Visit
U-pick flowers, and the field it waits on
Cut your own, out in the field, on the weeks it is at its best. It waits on a field to cut from.
Cutting your own flowers is one of the things we would most like this farm to offer. You walk out into the field, cut what you want, and take it home having chosen every stem yourself.
It is a completely different thing from buying a bouquet, and people who have done it tend to be very clear about which they prefer. An hour in a flower field on a summer evening is most of the point.
This one waits squarely on the field, which is still going in. What follows is the shape we have in mind and what has to be growing before it can happen.
What we have in mind
-
Out in the field, cutting your own
Rows you walk between with something to cut with and something to carry them in. What you go home with is what caught your eye rather than what somebody else chose, and that turns out to matter to people a great deal.
-
Only on the weeks it is at its best
A u-pick field has to be genuinely full to be worth anyone's time. That means opening it on the stretches where the field has more than it can sell any other way, rather than every weekend through a season.
-
Planted with cutting in mind
A field somebody walks into is planted differently from one a grower harvests alone. Row spacing, height, what is in bloom together at the same moment. Getting that right is what makes the hour enjoyable rather than awkward.
-
An hour rather than an errand
This is the one thing on the farm that is worth doing for its own sake. People come out for flowers and stay because it is a good place to be for a while, which is exactly the shape the longer term plan takes.
-
Booked ahead, in numbers the field can take
A field can only be cut by so many people before it stops looking like a field. Booking ahead keeps it good for everybody who comes, and means nobody drives out to something that has already been picked over.
-
The first real reason to visit
Nearly everything else here is collected and taken home. U-pick is the first piece of the plan where the visit itself is the product, which is why it matters more than its size suggests.
What has to happen first
-
1
The flower field has to exist
Not a few rows near the house. A real field, with real water, planted at a size where a group of people cutting from it does not empty it. That is the single condition everything else here depends on.
-
2
Learn what blooms together here
A good cutting field has several things at their peak at once, repeatedly, through a season. Working out which varieties do that on this ground takes a couple of years of watching rather than a planting plan.
-
3
Sort out how people actually arrive
Somewhere to park, a way in that does not run past a family's back door, and a route out to the field. That is part of what the move to the back place is meant to make possible rather than something to improvise.
-
4
Open a few dates and see
A handful of booked sessions on the weeks the field is heaviest, kept small, before it becomes anything more regular. What that teaches us decides whether it grows into a fixture or stays occasional.
Why cutting your own is worth building toward
Almost nothing else this farm plans to offer is an experience rather than a product. Chicken, vegetables and storage crops are all collected and taken home. U-pick is the first thing on the list where the hour spent here is most of what somebody is actually coming for.
That matters because of where this place is eventually pointed. The long term version of this farm is somewhere people drive out to for an afternoon, and the road makes that plausible in a way it is not for most farms this size. U-pick is the smallest, most honest first version of it.
It also fits how a flower field actually behaves. There are weeks where a field produces far more than any small grower can cut, sell and deliver before it goes over. Letting people cut their own on exactly those weeks solves a real problem rather than inventing a service.
For now it stays behind the field itself, which is the honest order. There is no version of this that works without a large, well planted, well watered field, and that is what is being built toward at the back place.
Questions people ask
Can I come and cut flowers now?
Not yet. The flower field is still going in, and u-pick needs a field large enough that a group cutting from it does not empty it. It will be announced here and to the list when there is something to walk into.
How would it work?
Booked ahead for a particular date, with a set number of people, out in the field cutting your own. Booking is what keeps the field good for everybody rather than picked over by the third visitor of the day.
When in the season would it happen?
On the weeks the field is heaviest, which is when there is genuinely more than can be sold any other way. Those stretches shift a little every year with the weather, so dates would be announced rather than fixed.
What is the difference from buying a bucket?
With a bucket we cut the stems and you collect them. With u-pick you walk the field and choose every stem yourself. Same flowers, completely different afternoon, and people tend to have a strong preference.
Would I need to bring anything?
Something to carry them in water, and shoes you do not mind getting muddy. A field is a field. We would say clearly what to bring and what we provide well before anybody drives out.
How do I hear when this starts?
Through the list. U-pick dates would be tied to specific weeks and capped at a number, so the people on the list are the ones with a real chance at a spot rather than hearing about it afterward.
Elsewhere on the farm
Would you come out and cut?
How many people want to is part of what decides how much ground goes to cut flowers and how the field gets laid out. Tell us on the list.
Join the list