Earth Day at Butterbee Farm

Last Wednesday, Team LoCoFlo spent the morning volunteering at Butterbee Farm for Earth Day.

 

Laura Beth and Jascha, the wonderful farmers and Butterbee, made it super fun by planning “Farm Olympics”. Teams competed in three competitive rounds: precision planting, speed weeding and feats of brawn.

Carling and Irene were “Team Age Advantaged” since they are MUCH younger and more able bodied than their old, decrepit bosses.

Eric and I competed together and frankly didn’t do as we could have due to Eric’s laying around on the job.

Jascha worked with our new friend Lydia, a brand new flower farmer out in Chestertown.

We were judged by Laura Beth, Jascha and Maya Kosok, farmer extraordinaire from Hillen Homestead (and mom to our two littlest farm helpers).

It was a sunny day for planting chamomile, weeding beds and moving rocks. More than that, it was time well spent with our team and our friends. Working in the dirt, sharing a meal, taking pictures, laughing a lot…the most fun! It’s exciting to think that we’ll be using that chamomile in bouquets in just a few short months!

Everything we do at LoCoFlo depends on our amazing growers. Volunteering at the farm is just a small way for us to let them know that we are super grateful to them for all they do! Thank you Butterbee Farm and Hillen Homestead! You make Buying Local so much fun!

Thanks to Jascha Owens at Butterbee for some of the sweet pics!

Farming with Hillen Homestead!

Last week we took a field trip to Baltimore City flower farm, Hillen Homestead. Hillen Homestead, run by Maya Kosok and her lovely husband Max and their adorable baby girl,  is literally just 2 miles from Local Color Flowers studio. Do you know how lucky we are to have a flower farm so close by? VERY lucky!

Hillen Homestead is located in central Baltimore City on a vacant lot where rowhomes used to stand. It’s not gigantic and it’s not overly picturesque…but man is is productive! It’s a perfect example how urban farming can be a great option for small flower farmers. This will be our second year buying from Maya and we couldn’t be more excited.
Carling and Stacy started by tilling beds and spreading compost from Chesapeake Compost Works.

I planted lots and lots of basil…and ageratum and zinnias.
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We passed our time talking about flowers and farming and designing and business.  What could be better? It was a fun morning for all of us. Not only did we get to spend a day outdoors helping our friends, we also got to have a direct hand in the flowers we’ll be using this summer.  It was another amazing way to connect with our farmers and the flowers they are growing.
Thanks so much to Maya and Max for letting us come help.
Happy Spring and Happy Planting friends!