Why Flowers? Three benefits of adding blooms to your small farm

As the agricultural landscape continues to evolve, and pressure from industrial scale agriculture makes it increasingly difficult for small scale operations, small farm businesses are constantly seeking innovative ways to thrive and differentiate themselves. One method for enhancing small farm viability is the integration of flowers into farming operations. 

This year, the Kearsarge Food Hub launched a Flower Farmer Apprentice Program as part of our efforts to grow new farmers. While we’ve previously focused on teaching apprentices how to grow vegetables with regenerative practices, this is the first year we’ve integrated flowers into the mix. 

Sarah Nelson is our flower farmer apprentice, and her work is a shining example of our commitment to education, community engagement, and setting new and beginning farmers up for success. The flowers she cultivates are not only beautiful but also a testament to the hard work and dedication embedded in our Farmer Apprentice Program.

While food crops are vital for feeding communities, adding flowers can provide a plethora of ecological, economic, and social advantages. Here are three key benefits of incorporating flowers into your small farm business.

1. Supporting Pollinators

One of the most critical roles of flowers in agriculture is their contribution to pollinator health. In fact, did you know that about 35% of the world's crops are made possible thanks to pollinators?! (Modern Farmer). Pollinators, such as bees, butterflies, and other insects, are essential for the reproduction of many plants, including many of the fruits and vegetables we rely on. By planting flowers, farmers create a more inviting environment for these creatures, which helps to:

• Increase Biodiversity: A diverse range of flowers not only supports pollinators but also attracts other beneficial insects. This diversity can lead to a balanced ecosystem within your farm, decreasing reliance on chemical pesticides and promoting natural pest control.

• Enhance Crop Yields: With more pollinators visiting your farm due to the flowers, crop pollination can improve, leading to an increase in fruit and seed production. This is especially beneficial for crops that require insect pollination to reach their full potential.
  
  

2. Increasing Farm Viability Through Diversification

Diversification is a tried-and-true strategy for ensuring the long-term success of a farm. Especially now with the effects of Climate Change being felt in different ways every season, farmers are at greater risk than ever of losing entire crops. By adding flowers to your offerings, you open up a new revenue stream, which can enhance the viability of your farming operation. Here’s how:

• Expanded Market Opportunities: Flowers can be marketed to various audiences, from local florists and event planners to individuals looking for beautiful fresh-cut flower bouquets. Plus you can integrate a Pick Your Own (PYO) option, bringing folks to the farm and having them (with the proper direction) pick their own bouquets! This model is fun for the visitors and cuts back on labor for the farmers. 

• Seasonal Offerings: Different flowers bloom at various times throughout the year, allowing farmers to extend their growing season. By staggering crops and offering a range of flowers, you can capture sales opportunities in different seasons and attract customers looking for different kinds of blooms throughout the year.
  
  

3. The Social and Emotional Benefits of Flowers

Beyond the economic and ecological advantages, flowers bring significant social and emotional benefits to both farmers and the community. In a world where mental health struggles are on the rise, the role of flowers cannot be understated:

• Aesthetic Appeal: Flowers add beauty and vibrancy to the farm, creating an aesthetically pleasing environment for anyone who visits or even just drives by! This can enhance the overall experience for visitors, encouraging agritourism and farm events, and creating lasting memories for families and individuals.
  
  

• Emotional Well-Being: Researchers have found that flowers increase feelings of happiness. A study from Harvard reported that "living with cut flowers strengthens the feelings of compassion and kindness for others." Mel Robbins says "flowers represent the fragility of life" and so help us to live fully into each precious day. When you're looking for a meaningful gift for a special occasion - whether it's a birth, a death, or anything in between - what comes to mind? I'm sure, for many of us, it's flowers. By cultivating flowers, farmers can create a space that not only benefits the ecosystem but also uplifts the human spirit, fostering a sense of community and connection
  

It’s midsummer and we are absolutely delighted with the flowers that are flourishing at Baby Beet Farm here at the Kearsarge Food Hub, and thrilled to watch Sarah learn and grow alongside them. 

We are exploring and seeing for ourselves how embracing these colorful additions can create a thriving, sustainable farm.

Incorporating flowers into a small farm business is more than just a trend—it's a multifaceted approach to enhance ecological health, diversify income streams, and enrich the emotional experience of both farmers and our communities!

The stunning bouquets Sarah’s been crafting are available at Sweet Beet Market, and of course evolve from week to week as the flowers in bloom change through the seasons. Come on in to see (and smell) for yourself!

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Top 5 Soil Building Practices on Sweet Beet Farm

This Earth Day, we want to talk about one of our favorite topics here at the Kearsarge Food Hub  - SOIL!

We spend a lot of time, energy, care, and love nurturing our soil on Sweet Beet Farm - a foundational program of ours here at KFH - because it is the most essential building block for growing nutritious, delicious foods that feed our community. When it comes to soil, we always want to give back more than we take.

This is time and effort well spent and much needed, now more than ever.

Why?

Because across the globe, and particularly in developed countries like the US, we’re suffering from a major crisis of soil loss. In fact, we’ve lost over a third of the world’s topsoil in the past 150 years due, in large part, to the irresponsible and harmful practices of industrial agricultural - like monocultures, using heavy machinery, and leaving the soil bare - that cause soil erosion and nutrient depletion at alarming rates.

Soil loss not only compromises our ability to grow food, but it also compromises natural systems that would otherwise be in balance, like the carbon and water systems. Soil that’s bare and eroded releases carbon into the atmosphere (while rich, healthy soils and flora ecosystems have the ability to store huge amounts of carbon). Soil erosion and compaction leads to increased runoff, reduced infiltration, water pollution, and more, affecting the availability, quality, and distribution of water resources.

There is also an enormous economic cost to soil loss. According to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, in the United States soil erosion has caused an estimated $44 billion in economic losses since the 1980s due to crop loss and other economic byproducts of soil loss.

Of course, where there’s challenge there is also opportunity. Improving soil health can increase crop yields by 20-50% while reducing the need for fertilizer and pesticide use. 

So how can we improve soil health?

This is a main question we’ve been exploring on Sweet Beet Farm for the past 8 years, and we’ve come up with a short list of 5 essential (and not at all unique to us!) soil-building practices for any sustainable farm. 

Let’s dig in!

1.Keep the soil covered.

Tarps in action covering beds on on the farm.

Keeping the soil covered is a primary tenet on Sweet Beet Farm, and indeed for any farm that practices sustainability. Covering the soil prevents soil erosion from wind and water, helps retain moisture, and prevents weeds. All of this makes life on the farm much, much easier.

We have a running joke on Sweet Beet Farm that tarp is the employee of the month, every month (of course, the people working on the farm are the actual heroes of the month, every month!). Without complaint, tarp covers the soil for us when and where we need it. We use a black plastic tarp (there’s actually a lot of plastic used on modern farms, an area where there’s room for growth and finding alternatives when possible), which gets heating by the sun, kills weeds, and keeps the soil warm and moist.

Other than tarp, cover crops keep the soil covered, with the added benefit of contributing nutrients back to the soil. Some common cover crops, like peas,  “fix” nitrogen which they mean converting atmospheric nitrogen into usable “food” for plants (aka they make fertilizer!)

2. Minimize soil disturbance.

The broad fork in actual for its second most important use - playing music.

On the farm we try to disturb the soil as little as possible because we want it to thrive with its own complex ecosystem of worms, microbes, and other living things! 

To do this, we practice minimal tilling and minimal soil compaction. We don’t use big tractors or till deep into the soil. When we need to, we use a hand-held tractor called a BSC, to till up the soil just enough for planting, or other use a broad fork to losen soil in the beds for planting (which happens to double as an instrument).

Permanent raised beds on Sweet Beet Farm.

We also utilize a permanent raised bed system. This means we have permanent planting space, which is mounded soil 30 inches wide and 100 feet long (which are the dimensions that allow us to easily work in the beds and make the best use of our tools), and designated walking rows to prevent compaction of the soil where we grow.

3. Adding / maintaining lots of organic matter. 

Adding organic amendments for soil fertility.

The plants we grow need lots of food to be as healthy and packed with flavor and nutrients as possible. Adding organic compost to the soil boosts fertility and maintains a good texture. Compost can come from animal manure, garden clippings, leaving plants to decompose in the fields, wood ash, and more. 

We’re on a journey to generate our own compost here on Sweet Beet Farm. This way we can bring in fewer inputs from external sources, like organic fertilizers and manure, and build a closed loop system where we take farm waste to create our own soil fertility.

4. Crop Rotation.

Tomatoes planed alongside lettuce.

One extremely harmful practice of the industrial food system that’s responsible for high levels of soil loss and nutrient depletion is monoculture. 

Monoculture means planting just one crop in the same space, over and over again. Driving through the midwest United States, for instance, you’ll see corn planted as far as the eye can see. This is incredibly damaging to the soil in the long term.

On regenerative farms like Sweet Beet, we grow a diverse set of crops and practice crop rotation, making sure that crops are planted in different spaces throughout the farm from season to season, planting to planting. This means we aren't pulling the same nutrients out of the soil by keeping the same things planted in the same space.

Different crops not only pull nutrients from different soil layers but they also provide different benefits to the soil. Radish roots can help to aerate, for example, which makes it more able to hold moisture and easier to plant in (among other benefits).

5. Mimicking nature as much as possible.

Essentially, all of these practices in particular and the foundational ethos in general for a sustainable, regenerative farm is to mimic nature whenever and however possible. Natural systems inherently possess the wisdom of how to maintain balance or restore balance when it has been thrown off. We learn from nature that soil is a central key to maintaining balanced, healthy ecosystems on the land. 

Soil works best when undisturbed and teeming with life. Interestingly, when you employ sustainable soil building practices on the farm, largely by promoting and protecting its natural vitality, you automatically reduce risks like pest and weed pressure. The system becomes more balanced and resilient, meaning there’s less chance for one thing to wipe out an entire crop.

And when it comes to the food we eat, it’s only as nutrient dense as our soil is. Not every carrot is created equally! Healthy, thriving soils yield highly nutritious - and flavorful - foods for generations to come.

Sweet Beet Farm in mid-summer, surrounded by forest.

What’s the takeaway? Soil is powerful and it needs our attention and protection!

At this point, on Sweet Beet Farm we’re beyond the pursuit of sustainability and into the realm of regenerative soil building practices. That’s because we’re not just trying to sustain - we’re trying to regenerate, rebuild, and renew soil to the most vibrant possible state. We hope you’ll join us however you can, because the future of life (and delicious, farm fresh foods) truly depends on it.