Every week, when I leave the grocery store, I walk by the flowers near the door and my heart goes a pitter-patter. I love 'em. The colors, the textures, the smells. The air feels cooler, lighter. But then I snap back to reality and look closer. They're already starting to wilt in some cases. Sometimes there are some in the cooler that aren't meant for the cooler. I know that if I take any of them home, aside from my boys making fun of me for buying flowers when we have wall to wall seedlings, they'll be mush in a matter of days.
ENTER: LOCALLY GROWN FLOWERS
So why are locally grown flowers going to check some boxes for you? Read on!
1. Local flowers are special. Us local farmers have things you can't find in the grocery store. Many more of our blooms are fragrant, have more unique colors, shapes, or are heirloom varieties even. Imported flowers from the store are cultivated to be tough - to survive transport and that limits what you can get!
2. Most locally grown flowers are picked from the field withing 24 to 36 hours of landing on your table. We farmers handle them with care and pick them all at their *prime* picking stage that can often cause your locally grown bouquets to last up to 2 weeks.
3. Supporting local is pretty cool. Flower farming sounds warm and fuzzy, and while its often *quite* warm (July in Nebraska), its farm from fuzzy. We spend a lot of time stooping, kneeling, digging by hand, and stripping leaves. But let me tell you something - we couldn't be more proud or emotionally invested in growing for you! Most of us are ladies and most of us are small scare are we appreciate you!
4. Bees, baby. When I first moved to my house in west Omaha/Gretna, there were NO pollinators here. No native plants, only questionable sod at best. Not my vibe - I'm a farm kid. So after years, and I'm saying YEARS, I'm finally attracting the bees and bugs, some birds too, that our ecosystem craves. So by supporting my farm, you're supporting native species. (Side note, if you ever want to go down a rabbit hole on the state of the Monarch butterfly population, stop by our booth at the Gretna Farmers' Market and ask Hunter about it sometime.)
5. Remember how I said grovery store flowers are imported? Almost 80% of flowers sold in the US are imported from outside the country. Its been reported that Columbia (just Columbia) shipped more than 4 billion flowers to the United States. Love them Valentine flowers? In the 3 weeks leading up to Valentine's day 2018, 30 (thirty, not a typo) cargo jets made a trip DAILY from Columbia to Miami alone. Then those flowers had to be trucked everywhere else. If you're looking for those Valentine flowers here in Nebraska and want a local option, look for a flower farm with a CSA option. If you don't know where to find one - let me know. I know a few peeps.
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