We all know farming is not easy and the same can be said of marriage. Combine the two and it takes dedication, flexibility and above all patience. For some, working together would be a recipe for marital disaster, but not for Chet and Kristy of The Fresh Herb Company and Boulder Flower Farm in Colorado and Ron and Marji of North Pole Peonies in Alaska. Read on to learn what a typical day entails, how they got started and ultimately how running a flower farm together has deepened their trust and appreciation for each other making both the marriage and business a success.
Let’s hear from Chet and Kristy first.
Chet and Kristy Anderson of The Fresh Herb Company
Chet: At some point during the writing of my master’s thesis on agricultural land preservation, I decided we needed to be in agriculture for real and not as a commentator. I ditched the thesis and announced to Kristy that we were going to start a farm. Fortunately for me, she reluctantly agreed, and 40 years later we’re still at it!
Kristy: We “backed in” to it! Initially, it was about cooking, food and fresh herbs. That all made sense to me, then the purchase of property, a home that needed more work than we could even imagine, greenhouses, kids…. we were really committed. We often look at each other and can’t believe it’s been such a long time, but we’re still embracing the challenges and the relative independence to make our own way.
Chet: We are up early…I get the crews going and then spend most of the day in the greenhouse, fields, or barn where we process all of the flowers. Kristy took care of the boys when they were young as well as all of the “office work”. The boys are all grown now, and Kristy still does all of the critical office work that allows me to run the farm. We try to save out sometime each day for a walk or bike ride and sometimes we even get away for some camping or skiing.
Kristy: I organize to manage time, home and office in order to carve out time to get out!
Chet: Working together to survive the inevitable challenges of running a farm/business and then enjoying our success when things go the way they were planned.
Kristy: I appreciate the ‘dance’ we have developed to get all the work done in order to enjoy the home, farm and friendships we’ve built over the years. The divisions and sharing of duties has settled out into what feels like a pretty well-oiled machine…. today. Trying to plan a future that will look different as we age and plan for keeping the farm in the family is now our biggest challenge!
Chet: We distribute our flowers throughout the Whole Foods Rocky Mountain region. We also operate a subscription service, an on-line service, an on-farm events business, and participate in the Boulder County Farmers Market.
Kristy: We are looking forward to returning to the Boulder County Farmers Market, after a couple of years absence. Chet loves being on the street and connecting with all of our old friends and loyal customers and making new friends, so he will be in his element, making sure people get our flowers directly! Our son and his fiancé have created several of these add-ons, which are ways to get our flowers and herbs out in addition to our core wholesale business. Perhaps the most gratifying is the venue rental business, Boulder Flower Farm, which allows us to share the beauty of the farm and the flowers we produce!
Ron Illington of North Pole Peonies
Marji Illington of North Pole Peonies
We purchased our small farm in 1997 and planted vegetables which we sold at the local farmers market for several years. Then, in 2004, a colleague of mine at the University of Alaska Fairbanks who ran the Georgeson Botanical Gardens informed me that she had been contacted by a couple of visiting tourists, one from England and one from New Zealand about the peonies she had blooming in July in her garden. They wanted to buy them and to talk with the peony growers throughout the State. At that time there were no commercial peony growers in Alaska. I talked with my wife, and we were both interested in entering into this market. We started by planting a small number of peonies just to see if they would survive in our area. Micro-climates are a big factor in what will grow up here in the sub-arctic and what would grow in the hills of the University might not grow in the river valley where we were. Of the 5 varieties we tried, 3 survived the winter. The next year we planted a couple hundred roots and over the next 10 years, we planted a total of 13,000 roots a few thousand at a time as we could afford it. Also, we didn’t want to be overcome with a huge number of peonies all at once before we could build up a customer base.
In 2010, Marji and I both retired from the University where we had both been faculty and devoted our lives full-time to the peonies. It was obvious that we would need to do that. Having planned ahead (Ha, Ha) our kids all had kids (our grandkids) so now we had a young workforce that could help us on the farm. Happily, they all entered this with enthusiasm (We paid them).
We knew that this growing job would be something we would both be involved with. I’m a guy so red, white, and pink are colors I know. My wife, on the other hand, saw white, blush, light pink, magenta, watermelon red, deep red, and on and on. She does colors, I did the heavy lifting with my tractor though during the planting season, our son-in-law put in the raised rows, and she and my daughter used a post hole digger to install the holes in the ground for the roots. Our grandkids mixed the soil and fertilizer and then put the peony roots in the ground.
Primarily, this is a summer-focused job. Winter is mostly getting ready for summer but with little outside work. During the winter we inventory supplies and order materials (boxes, fertilizer, herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, and packing and shipping material) as needed.
During the Spring/Summer it is different. During the Spring we have to put out the irrigation lines, place the water pump, move out the irrigation system, hook up everything, and then ops check it all. During the early Springtime-frame, Marji contacts all our previous year workers to see who will be available for harvest and packing during the current year. Meanwhile, come May, Ron will be putting out pre-emergent herbicides, followed by an initial drench of water-soluble fertilizer. As soon as that is finished it is time for the first botrytis spray to get it down just as the peonies are starting to poke through the soil. With almost 10 acres to spray using a 4-wheeler with a 25-gallon tank, it takes several days for each application. Peonies grow rapidly, so, 2 weeks later it is time for an insecticide spray mixed with another botrytis spray and water-soluble fertilizer. When we convert to herbicides, that means changing out the spray tank as we can’t mix that with chemicals we spray over the tops of the peonies. Depending on the growing season, Ron may get to do another insecticide/botrytis/fertilizer spray within 2 weeks of harvest. Generally, the peonies pop out of the ground late May to very early June and by the end of June we are harvesting.
Ron, also, handles the irrigation, moving the overhead sprinkler system to 5 different locations so that we can get needed water to the peonies. Climate change has significantly impacted our water availability here (think rain), and we have had to rely almost entirely on supplemental irrigation. Luckily, we have a large pond on the farm and can draw as much water as we need from that. We are in the flood plain for the Tanana River, so the pond never even notices the loss of water from irrigation.
Meanwhile, while Ron is mixing chemicals and spraying, Marji is busy setting up the packhouse by putting foam pads on the floor for standing support, setting up sorting tables, relocating the bundling and stem chopping equipment, and hooking up our portable room air conditioner to cool the packing area. Also, she cleans and disinfects the chillers so that they are ready for the stems. Equipment and crates stored in the chillers must be moved out and positioned ready for summer use.
In June, Marji contacts workers to confirm their availability. Since they are teens, their time is influenced by family schedules and vacations. Then, a few days before harvest, she sets up a training session for all the summer workers, does the training, and then has them relocate crates and other equipment to the areas where they will be used. She gets out all the clippers for cutting as well as the crate tags we will use to identify varieties as they are harvested. During harvest, she surveys the fields early each morning and assigns pickers for the day by field and then, supervises the workers.
Meanwhile, our sales manager has been contacting all our previous year customers as well as potential new customers to arrange for orders and shipping information. Because of specific “import” restrictions, shipping to California requires different labels than those used to ship to any other State. This information needs to be confirmed on an annual basis.
First, working together, we get to share in the results of our labor. It is heartwarming to hear from a customer who says, as one did this year, “I was really down, and your peonies arrived and really made my day!”
Secondly, we enjoy doing things together. We’ve been married for 68 years now, and we enjoy the opportunities that we have to do things together. My 20-year career in the Air Force and our 26-year career teaching for the University were mostly independent careers. We had little opportunities to do things together. Now, while we each have different tasks to accomplish, we get to share some of them as well as the results.
The most challenging aspects of the job are ones related to our ability to accomplish them given that we are 79 and 81 respectively. Planning for succession is in progress but letting go is hard to do. We both enjoy this work so much.
The number of customers we have varies from year to year as most of our customers are at a distance from us. We ship to all the lower-48 as well as internationally. Our main customers are florists, event coordinators, and wholesalers, but we also sell directly to individuals. Most of our sales happen via our website at http://northpolepeonies.com using the “order now” button or directly at https://app.barn2door.com/northpolepeonies/all or are repeat customers.
We have opened our farm up to weddings and to photographers who come out and do photo shoots during the summer when we have peonies in bloom. We charge a small amount for this. Additionally, we do farm tours once a week at 7PM for no charge. Visitors are free to cut stems and we sell them to them then.
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CERTIFIED AMERICAN GROWN
Certified American Grown (CAG), the voice of American cut flower and foliage farmers is excited to launch a platform for flower fans around the country to sign up to support the effort to pass the “American Grown Act.” The Act has been introduced ...
Certified American Grown (CAG), the voice of American cut flower and foliage farmers is excited to announce the introduction of the “American Grown Act.” The Act has been introduced by Alaska Representative Don Young. Co-sponsors from throughout ...
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