We were lucky to catch up with Heather Barnes recently and have shared our conversation below.

Heather , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

How it all started was had been growing vegetables for about 5 or 6 years for my family. I was very interested in learning everything I could and trying out all of the different plants and methods so my husband built me a greenhouse just like the one I remember my grandpa had when I was really young. We finished it right before winter so I was researching what and how you grow in greenhouses and I read an article in Mother Earth News about a woman who grew flowers and sold them to a florist, then I found a video on YouTube about Floret Farms and I said to my husband that’s what I am going to do. So I bought my first seeds and planted them in my greenhouse and had the idea I could sell them at the farmers market. I applied for my first market while I had maybe 10 trays of tiny flower plants. It was exciting and scary but I was confident in my ability to grow things. My first summer of markets I sold almost every flower each weekend and I had such a positive experience with the people I met and learning how to work with flowers. The whole experience was so amazing and felt so “right” that we sold our house right after the market ended and bought a new place with a huge yard and an open field and I have been farming and selling flowers at the farmers market ever since! When I started I was the only flower vendor there and my focus is on quality. So I have methods and practices I use to make sure my flowers have the longest vase life possible and I have really just built a reputable product by being consistent in my product and attendance. I still have customers from my first year selling bouquets and I’ve developed great relationships with the people I meet. Since my first year everything has just fallen into place as we keep moving along. It’s like the path just unfolds itself in front of me as I keep going.
2024 is my 8th year and there’s so much to keep learning about farming and flowers, managing my business I never run out of new things to do. I like learning by doing so if it sounds cool or interesting I’m trying it and it doesn’t always work but I have the room to experiment. The money from selling flowers funds the whole farm so now we have added animals and we’re currently working on getting in 2 new greenhouses. It’s always exciting it’s always changing and I’m always learning , meeting new people who are doing cool new things in the community.

Heather , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Heather and I’m a local flower farmer, I grow flowers to sell as bouquets for local markets and farm subscriptions. Local flowers are the best,! 70-80% of all cut flowers in the US are imported from outside the country, covered in pesticide, herbicide, preservatives and consist of only flowers that tolerate shipping. My flowers are the freshest possible interesting and beautiful varieties grown sustainably right in your community. These are not your typical grocery store or a floral shop flowers. I love to grow varieties that are happiest in our seasonal climate so through the year I am offering different flowers when they are blooming their best. The floral industry is a major contributor of plastic waste. My farm uses regenerative practices and strives to be as plastic free as possible

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

So it took us 4 years of trials to create our main production field. It’s filled with invasive grass that is very difficult to kill, so each year we would try out a new method of killing off the grass and every time it would just grow back. I talked to different experts about ideas to try and they would be worried about how we could get rid of it. We finally had to spend a whole 18 months preparing the site and use heavy equipment to completely eradicate it and stop any new growth from coming back in. It’s been working for 2 years and now we can periodically monitor for new growth and spot treat it.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I think I was just lucky to be the first vendor in my market offering my products so I was able to set the expectation for price and quality with my customers. I continue to make my main priority quality so each year it improves and sets that expectation so even if another person is selling the same thing I have that reputation and reliability built up . I really just have the advantage of time and experience.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.callunaflowerfarm.com
• Instagram: @callunaflowerfarm

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