Winnowburrow Farm & Floral April Newsletter 2021
Hi folks, happy SPRING! We are officially past the equinox and into the home stretch. Only 3 months until the summer solstice—the longest day of the year! All those specialty tulips and daffodils I planted last fall are starting to poke their heads up and look around. The spring bouquet subscription is soon to begin! There will be a bit of gap in flowers between the early spring flowers and summer flowers. We’re still working on establishing perennial flowers that can fill the gap (basically the whole month of June). Next year however, I should be able to start harvesting some of the peonies I planted in Autumn of 2019! I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to see those beauties.
Wedding and event bookings are up this season as COVID vaccinations become more widespread. The interest seems to be primarily in what we (in the floral industry) call “micro-weddings”. These basically consist of bridal party flowers–bouquets, boutonnieres and corsages, and sometimes a few small table arrangements or a statement piece. I find I actually really like doing these smaller weddings, especially since I have a very busy schedule on the farm during the summer. I still have openings this season, so if you know anyone looking for a florist please share my contact info! The WEDDINGS link on the website has lots of information and folks can email me directly from there for quotes.
Most of the buzz right now is about floral subscriptions. These flower shares make up about ¼ of the farm’s profit annually and are thus an important part of our business plan. This year I changed some things up to make it feasible for us to reach a broader local delivery area. Besides on-farm pick-up, I’m excited to offer pick-up sites at the Colfax Public Library (Colfax, WI), Menomonie Market Food Co-op, Just Local Foods in Eau Claire and Ray’s Market in Ridgeland, WI. Mississippi Market in St. Paul has also offered to host again, but we need at least 15 subscriptions in the TC area, July–September for us to make that weekly commute. If you are a TC resident and are hoping to receive weekly subscriptions, please shoot me an email at winnowburrow@gmail.com as soon as possible and let me know which subscriptions you are planning to purchase. If the demand is high enough to find a second drop site in Minneapolis, I will be ON IT! Hopefully we can get enough subscribers to keep the flowers flowing to the metro!
If you are local to the Menomonie/Eau Claire/Ridgeland/Colfax area, subscriptions are all ready to go on our online store! Just pop on and peruse the options! http://www.winnowburrow.com/shop
In other news, we’re getting closer to finishing the Farmstay/Air Bnb and I’m hoping to announce its opening no later than June 1st. We’ve hit a bit of a road-block with the campsites due to some complicated zoning laws in Wisconsin, but plans for U-pick flowers and summer flower-field photo-shoots are still in the works. And hopefully PIZZA NIGHTS! (or days).
Be sure to keep checking back about what’s happening here at Winnowburrow! I am planning to post articles and blogs more regularly under this link. There is so much more to share, but I’ll leave it there for now! Thanks—as always—for your support. I am so inspired by the love and gratitude this farm is able to manifest in anyone who experiences it’s magic, either by being here, buying flowers or other products, or simply listening to it’s stories. I am certain that I live on sacred ground.
May the sun shine brightly for you!
Cheers,
Bonnie Warndahl