Why You Should Buy Farm Fresh Flowers

‘Nuff said.

Kidding. Only kinda. Isn’t she a gorgeous bouquet? We’re so lucky to have Farmer Florist friends down the road. (Who also grow amazing produce and pastured meats. All beyond organic.) They grow and arrange the most stunning arrangements, the one above being one that they just “grabbed and threw together before coming over”, but frankly, its beauty astounds me.

There are so many food choices to make. Where should you buy it? Who should you buy it from? What type of food should you buy? Does organic matter? Or not? So with all those choices to make, you could be frustrated with me bringing up another question you need to answer. Should you buy farm fresh flowers?

Why You Should Buy Farm Fresh Flowers…

1) I haven’t ever bought flowers from the store. They seem uninspiring to me? Yes I like plants, sometimes Marius would buy them for me, but I always requested he DIDNT buy me flowers. They usually bugged my allergies and they honestly just didn’t spark any joy inside me. Then I discovered flowers from our farmers market. Especially those of farms I know and have been to. Now, when I look at a bouquet of flowers on my table, I think of their beautiful, abundant fields of vegetables and flowers growing together in the most un-monoculture arrangement you could ever see. 

2) Support Your Farmer. Duh. Thats why we’re all pro farmers market. Except here, a bouquet at the store usually costs more than one at the market (where as produce at the market costs more than at the store). So you’re getting a deal and saving money. Score!

3) They last longer. They really do! How long have those flowers at the store travelled? Beat around in the truck and moved from field to cooler to truck to cooler to store to cooler. Ain’t nobody got time to outlast that and still live on at your house for very long. From the market? They were most likely picked, put in the cooler until they brought them to the market within days, if not the next morning. I am routinely astonished at how long a bouquet lasts.

4) You can get ideas for what you could grow yourself. While some of the flowers they grow I have no hope of growing due to the care they have to give them and instead I’m more than happy to purchase, I CAN get ideas for flowers to grow in my garden. Farmers are so knowledgable too that asking them about planting for pollinators and what to plant if you want it to bloom in XYZ month, they’ve probably got an idea for you!

Even at that…you may be going but Kate? Where do I find $10 in my budget to buy flowers every week? (Well first off, what I buy lasts two weeks!) Like stretching ground meat with lentils, there is ways to make your flowers last longer, plus a couple tricks I use to get more enjoyment out of one bouquet.

How to Get Your Flowers to Last Longer

1) Keep ’em watered! Duh, right? Well just make sure they’ve got water. Maybe even change it a couple times over the course of two weeks.

2) Pull out/pick off dead flowers. Don’t let one rotten apple spoil the bunch! If a flower is wilting and drooping, take it out because it’s not only spoiling the bouquets overall beauty, it’s probably making the rest of the bouquet age faster.

3) After 5 days to a week, take the bouquet out of the vase and cut the stems down an inch. This will extend the life of your flowers!

How to Get More Enjoyment Out of the Flowers You Have

1) Switch Vases. And have nice vases. I’ve never bought one new. They’re all thrift store finds or hand me downs. I don’t have a lot, 3 bigger ones, and a few smaller ones. Considering I never used to have even a single vase, thats a pretty big collection!

Same bouquet…different vase size/height/style. BAM. Look what we just did.

If the bouquet gets to the point of only have a few good flowers left, sometimes for funsies I separate into bud vases (thrift store finds!) and put them in different rooms.

Changing the vase changes the overall look of the bouquet. 

2) Change where you put the bouquet. Who says it has to stay on a windowsill? Or the table? Or the bathroom? Or the bedroom? Change the vase around to different rooms as the mood strikes you. Although honestly the place I get most enjoyment is the kitchen table!

3) Turn the vase around so you can enjoy a different angle. Same bouquet, looking at it different ways…

How fun is that! It’s like a different bouquet! I sit at the same place at the table every meal, so this way I get to enjoy different views without changing my seat.

Do you buy flowers? Have you bought them from a farmers market before? What are you waiting for! Get to a market and buy yourself some flowers! 

Dang it…I have to wait until Saturday now!