Flower Talk

We have offered flowers with the CSA shares for as long as we have been farming, at first for everyone and then as an optional add-on. We have always enjoyed having flowers to feed the soul while the vegetables feed the body. We like being able to provide an organic alternative to the extremely chemical intensive flower industry—why should we poison ourselves and our planet just to add a little beauty to our lives? Especially now, with so many flowers coming from Central and South America where workers are being exposed to chemicals and conditions that are not allowed in the United States, it’s nice to support a local family farm with good labor practices and protections. The Thomas Farm has been growing organically for over 35 years, and is now run by second-generation farmer (and Steve’s cousin) Josh Thomas.

For as long as we have been offering flowers as an optional add-on we have had occasional problems of flowers walking off with the wrong subscriber. We know that 99% of the time this is simply a mistake. The story we most often hear when these unintentional flower-nappers come forward is that the member sent their spouse/child/neighbor/friend to pick up their CSA box that week and that person assumed that the flowers came with it. Unfortunately this means that the member who paid for those flowers doesn’t get them and the farm has to refund or credit the money they paid us for them. This is a lose-lose situation, and we don’t have a large enough profit margin to take a loss on the flowers. We have had more than the usual smattering of missing flower reports during the last session, so we thought we’d try something a little different.

Starting this week each flower bouquet will have the member’s name on a sticker attached to it. Please be aware of this change and check the bouquets for the one with your name on it if you get flowers. If you are not a flower subscriber, please make sure that anybody you send to pick up your share knows that.  And if you are one of those who accidentally took home a bouquet that wasn’t yours, it’s never too late to fess up! We understand how it happened, really, and you can save us some sleuthing work.

OK, enough griping, here’s the good news. The flowers are looking especially lovely lately, and maybe you’d like to get a bouquet now and then even though you did not sign up for flowers every week. You can now do that! Just go to our web store the day after your pick-up and order a bouquet for the next week. You can also order a bouquet to be delivered every other week if that works better for your schedule or budget; this has to be done through Sarah—a quick e-mail to csa@highgroundorganics.com will do the trick.

Enjoy your flowers!