to show it off.
So and people ask, so that's areally good time to stay tuned
for a fall open house.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
So, okay, yeah, so, moving on to some tips, how do I
keep my fresh cut flowers freshlonger?
Yeah, great question.
Do you use that little packetthat comes with, I mean, or is
this a better way?
Yeah, usually they don't lookso good after a couple days if
they're local, like wildflowerbouquets that you pick up at the
(33:23):
farmer's market.
Speaker 3 (33:24):
Yeah, great question.
My philosophy on like flowerfood is kind of what it's called
For.
Me personally, and this is noshame to anyone that uses it
Plenty of farmers and customersalike do but it is synthetic
chemicals.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
Oh, I didn't know that.
Speaker 3 (33:46):
Yeah, so no, it's usually got a mixture of like a
bleach basically, which iskeeping the water sanitized, and
then a sugar to keep feedingthe flowers.
But they're both synthetic andI don't know of any that aren't,
and the ones that aren't Idon't think work very well.
(34:08):
So don't bother personally.
But so my philosophy on that isthat I'm going to do all the
work to be regenerative as muchas possible, then putting the
flowers that I work so hard tonot use pesticides, exactly
Because I don't use syntheticpesticides.
(34:30):
I don't use syntheticfertilizers or herbicides, so
just to me, it kind of justreverses the whole thing.
However, I understand of courseyou want your flowers to last
long, so I do feel like you cando comparable ways of caring for
your flowers and the way thatyou do that is so, and instead
(34:52):
of using bleach, you want tojust make sure that you're the
water that you're putting yourflowers into is super, super
clean and that you keep it clean.
So it does require a little bitmore work than maybe folks are
used to, and that's somethingthat I think is actually a
benefit, because you're actuallyinteracting with the flowers
more.
I feel like a lot of peoplewill get flowers.
(35:14):
They'll put them on their tableand then set it and forget it.
And they don't really engagewith them.
And when you have local flowersand you need to kind of change
out that water, it gets you tomaybe rearrange the bouquet,
take out some flowers that mightnot be only a couple days and
(35:34):
then enjoy the ones that are alittle bit longer.
So you want to keep the waterclean.
So whatever vase you're puttingin, make sure the vase is clean
, the water is cold and that Ithink the biggest thing is that
you don't want any foliage inthe water.
So try to.
Usually my flowers will comealready pre-stripped.
(35:58):
So okay, that's a good tip.
Yeah, they have about six inches.
Usually for my bouquets andmost bouquets that you'll buy
from the bottom there's nofoliage, but if you fill the
water up, make sure that, yeah,only the stems are in the water,
because if the foliage is inthe water it will start to rot
naturally.
And then that clogs up the poresof the flowers and that's what
(36:23):
creates your flowers then tostart dying prematurely.
It makes the water more dirtyand won't they won't last as
long.
So those are the tips, and Ithink also just keeping flowers
out of direct sunlight and in aspace that isn't yeah, it's more
hospitable to them.
Speaker 1 (36:43):
So, yeah, Now, how early in the year do you start
selling your CSA subscriptions?
I typically Tell us about whatthat comes with.
Speaker 3 (36:53):
Yeah, so I typically start selling them in the winter
, around end of November, earlyDecember, actually for the
following year.
Oh, okay, better early, becausepeople really like to give them
as gifts.
So people have to be reallypatient and they usually are,
(37:13):
because they'll be end upwaiting around nine months for
their flowers, which I reallyappreciate.
But it feels so much even moregratifying when you get it yeah
exactly.
So yeah, I usually start aroundthen and then I'll sell until
I'm sold out, which usually isaround May or June.
So Through your website, yeah,through my website, and yeah,
(37:35):
you can choose between.
It's fraydenupfarmcom and youcan choose between six or 12
weeks, which is the whole season.
So yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:46):
Well, if you were a flower, what would you be?
Speaker 3 (37:49):
Oh my goodness, I always get asked what is my
favorite flower.
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (37:54):
How would I?
Speaker 3 (37:55):
be.
I mean, I think I always revertback to one of my favorite
flowers, which is Foxfove, orthe botanical name is Digitalis.
Okay, it is poisonous.
Speaker 2 (38:06):
so I don't really want to be embodying poison.
Speaker 3 (38:09):
However, I think that there is something nice about
the contrast of it.
It's like super beautiful butalso don't mess with me kind of
attitude.
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
The contrast.
Speaker 3 (38:22):
Yeah, I think it has.
It's really delicate andbeautiful and also, yeah, it's
tough too, and I think that kindof embodies me, where I think
I'm a kind person and can growbeautiful flowers, but also it's
(38:42):
really really, really hard tobe a farmer, yeah, and you have
to have a really kind of toughoutlook on life, I think, to
keep kind of punishing yourself,doing this every year.
But, yeah, I think Well fromour brief conversation.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
that sounds like a perfect description.
So you are a Foxfove?
Yeah, Awesome.
Speaker 2 (39:05):
We hope you've enjoyed this episode of
EcoSpeak's CLE.
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(39:27):
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Stay tuned for more importantand inspiring stories to come.
You're listening to EcoSpeak CLE, where the
EcoCurious explore the uniqueand thriving environmental
community here in Northeast Ohio.
My name is Diane Bicke and myproducer is Greg Rotuno.
Together, we bring youinspiring stories from local
sustainability leaders andinvite you to connect, learn and
live with our community andplanet in mind.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Hi everyone, thanks for listening.
A brief note before we startthis episode we'll be taking a
break for a few weeks while wecelebrate my wedding to Diane's
daughter, hailey, and our nextepisode will air on September
19th.
So I hope you enjoy this oneand think of us on September 2nd
while we are tying the knot.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Hello friends, today Greg and I are out in Jogga
County.
We're visiting Emily Peck ather flower farm in Novelty, Ohio
.
The frayed knot farm grows over100 varieties of annual and
perennial flowers and foliage onless than an acre, using hand
scale farming practices.
Emily's mission is to growbeautiful, diverse cut flowers
(01:09):
and herbs that share stories,bring joy and support equitable
and regenerative farming.
Thanks for joining us, Emily.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Thanks so much.
This is the farm, so you havean acre, an acre.
It's total it's three acresincluding the woods, so there's
about an acre that goes backinto the woods.
But I'm technically, if I addedup all the growing space, it's
(01:36):
only an acre that I'm actuallygrowing on, so there's plenty of
more room to expand into.
And, yeah, this is kind of themain growing area up front here.
I have this high tunnel herethat helps extend the season.
(01:59):
We built that in 2020 and kindof have progressively added on
fields each year of growingspace, so, and then the back
half is kind of a meadow areathat I kind of just let go do
(02:22):
its thing as like a placeholderand kind of be a pollinator area
until I need to use it forproduction, but in the meantime
it allows me to not have tobuild the grass and creates like
an ecosystem for things backthere.
So, yeah, most of these areannuals that you're seeing.
(02:47):
And then I do have sprinkledthroughout different perennials
that I try to add on each year.
So, like here, the Yaro is aperennial that will come back
every year, and you grew flaxfor vegetable fiber.
So we just pulled that lastweek actually, and I have some
(03:08):
drying in the high tunnel andyeah, we'll dry that, store that
and then, as people want to useit, they can do what they want
with it.
There's a whole list ofprocessing that goes with that
that I'd be happy to share morein detail.
But but yeah, this is kind ofthe time that it gets harvested.
(03:30):
It was over there where thatRuscolt Linnum Project sign is,
so it's just a small plot.
This year, the first year wedid it, it was, as it was, where
the high tunnel is, so it wasas large as that space.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Yeah, big area, yeah.
So there's a lot to unpackthere in your mission statement.
I think most cut flower farmerswould be like, okay, grow
flowers, cut flowers, sellflowers, and you're in this for
for, on a much more meaningfullevel, it seems like I don't
(04:05):
know if that's a really goodidea to put it.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
I hope so.
Yeah, I mean, I think thebusiness part is kind of implied
.
So that's why it's not, for meat least.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Yeah, it's not part of the mission statement.
We're assuming you're growing,you're cutting and you're
selling and you're making money.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
I do want people to know that I would like to make
money, but there's there'sdefinitely more, yeah, more to
it than that.
That is like part of the ethosof what I do, yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Well, I've heard about your farm and, like over a
year ago I think, from MichaelRobinson, congratulations on
your marriage, by the way, thankyou.
Michael Robinson is theco-founder of Rust Belt Riders,
so you guys are both in thissustainability world.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Yeah, as my mom put it at our wedding a match made
in soil A match made in soil.
Yeah, we just, we're always,we're just on brand, we're in
our personal lives andprofessional lives.
We just can't help it so yeah,Sounds like a perfect match.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Yeah, Well, tell us about.
So I've always been curiousabout the name frayed knot Like
it could be interpreted like I'mnot going to be afraid of being
a flower farmer, or I'm lookingat a piece of twisted twine.
So what's the?
What's the origin of the name?
Frayed knot farm?
Speaker 3 (05:22):
That.
Wow, I've never had someoneactually say that that's 100%
correct.
Which one?
Speaker 1 (05:30):
You know what?
Speaker 3 (05:30):
we actually asked a friend for somebody to bet on, I
think you both situation moreso the I'm not afraid to be a
flower farmer.
It has a little bit of anorigin story.
So where the farm is locatedwas previously owned by my
grandparents.
They were the stewards of itbefore me and obviously why I
was able to have access to theland.
(05:52):
They have their house that theybuilt next next to the farm.
When I got the land it was itwas not a farm yet, it was just
grass that they mowed for manyyears.
But my grandfather's familyowned a grocery store for a long
(06:13):
time in this area and he, yeah,was really active in this
community and he was also ajokester and he loved telling
really punny jokes.
To the point where I love agrandpa can tell punny jokes.
Yeah, like, just kind of likeyou would have to at a certain
(06:36):
point because he had a rotationand at a certain point you would
just kind of you knew the punchline, you know you can tell the
joke, but you would just kindof be like, ah, good one, and
even he knew that he had told itbefore, but it was just kind of
his thing and but it brought alot of joy to our lives and was
really special and the one thathe told the most was about a
(06:57):
knot that is trying to getserved at a bar and is not
getting served and so has todisguise itself and and and
tries to, yeah, change its lookso that it can get served, and
the punch line is that thestring says it's not a string,
(07:17):
it's a frayed knot, it's noteven that's the that's the joke,
that's a joke but why I decidedto make that the name of the
farm.
It's not only for like that, butmy grandfather passed a few
years ago and actually beforethe farm was even a thing, so he
(07:41):
didn't get to see it come tolife, unfortunately.
But I wanted to really keep hismemory alive through that joke,
and my mom used that joke as ametaphor at his eulogy talking
about how he wasn't afraid tolive his life.
He was actually.
(08:02):
He was born on this streetwhere manja manja is now at the
corner, and he lived his lastdays here at his house.
So he never he.
He lived his whole life here,but he wasn't afraid to grow his
business and travel.
(08:23):
And yeah, I just really wantedthat energy when I was starting
the farm of you know, havingcommunity roots but not being
afraid to take risks and, yeah,just just go for it.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
So that that's the story I love the deep traditions
and you probably played here asa kid on the farm and have a
have a emotional connection tothe land here for sure, yeah,
definitely, yeah but what?
What made you?
I mean, did you wake up one dayand say I want to become a
flower farmer?
Speaker 3 (08:57):
not exactly, and when people ask me kind of the
origin story, I I tend to tellvery long stories so please cut
me off if you need to move italong.
But I I feel like, yeah, it wasan evolution of a lot of things
and I think, like the, when Ithink about what the turning
(09:20):
point for me was was like myfreshman year of high school we
read fast food nation.
I'm not sure I'm familiar withthat book, but it just talks a
lot about our food system andspecifically fast food, but just
the general way that animalsare treated in mass production
(09:41):
of food, and it just likecompletely opened up my eyes to
not only the food system butother systems that I was
starting to question as, like ayoung person and that kind of
was the the starting point oflike me kind of starting to
think about how, um, yeah,deeper connections with where,
(10:03):
resource things and fast forwardto um, graduating high school
and then going to college?
I actually studied psychologyin college so I went to Ohio
State.
A lot of people ask if I wentto the ag school.
No, I studied psychology as youdo, to become a farmer um and.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
I was can analyze yourself about why exactly.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
It definitely comes in handy.
I mean, it is not it.
It was not um, yeah, it was, itwas completely worth it.
So, um, yeah, I was still,though throughout that whole
experience of of college, reallystill interested in um, like
food systems.
(10:47):
I was had been vegetarian, likesince I read that student
nation.
I, you know, tried to live itin my personal lifestyle, but
then I also wanted to make itmore of my career and just learn
more about, um, yeah, theaccessibility of food, local
food, um, and then, of course,naturally, when you learn about
(11:07):
that, you want to then grow yourown um.
So that led me to, um believeit or not, new York City.
Um, so I moved from uh, yeah, Imoved from Ohio to New York
City to learn how to farm, andthat's why I learned how to farm
?
um, wouldn't I guess that?
Yeah, so, um, yeah, that, canyou know?
(11:32):
I was really entrenched in thefood aspect of it and, like I
worked at restaurants, at onepoint when I was living in New
York, I was doing the full farmto table experience where I was
growing food at this urban farm,um in the middle of Brooklyn,
and then I was working at therestaurant that one of the
restaurants that we sold food at, um as a server to to pay my
(11:54):
rent in New York City, um, so Igot to see, literally like the
fruits of our labor, um, youknow, get taken to this
restaurant and people do enjoyit, and then they also composted
, so I got to see the full umcycle of things.
Um, so that's all about food,but what about flowers?
(12:16):
I know I always had to tell thatcontext part of it um, because
that's kind of what got me intofarming, but the flower aspect
of it.
At that farm and then atseveral farms that I worked at
after that, we also grew flowers.
So, similarly to how I kind ofhad an awakening moment about
(12:36):
food, I had the same thing withflowers, because I never really
thought about I wasn't, I mean,who doesn't love flowers?
But I wasn't particularlypassionate about them.
I didn't really think aboutwhere flowers come from.
I mean, you see wild flowers ormaybe a landscape, but I didn't
(12:57):
even conceptualize that youwould have to farm flowers you
know and that most of theflowers that we're getting
either at the grocery store or aflorist those are farmed, yes,
exactly.
And so I learned about thatwhere most of our flowers in the
United States the rough numbers70% are imported and grown
(13:19):
either in South America or theNetherlands.
And so that blew my mind and Ihad no idea.
And then just to learn that youcould grow so many of those
flowers here, either, you know,on the East Coast or in this
region now, and so I just, yeah,fell in love.
(13:40):
Similarly to my passion forfood and food systems, I, you
know, got really excited aboutflowers.
So that's, I'll stop there.
But that's kind of what turnedme on to flowers in the first
place was that farming kind ofsystem thinking journey.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Well, it's so beautiful here.
Before we started to record,you walked us around.
You have a high hoop tunnel.
Is that what you called it?
Yeah, you could call it.
Sort of like a metal enclosure,kind of greenhouse type
structure.
So you do some indoor, notindoor, I wouldn't call that
indoor.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
Yeah, I mean yeah, yeah, undercover, yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Then you have perennials and annuals growing
out here to the right, andhundred varieties.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
Yeah, that's the rough estimate.
I think it's probably more thanthat.
And yeah, within thosevarieties are a lot of different
colors as well.
But that's kind of my roughnumber, so I actually no one's
gonna go out and count.
Yeah, but I did.
I do know that, based on mycrop plan, like I can see those
(14:52):
numbers, I seeded 30,000 flowers.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Wow, you do all that work by yourself.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
Here I have two wonderful friends that helped me
out our little team.
They are here part-time tomostly manage the CSA
subscription program that wehave here, but they also helped
do most the planting and dailytasks.
(15:22):
So, yeah, I don't do it alone,is to say, and I also have a lot
of amazing community partnersthat I work with that help share
some of marketing and pickupand things like that.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
So, yeah, and you started with just a grass field.
Yes, so how daunting was thatto envision okay.
I'm gonna turn this lawn into aflower farm.
And how do you prep the soil?
And how did you just do allthat work to dig it up and
nurture the soil so it couldsupport the flowers?
(16:01):
Yeah, is that where?
You tilt soil.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
Oh yeah, Is that how you?
Speaker 1 (16:06):
met Michael yeah pretty much.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
I mean yes, I mean so .
I mean independent of my, ofcourse, bias.
I am so, so grateful to kind ofhave come up with them in my
farming journey.
It's really hard to find goodsoil and I was really lucky
(16:30):
enough that.
Yeah, naturally I gravitatedtowards those folks because I
knew I needed a lot of work here.
It's mostly kind of a clay siltso it's got poor drainage and,
yeah, kind of hard to work with.
So I knew that there would behave to be a lot of intervention
(16:54):
to grow flowers here.
But I think, as far as yourquestion of was it daunting, I
think I was just so crazy tolike start this in the first
place that nothing fazed me atthe time, so I wasn't even I
knew what I had learned fromstarting or working at other
(17:17):
farms is it just takes a longtime.
I'm not a very patient person,admittedly so it's kind of weird
that I'm in this profession,but you just have to be really
patient in farming in so manyways, and I knew that it wasn't
going to look like what it lookslike right now, the first year.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
Yeah, and that was in 2017 or 18?
.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
Yeah, so I started it like the business aspect of it.
So I kind of started all theback end, like getting a
vendor's license andestablishing the actual business
, into the winter of 2017.
But I couldn't actually doanything farming wise until the
following excuse me spring.
So technically my first likeseason was 2018.
(18:03):
And kind of the thing thatreally was motivating me is a
mutual friend of ours.
It was having a wedding.
My dear friend.
I had been growing flowers at acouple other farms and she had
seen what I was doing and I wasgetting really into it and had
(18:26):
decided I was going to start,you know, this flower business.
My grandmother generouslyoffered this space to do so and,
you know, lauren asked me youknow, will you do the flowers
for my wedding?
That's great and again, I wascrazy enough to say yes because
I hadn't like the farm was notestablished yet I was just like
(18:51):
yeah, I got this.
I got this.
Yeah, of course, like how canyou say no, you know, I don't
want anyone else to be thefather of your wedding, of
course.
So that was really the.
I wanted to do it anyway, so Idon't want to put all the
pressure on her, but it was.
That was a good goal to haveand a deadline.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
And a deadline.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
Yeah, and that really put some fire under me to
figure it all out.
So I think it was definitelystressful but I did it and I did
have to supplement some flowers, but that was kind of my first
introduction to working withother flower farmers, which is
something I'm really passionateabout doing now.
(19:35):
So I worked with yeah, Isourced some flowers from Sunny
Meadows, which is an awesomeflower farm done in Columbus,
but I grew a lot of them as wellhere and was able to meet that
goal.
I've since done bouquets andother things for weddings, but
yeah, you, kind of just trial byfire is kind of my MO, I think
(19:59):
Very spunky.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
So you're young, You're what?
29, 28?
Speaker 3 (20:05):
Thank you, I'm 33.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
33.
Well, I think I'm seeing a lotof younger farmers in this
community of yours.
We met several of them at theGreat Lakes Brewing, ohio City
Farm Brewmasters Dinner lastweek.
Yeah, there were four farmersat our table, the one I wrote
(20:32):
them down Kyla from AXPO Orchard, sasha from Purple Brown Farm
and Annabelle and Eric from BayBranch Farm were just sitting
near us.
But I was struck by not only howdelicious this was at Ohio City
Farm as you know, you werethere and the beers were crafted
(20:59):
and paired with the food.
It was all local farm to tablefood and there was a big, long
table right down the middle ofthe farm probably 100 people,
and every farmer got up to telltheir story, to talk about the
food that was.
There were six, five or sixcourses and the farmers would
talk about the food that theywere eating in their farm and
(21:21):
then the brewmaster would talkabout the beer and every farmer,
I think, got up and said I'mnot a public speaker, I just
grow food or I just grow flowers.
But they all had an amazingstory to tell.
Tell us about the story of howyour elderberry flowers and rose
petals got into the saison.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
That was delicious oh thank you.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
Yeah, I think so too.
I hope everyone tries it.
Yeah, so I saw I was inspiredby another this is a theme but I
was inspired by another farmerfarmer in Pittsburgh, soul Patch
Garden.
They did a collab with abrewery there with Tulsi basil,
(22:13):
which is one of my favoritethings to grow, super fragrant
and has a really distinct flavor.
So I was just really inspiredby that because I just never
thought oh, I love beer andflowers and so I kind of just
did a call out to be like hey,who wants to do a flower beer
(22:33):
collab in Cleveland?
Speaker 1 (22:34):
Yeah, so you're behind it.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
That was so best for you, yeah, so fortunately one of
the folks that is here atFreidnaught, lexi, also works at
Great Lakes.
Oh, she's the local food personfor Great Lakes.
Yeah, so she's the coordinator.
So of course she was like, well, let's do it at Great Lakes and
(22:56):
I will coordinate that.
I was like, oh yeah, it's 100%,that makes so much sense.
And, yeah, it's awesome thatthey've supported that position
to help her get more local foodinto the Brew Pub and then also
collab with Steve Foreman who'sthe Brew Pub brewmaster there to
(23:16):
do different beer collabs.
So yeah, that's kind of whatstarted the conversation.
And then we talked about earlierin the spring Luckily I had
kind of seen that and earlyenough where we could kind of
like there wasn't anythinggrowing yet, so we still had
time to harvest and plan it outfor the year and we thought of
(23:38):
like everything that we couldthink of that might be edible
and possibly tasty for a beer.
And, using Steve's knowledge,we came up with elderflower and
rose.
We thought that would be a nicecombination and they also kind
of bloom around the same timeand it timed out where it would
(23:59):
be early enough where he couldbrew the beer and it would be
ready for this dinner and itcould be a really delicious
summer farmhouse style.
Oh, I had no idea all that wentinto it.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
That's amazing.
Yeah, what do you think, raikin?
You're a brewer.
Can we try?
Speaker 3 (24:15):
Oh nice.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
You and Tim will have to come up with some unique
combinations with your nextbatch.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Oh yeah, yeah, we can't even make a drinkable beer
, your first batch was prettygood.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
There's time, there's time.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Well, yeah, that's a very cool story you talk about
in your mission statement.
You know you want to sharestories, and that's a great one
about how what you're doing iskind of supporting you but also
interconnecting with this largercommunity.
Fine, regenerative farming.
How do you practice that here?
Speaker 3 (24:53):
Yeah, it's a good question.
I think for me it's definitelymore of a philosophy than like a
prescriptive way to farm.
I think it means a lot ofdifferent things to a lot of
different people and I think themost important and kind of
probably common thing is thatit's based on kind of a circular
(25:15):
system and kind of what you'retaking out, you're putting back
in to the soil, and not only areyou doing kind of a sustainable
model, but you're taking it astep above to try to regenerate
some of the disrepair that hasbeen done by farming or other
(25:39):
industries.
So a lot of people talk aboutcarbon sequestration as a part
of that.
So we're not only just tryingto be even, we're really trying
to regenerate and improve ouratmosphere by trying to
sequester more carbon into thesoil or doing, you know, erosion
(26:02):
prevention or water catchment.
So I think sustainability iskind of just the baseline.
We need to go a step furtherand do some repair, and I feel
that using the land in aresponsible way can can do that.
(26:22):
So love it.
So how?
Speaker 1 (26:27):
so you mentioned water.
There was that big drought wehad in May, I think it was May.
So when I ran into you youlooked a little stressed how do
you capture water on the farm?
Do you have a big rain barrelhere?
Do you have an irrigationsystem?
And how did that drought affectyou?
(26:47):
Because it was just at thestart of your, your CSA
subscription season.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
Yeah, yeah, that was.
That was probably the worstdrought I've seen here.
I think it was close to a monthof no rain, and especially,
it's harder to do that in thespring than it is the summer,
because you need rain to growlike seedlings.
That's when it's needed themost and that's when it's
(27:14):
typical.
But yeah, we didn't have that.
I currently do what would beconsidered dry farming, because
I don't have my own well, soeverything in the fields is
watered by rain.
Oh, wow, yeah scary.
Exactly so.
(27:35):
Oh yeah, hummingbird.
There's also hummingbird mothshere, which are very cool.
Maybe you'll see one, but um so, oh no, totally fine, there's a
lot.
That's the point.
We're creating an ecosystemhere.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
We need to do our bird episode.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
That's like the fourth time I've interrupted an
episode of the Colorado bird.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
Yeah, it's pretty cool, though, to see just
hummingbirds out here it'sbeautiful here.
Yeah, so I everything on thefields is I do irrigate a little
bit.
When I first put in like I'llput, I'll carry water over,
essentially with hoses, to plantthe seedlings and then after
(28:24):
that they're on their own.
Wow.
And the way that I get water isI do have two very large tanks
at the front of the farm thatcapture water off of the high
tunnel, so it's a really longhigh tunnel so it's able to
capture a pretty decent amountof water when it rains.
When it doesn't, I there's alocal spring company, sunrise
(28:48):
Springs.
They carry water from thespring and deliver it here and
fill up the tank.
So that's kind of my backup If Idon't get enough rain catchment
.
And because the tunnel iscovered, you have to have rain.
So I can well relatively relyon the rain out in the fields,
(29:09):
but I can't do that in thetunnel because it's not getting
it, except for the ground water,which we do have a very high
water table, so it gets somewater.
But yeah, so it was difficultand I definitely the next big
investment for the farm in orderto continue is going to have to
be a well, because I definitelycan't.
(29:31):
Yeah, I've gotten so lucky andkind of yeah, you can't put
yourself through that again.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
No, it's not worth the stress.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
Yeah, and I mean it's better for the flowers, too, to
have more control over thewater.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
that they're getting.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
It stresses them out, and when plants are stressed
they're more likely to get pestsand disease.
So, yeah, it's not good for thefarmer, not good for the plants
.
I mean I am grateful that I'vehad a low impact as far as using
water and by the reality isthat things are only going to
(30:07):
get worse in my opinion.
So it's just not worth thestress.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
How can our listeners support you in like giving you
enough money to dig that?
Well, so you have a CSAsubscription, so those are sold
out for the year, right?
Speaker 3 (30:25):
They are.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
Congratulations on that, Thank you.
Is that your main source ofincome?
The CSA subscription.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
Yeah, it's about.
I kind of yeah, that'sdefinitely the main.
And then the other.
I have like two other kind ofoutlets which are wholesale.
So I work with a collaborativeof other growers to aggregate
our product locally and we sellto florists and Fred and I is
(30:53):
like kind of the hub for that.
So that's been an amazing wayfor not only myself but others
to have an outlet of wholesaleflowers.
And then I also do weddings andevents, as we mentioned.
So those that with the CSAsubscription are kind of my
three outlets and I do have afew retail partners.
(31:18):
Some of the folks that alsohost the bouquet subscription
also sell bouquets every week.
So Shad Chagrin and our ShadBoutique in Chagrin Falls and
Room Service Boutique in Shakerhave bouquets every week.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
What is your specific day of the week that you get
your fresh bouquets to theretail.
Speaker 3 (31:37):
Yes, so those are on the weekends at Shad, starting
on Friday, through the wholeweekend or until they're sold
out.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
I will stop and get something.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
Yeah, and then Shaker Saturdays.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
Saturdays and Sundays there's bouquets there, so okay
, yeah, and do people ever visitthe farms?
You have a little farm stand, Isee by the road.
I do have a farm stand.
Speaker 3 (31:59):
It's like a lemonade stand, but for flowers, yeah, so
basically yeah, the farm standwas really great in 2020 when we
were doing contactless pickupof everything, and that's kind
of what started that.
However, it is a lot of work tostock it every week with all
the other things I have going on, so I've kind of focused it on
(32:23):
doing more of an open housething, where people can shop the
farm stand and come see thefarm at the beginning of the
year, kind of around spring, andthen around kind of fall when
the season's ending.
So, yeah, that's the best wayfor people to see the farm as
well, because we are aproduction farm and so we're not
(32:47):
technically open to the publicduring the week, but I obviously
want to show it off.
So and people ask, so that's areally good time to stay tuned
for a fall open house.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
So, okay, yeah, so, moving on to some tips, how do I
keep my fresh cut flowers freshlonger?
Yeah, great question.
Do you use that little packetthat comes with, I mean, or is
this a better way?
Yeah, usually they don't lookso good after a couple days if
they're local, like wildflowerbouquets that you pick up at the
(33:23):
farmer's market.
Speaker 3 (33:24):
Yeah, great question.
My philosophy on like flowerfood is kind of what it's called
For.
Me personally, and this is noshame to anyone that uses it
Plenty of farmers and customersalike do but it is synthetic
chemicals.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
Oh, I didn't know that.
Speaker 3 (33:46):
Yeah, so no, it's usually got a mixture of like a
bleach basically, which iskeeping the water sanitized, and
then a sugar to keep feedingthe flowers.
But they're both synthetic andI don't know of any that aren't,
and the ones that aren't Idon't think work very well.
(34:08):
So don't bother personally.
But so my philosophy on that isthat I'm going to do all the
work to be regenerative as muchas possible, then putting the
flowers that I work so hard tonot use pesticides, exactly
Because I don't use syntheticpesticides.
(34:30):
I don't use syntheticfertilizers or herbicides, so
just to me, it kind of justreverses the whole thing.
However, I understand of courseyou want your flowers to last
long, so I do feel like you cando comparable ways of caring for
your flowers and the way thatyou do that is so, and instead
(34:52):
of using bleach, you want tojust make sure that you're the
water that you're putting yourflowers into is super, super
clean and that you keep it clean.
So it does require a little bitmore work than maybe folks are
used to, and that's somethingthat I think is actually a
benefit, because you're actuallyinteracting with the flowers
more.
I feel like a lot of peoplewill get flowers.
(35:14):
They'll put them on their tableand then set it and forget it.
And they don't really engagewith them.
And when you have local flowersand you need to kind of change
out that water, it gets you tomaybe rearrange the bouquet,
take out some flowers that mightnot be only a couple days and
(35:34):
then enjoy the ones that are alittle bit longer.
So you want to keep the waterclean.
So whatever vase you're puttingin, make sure the vase is clean
, the water is cold and that Ithink the biggest thing is that
you don't want any foliage inthe water.
So try to.
Usually my flowers will comealready pre-stripped.
(35:58):
So okay, that's a good tip.
Yeah, they have about six inches.
Usually for my bouquets andmost bouquets that you'll buy
from the bottom there's nofoliage, but if you fill the
water up, make sure that, yeah,only the stems are in the water,
because if the foliage is inthe water it will start to rot
naturally.
And then that clogs up the poresof the flowers and that's what
(36:23):
creates your flowers then tostart dying prematurely.
It makes the water more dirtyand won't they won't last as
long.
So those are the tips, and Ithink also just keeping flowers
out of direct sunlight and in aspace that isn't yeah, it's more
hospitable to them.
Speaker 1 (36:43):
So, yeah, Now, how early in the year do you start
selling your CSA subscriptions?
I typically Tell us about whatthat comes with.
Speaker 3 (36:53):
Yeah, so I typically start selling them in the winter
, around end of November, earlyDecember, actually for the
following year.
Oh, okay, better early, becausepeople really like to give them
as gifts.
So people have to be reallypatient and they usually are,
(37:13):
because they'll be end upwaiting around nine months for
their flowers, which I reallyappreciate.
But it feels so much even moregratifying when you get it yeah
exactly.
So yeah, I usually start aroundthen and then I'll sell until
I'm sold out, which usually isaround May or June.
So Through your website, yeah,through my website, and yeah,
(37:35):
you can choose between.
It's fraydenupfarmcom and youcan choose between six or 12
weeks, which is the whole season.
So yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:46):
Well, if you were a flower, what would you be?
Speaker 3 (37:49):
Oh my goodness, I always get asked what is my
favorite flower.
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (37:54):
How would I?
Speaker 3 (37:55):
be.
I mean, I think I always revertback to one of my favorite
flowers, which is Foxfove, orthe botanical name is Digitalis.
Okay, it is poisonous.
Speaker 2 (38:06):
so I don't really want to be embodying poison.
Speaker 3 (38:09):
However, I think that there is something nice about
the contrast of it.
It's like super beautiful butalso don't mess with me kind of
attitude.
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
The contrast.
Speaker 3 (38:22):
Yeah, I think it has.
It's really delicate andbeautiful and also, yeah, it's
tough too, and I think that kindof embodies me, where I think
I'm a kind person and can growbeautiful flowers, but also it's
(38:42):
really really, really hard tobe a farmer, yeah, and you have
to have a really kind of toughoutlook on life, I think, to
keep kind of punishing yourself,doing this every year.
But, yeah, I think Well fromour brief conversation.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
that sounds like a perfect description.
So you are a Foxfove?
Yeah, Awesome.
Speaker 2 (39:05):
We hope you've enjoyed this episode of
EcoSpeak's CLE.
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