We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lauren Simmons. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lauren below.

Hi Lauren, thanks for joining us today. Often the greatest growth and the biggest wins come right after a defeat. Other times the failure serves as a lesson that’s helpful later in your journey. We’d appreciate if you could open up about a time you’ve failed

We have experienced many failures on the farm. Being the first at something means you have to forge the path yourself, and unfortunately with inexperience comes poor decisions and wasted money. That is why I started ‘Confessions of a First Generation Farmer’ as highlights on our Instagram @browningsflowertruck. So I could share my successes, but mostly my failures, and help others on a similar journey as us by sparing them from the mistakes we made and continue to make.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

If you are searching for what it might be like to move to, and start a farm. If you enjoy garden inspired, the occasional wedding bouquets, educational workshops, working with livestock, from scratch cooking, growing your own food, and a unique mobile floral experience, and all the mistakes in between then Brownings is the perfect place for you. Faith and family is at the heart of everything we do. Join us as we navigate life in the country, and a quest for simple living for first generation farmers as a husband and wife team.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Livestock. I feel thats all I need to say when it comes to hardships. Everyday, no matter the weather, you need to feed, water, and muck the stalls or pens. Livestock become ill, they die, they require veterinary care, they need their pastures to be rotated. They require medications and supplements. Some are loving and some are downright dangerous. You must be resilient if you want to work with animals.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

We recently made the hard decision to discontinue the most profitable part of our business due to labor shortages. We are no longer providing wedding floral services. I need time to focus on growing flowers because the high cost of wholesale flowers cuts drastically into our budget. It also feels next to impossible to find help on the farm, or to keep help. Weddings are extremely labor intensive and more and more brides want large, elaborate installations. My husband travels for a living so that leaves me home alone five days a week to manage our home, our farm, and our business. I simply did not feel reliable enough to commit to brides regardless of it being our main source of income. Now we are focusing on establishing heirloom perennials and unique cuttings, organizing our floral studio and barn space to open to the public for workshops, and renovating our gardens to better suite our needs.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.browningsflowertruck.com
• Instagram: @browningsflowertruck
• Facebook: Brownings Flower Truck
• Youtube: Brownings Flower Truck

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