Tiny Hearts Farm

Organically Grown Flowers in the Hudson Valley

Photo Journal

Buoyed by positive attention in the press, despite feeling underwater at work; Flowers only available at the shop this week

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First, let’s start with the good news! The COVID19 pandemic (…how’s that for a segue?) certainly did knock the wind out of our sails, but somehow, we’re still afloat and growing flowers for our beloved customers.  Reporter Cara Parks spent some time with us this spring and wrote a lovely feature in Bloomberg Pursuits on the effects of the pandemic on our family farm along with some of our colleagues aboard the local flower movement.  Ahoy there!

Tiny Hearts Farm featured in Bloomberg Pursuits this week:

Farmer complains about weather; media takes note

Last week we spoke about the challenges we’ve been facing at the farm due to excessive rainfall.  Well, it appears we’re not alone: this Albany Times Union’s article details what local area farmers have been dealing with as the precipitation has reached epic proportions over the past month.  The tremendous rainfall accumulations mean we’ll be facing shortages not only due to crop failure but also an inability to work in the fields.  My favorite part is towards the end of our call as I was laughing deliriously while saying, “maybe it’ll stop raining…” Yes, It’s true.  I’ve truly lost my mind at this point.

We’re taking a moment to recover and to let the fields drain. Flowers only available at the Tiny Hearts Flower Shop this week.

If you average it out, we’ve received about a half inch of rain a day for the past month.  We’ve had standing water in the field for weeks now and the flooded areas are increasing their footprint with each deluge.  More troubling is that the topography of our main fields seems different, I assume, due to erosion.  Our main field, which was once flat, is newly intersected by a stream. So, that’s the bad news.  We’re hoping things turn around this week, but we’ll need to navigate these choppy waters nevertheless, by hook or by crook.

As a result, we’re not able to offer flowers for pre-order at our flower shop this week (we won’t be able to forecast availability the way we usually do).  Also, we aren’t accepting any wholesale orders this week.  We’re very sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

CSA pickups to continue this week as planned!

Despite the inclement weather, we’ll still be able to pull some beautiful bunches out of the field, although not in the large quantities we’d normally expect at this point in the year.  We’ll have flowers for all of our “Curated Flower CSA” members to pick up this Friday as usual.  While flexible CSA members won’t be able to pre-order their flowers this week, we still encourage you to stop by the flower shop Thursday through Sunday to select something beautiful from the showroom floor.  Thank you for understanding.

Soldiering on through the new normal of erratic weather.

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We’re trying to buck up around here and see past these weeks of punishing rainstorms, and to look forward to epic plant growth and abundant blooms…but it’s not easy right now. For that to happen we first need to get plants in the ground and mount a heroic battle against the weeds (…turns out they like the rain). With acres of flowers in the ground we’re pretty reliant on using a tractor to get most of our work done – making beds, planting, and weeding – and flooded aisles and muddy bedtops make it impossible to get the tractor out in the field without doing damage.

Above: The tremendous amount of rainfall recently has kept us out of the fields at a time of a year when things can get away from you fast.  Our dahlia crop, while growing well, has been submerged despite our raised bed system.  The rain keeps the tractors out of the field—the tires on the heavy machine will sink in the mud and damage the field— while the weeds keep growing.

While we’ve only been farming a relatively short time in this area (10 years), we’ve seen increasingly erratic weather including heavy rains, long droughts, damaging storms, and both early and late frosts.  These increasingly frequent weather events endanger small family farms and the livelihoods of the community of growers who manage them.

Above: Well established perenniel Echinops seems to be enjoying the rain!

But what can we do except soldier on?! We’re grateful that our fields drain exceptionally well and we’re hoping that the weather mellows out over the next few weeks as there’s at least a few sunny days in the forecast! Also, we are tremendously grateful for YOU, our thoughtful and supportive community of florally-enthusiastic customers who have been there for us rain or shine.  So thank you! Here’s to sunny days!!!

So you’re planning a wedding…we can help!

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Our 25-acre organic flower farm is the heart and soul of our wedding design business. We take inspiration from what’s blooming in the field leading up to your event, so your farm-grown wedding flowers are, by nature, truly unique to your wedding day. 

As a couple of bootstrapping farmers at heart, we’ve committed ourselves to providing our organically-grown flowers and green wedding design services to couples on any budget.  With this in mind, we offer three options:

  1. D.I.Y. (Do-It-Yourself) Bulk Buckets – Order buckets of loose cut flowers at near wholesale prices; for those who wish to bring a creative, personal element to their wedding, and to keep within a tighter budget by creating their own arrangements.  We offer design classes to help get you ready, and supplies, too!
  1. By the Piece Wedding Menu – Ordering your wedding flowers the fun and simple way, with per-item pricing and lots of pictures. Choose from a menu of all of our offerings; bouquets, centerpieces and more!  Simply select your items and options right on our website, schedule your pickup or delivery date at checkout, and you’re done!
  1. Curated Event Design – Work together with our design team to create truly memorable custom florals to match your vision.  Each event is unique and involves a detailed consultation, proposal, and a design team on-site for day-of installation and next-day breakdown.  

Our Curated Event Design services begin at $20,000. Please contact us to schedule a consultation appointment.

No matter which direction you choose, with Tiny Hearts flowers you’ll be sharing in our commitment to sustainable growing practices and green wedding design, fair and equitable treatment of our farmers, and support of our local agricultural community.  In our opinion, knowing your flowers are grown close by helps to create a fresh, vibrant, and fun wedding day that you can truly feel good about.

Curated Flower CSA has BEGUN! Many spring flowers are now at peak, and the weather has been, well…

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“BREAKING NEWS: Farmer complains about weather” might be a little more apropos for this week! The truth is, farmers really do have a deep connection to the weather for one simple reason — it REALLY affects us.  We lost a good amount of our larkspur crop after the nearly 4″ of rain over the past few days knocked it down.  Same for some of the poppies.  The wet fields also change our workflow; soggy fields mean we can’t get out to transplant or weed with the tractor until things dry out (the tires sink into the mud!).  There’s always wet years and dry years, and then there’s some — like this one — where you seem to get a little bit of everything!

Pickup Reminder: 10-Week Curated Flower Share Begins Tomorrow!

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Well, it’s been one hell of a year and we’re happy to report that everything’s coming up daisies, well…not quite daisies exactly, but pretty close! Tomorrow (Friday, July 2nd) begins our “Curated Summer Flower Share” and it’s well timed with the beginning of our peak-season.  Jenny and the gang have put together some beautiful, meadowy and wispy arrangements of Scabiosa ‘Fama’, Ammi ‘Green Mist’, Agrostemma ‘Ocean Pearl’, and Matricaria ‘Magic Single’, complemented by a contrasting stem or two of field foliage which we’re particularly fond of.

This is just the beginning of our seasonal journey! We’re so grateful that you’ll be with us as we romp through the fields each week selecting the flowers that we find particularly striking and emblematic of the farms’ most interesting and unique materials.  It’s our hope that as you enjoy your weekly flower share  — which may take the form of a mixed arrangement or an armful of an abundant single variety — that you’ll also find a connection to the time and place that they’ve bloomed. Each week, a unique and surprising ephemeral delight, which we hope you’ll enjoy in the vase as much as we do in sharing our organically grown farm-flowers with you!

Pick up your flowers on Friday at the Tiny Hearts Flower Shop in Hillsdale anytime we’re open, between 10:00 and 4:30pm.  Don’t worry if you miss your pickup on Friday, we’ll gladly hold your flowers for you to come grab them on either Saturday or Sunday.  Lastly, if you cannot pick up your flowers for any reason, please feel free to gift them to a friend, just have them give your name to our shop keeper when they arrive.