Our favorite autumnal decorations are back! I’m leaving now to deliver curly willow bunches to Weaver Street Market in Hillsborough and Carrboro. They will be available for the next several weeks. Pick one up now, while supplies last.
Author: Spring Forth Farm
New: Fall Bouquet Subscription Session
We are adding a new fall bouquet subscription session. Five weeks of flowers for $75 ($15/week). Sales from this session will really help our farm grow: we will invest all our income from this session into spring bulbs, helping us get flowers even earlier in the spring.
The session runs from Sept. 21 to Oct. 19.
Registration deadline is Sept. 19.
Info and registration form:
Spring Forth Farm on Civil Eats
Check us out on the Civil Eats website. This great story focuses on the economic and environmental benefits of growing flowers.
http://civileats.com/2017/07/13/local-flowers-make-a-comeback/
Flowers Every Week: Our 2017 Bouquet Subscription
Our bouquet subscription is back! Flowers every week. Here are the details and the registration form is below.
Bouquet Subscriptions make great Mother’s Day gifts. Instead of giving flowers for just one day, consider giving five, ten, or fifteen weeks of fresh-from-the-farm flowers.
For more information and to register, click the link below:
Mother’s Day Open House: Flowers, Photography, and Fun
We are excited to announce our second annual Mother’s Day Open House. It will take place on Saturday, May 13 from 1-5 PM. Come tour our farm. Bring a picnic and enjoy the peace and beauty. We will have beautiful Mother’s Day Bouquets for sale and Merritt Chesson will be offering “Mother’s Day Mini” family photo sessions.
Solar!
Since we started the farm, it has been important to us that Spring Forth Farm be a socially responsible business. That is why we donate produce from our vegetable garden and tithe from our sales to a local food pantry: We have the gift from God of this farm and the skills to grow food, and we want to share God’s bounty with others.
Similarly, we have the great gift of sunshine, and we designed our house with both passive solar heating and photo-voltaic solar panels in mind. Today, Yes Solar Solutions finished installing our 32-panel, 8.48kW system. We anticipate this system generating all of our home electrical use plus a good portion of the farm’s. While combating pollution and global climate change requires national policy and international cooperation, there is a lot each of us can do for sustainability as well. Installing these solar panels and striving for net-zero electrical usage is one of the ways we are doing our part.
Two Announcements
We have two brief announcements. First, our Curly Willow Bunches are for sale at Weaver Street Market in Hillsborough. They are great holiday items. They are long-lasting and will decorate your house for the whole holiday season. They also travel well, so they make great gifts. Please head over to Weaver Street Market in Hillsborough and tell your friends to do the same.
Secondly, we were named “Homesteaders of the Year” by Mother Earth News Magazine. We are featured in the current issue’s “Firsthand Reports” column.
Slow Flowers with Debra Prinzing
Last month we had a great visit from Debra Prinzing, creator of SlowFlowers.com and the Slow Flowers podcast. Debra recorded a podcast episode with us which is available today.
Debra’s visit started with a meetup with flower growers and florist from four states and ended with a workshop at Pine State Flowers. You can read about the rest of her visit on her blog.
House Update Fall 2016
It has been a while since we did an update on our house, and since MOVING IN has been our main goal this year, it is time to show off our progress. Last time we posted we had just finished installing the cabinets. Since then, we have been checking off the items that we need to get our certificate of occupancy.
Electricity was the first thing on our list. Moving the power from the temporary pole to the house meant we were done with all the digging around the house and could get the grading done. To get the necessary permits to put power on the house, we had to install of of the electrical fixtures. We needed scaffolding to reach these fans in the living room, but once we had them, they made working inside a lot more pleasant.
Needing to get the fixtures installed also gave us the push we needed to finish our porch. The porch is a major feature of the house and a big outdoor living space. We used beadboard for the ceiling and of course put up ceiling fans for summer comfort.
Once the fixtures were installed and the electrical trenching was done, we had the area around the house graded and a driveway installed. With each passing project it looks more and more like a finished house!
While all this work was being done on the outside, on the inside we were working through our list and making the house feel more like home. Once we had the cabinets in, we moved on to the rest of the kitchen.
One of our favorite features is our farm sink. We found this double drainboard sink on Craigslist. When we got it, it had several chips in the enamel, but we had it refinished and can’t wait to use this treasure!
Megan installed a tile top on a reclaimed vanity and we installed the bathroom sink downstairs.
And we hired a colleague of Jonathan’s to do the tile in the shower. He did a great job.
Upstairs, we installed the wood floors that we reclaimed from our church’s 1891 chapel.
But one of our favorite projects, and one that makes a huge difference making our house into our home is the hearth and wood stove we installed. This is our Jotul F-1 that we found unused on Craigslist.
As you can see in the background, we have started on the window trim, the last big project before we can get our c/o. Once we do that we’ll still have a few more project like finishing the floors and installing interior doors, but we are getting closer and closer. So this winter, you know where we’ll be: Sipping hot chocolate in front of a fire, reveling in the hominess of our hearth and the comfort of our home.
Spring 2016 Update
It has been a busy spring and early summer here at the farm and here are some photos of what we’ve been up to. We’ve been making slow but steady progress on our house but most of it isn’t the kind that looks good in photos. However the cabinets that we installed in the kitchen show up on the camera and give shape to a space that had previously been hard to picture. Enjoy the rest of the pictures of the farm, of our subscription bouquets, and of course of the ever-present Mr. Bingley.
Spring Forth Farm of North Carolina 