On this episode, I sit down with Ron and Margi Illingworth of North Pole Peonies, a commercial peony farm that has been successfully growing and exporting peonies for twenty years. They started this venture after retirement. They are in their 80's now. Impressive!
Why Peonies? Because it turns out Alaska can grow peonies during June July and August when the rest of the world cannot. There are no peonies to be found in the world except in Alaska. This presented a huge opportunity for Illingworth family to grow and export peonies to lower 48 states and overseas.
This is a family business, Ron and Margi’s daughter, son-in-law and grandkids are all engaged in this enterprise. It’s a wonderful story of focused farming, niche marketing and perfecting distribution and shipments of a very perishable commodity.
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