Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Ep.24: How To Use Dried Flowers To Cultivate Everlasting Beauty With Full Belly Farm's Hannah Muller
2.2k Plays1 year ago
Have you ever wondered about the art of drying flowers and creating stunning arrangements that last a lifetime? In this episode of the Backyard Bouquet Podcast, we have the pleasure of hearing from Hannah Muller, a cut flower farmer located in the beautiful Capay Valley of Northern California. Hannah shares her journey from growing up on Full Belly Farm to becoming a wedding farmer-florist to shifting her focus to dried flowers. We explore the process of drying flowers, the best conditions for drying, and the importance of harvesting at the right stage.
Plus, get a glimpse into Hannah's newly released book, "Designing with Dried Flowers," which offers 32 unique arrangements that capture the enduring beauty of dried flowers. From everyday wreaths to breathtaking celebration pieces, Hannah teaches us how to craft these beautiful arrangements ourselves, whether from a backyard garden or a simple supermarket bouquet.
Tune in to today’s episode to discover the secrets of preserving the fleeting beauty of flowers into something permanent and the joy of connecting people to the earth through Hannah's work.
In This Episode You'll Hear About:
- 00:02:29 - Hannah's Journey to Writing Her Book
- 00:03:05 - Growing Up on Full Belly Farm
- 00:05:01 - College Years and Return to the Farm
- 00:06:11 - Transition to Wedding Flowers
- 00:09:05 - Impact of COVID-19 on Wedding Industry
- 00:10:55 - Writing the Book on Dried Flowers
- 00:13:10 - Personal Stories and Inspirations in the Book
- 00:14:46 - Evolution of Flower Growing at Full Belly Farm
- 00:18:19 - Incorporating Dried Flowers into the Business
- 00:22:46 - Tips for Drying Flowers at Home
- 00:32:07 - Sunflowers and Other Dried Flowers
- 00:33:56 - Inside the Wreath Room
- 00:38:19 - Favorite Dried Flowers and Techniques
- 00:39:17 - Harvesting and Drying Techniques
- 00:41:28 - Experimenting with Drying Different Flowers
- 00:43:10 - Importance of Harvest Stage for Drying
- 00:45:13 - Outlets for Selling Dried Flowers
Learn More About Hannah:
- https://www.instagram.com/farmerhands/
- https://www.instagram.com/wreathroom/
- https://www.instagram.com/full_belly_farm/
- https://fullbellyfarm.com/
- Designing With Dried Flowers Book: https://amzn.to/4bADBC1
***Rate, Review, & Follow The Backyard Bouquet***
If you enjoyed this episode, will you please consider leaving the podcast a review? Your review helps make the podcast more discoverable to others and allows me to continue creating more episodes. I'd love to know what you enjoyed most about the episode.
New episodes coming every Tuesday to help keep your garden blooming!
Sign up for newsletter: https://thefloweringfarmhouse.myflodesk.com/nlw4wua8s3
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Backyard Bouquet Podcast
00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome to the Backyard Bouquet podcast, where stories bloom from local flower fields and home gardens. I'm your host, Jennifer Galitzia of the Flowering Farmhouse.
Jennifer's Journey to Flower Farming
00:00:12
Speaker
I'm a backyard gardener turned flower farmer located in Hood River, Oregon. Join us for heartfelt journeys shared by flower farmers and backyard gardeners. Each episode is like a vibrant garden, cultivating wisdom and joy through flowers. From growing your own backyard garden to supporting your local flower farmer,
00:00:32
Speaker
The backyard bouquet is your fertile ground for heartwarming tales and expert cut flower growing advice. All right flower friends, grab your gardening gloves, garden snips, or your favorite vase because it's time to let your backyard bloom.
00:00:54
Speaker
Hey flower friends, welcome back to the Backyard Bouquet podcast.
Guest Hannah Moeller Introduction
00:00:58
Speaker
Today we're incredibly fortunate to have Hannah Moeller with us, the visionary farmer and florist from the heart of Northern California's Cape Valley. Born and raised on the vibrant Full Belly Farm, Hannah's family not only cultivates on over 350 acres of certified organic fruits, vegetables, and flowers.
00:01:20
Speaker
But Hannah also brings these elements of nature into homes in a lasting way through her stunning dried flower arrangements.
Designing with Dried Flowers: Book Discussion
00:01:29
Speaker
In her newly released book, Designing with Dried Flowers, Hannah invites us into her world with 32 unique arrangements that capture the enduring beauty of dried flowers.
00:01:41
Speaker
From everyday wreaths to breathtaking celebration pieces, she teaches us not just to appreciate the aesthetic of dried flowers, but to craft them ourselves from all sources, whether a backyard garden or a simple supermarket bouquet. Today, Hannah will be sharing her insights on preserving the fleeting beauty of flowers into something permanent and the joy of connecting people to the earth through her work.
00:02:07
Speaker
So get ready to be inspired by a true pioneer who transforms cut flowers into an everlasting beauty. Hannah, welcome to the podcast. We're so thrilled to have you here today. Thank you so much. You make me sound so official. Well,
00:02:23
Speaker
You are. You just released a book. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. It's been such an amazing journey. I have been dreaming about writing this book for such a long time and I got to hold the copy in my hand for the first time and it was unbelievable, that feeling. That's incredible. Well, congratulations. I'm really looking forward to talking to you today about your book and your book is coming out, I believe, the same time that this podcast is launching.
00:02:53
Speaker
On June 4th? Yes, June 4th is the official release date. So tell us, how did you get your start with dried flowers?
Family Influence and Organic Farming
00:03:03
Speaker
Well, like you said, I grew up at Full Belly Farm. My mom has been growing flowers for all 40 years that Full Belly Farm has been growing. But it started very small, just a small little backyard garden.
00:03:18
Speaker
that she has grown over the course of the last 40 years. So now we grow about 15 acres of cut flowers. And the dried flowers sort of happen naturally as we grew more flowers, we had a little bit of extra to try drying, and we tried dabbling in things that we grew specifically for drying. We just created a little shed in the back
00:03:43
Speaker
of our farm and we use that space to dry. And it's always been my favorite spot on the farm from a young age, like found myself sort of wandering into that space. It's a little bit like my cathedral and it's a, yeah, beautiful spot. And that's sort of how I got started. I think I made my first wreath when I was about six years old or five years old. So it's been in my blood for a long time.
00:04:11
Speaker
That's incredible. So it truly is in your blood. You have been around flowers your entire life.
Teenage Rebellion to Flower Devotion
00:04:17
Speaker
Yeah. For all of those moms that are raising kids in the flowers, just know that it rubs off on your kids.
00:04:28
Speaker
Well, I have a nine-year-old, and I always wonder, I'm like, is she going to grow up hating flowers? Or is she going to grow up loving them? And I hope it's until later. Yeah, there was definitely a little bit of the angsty teenage years where I didn't think I wanted anything to do with full belly. But as soon as I went away, actually to Oregon, I realized that what we have here is really, really unique and really special. And I missed it incredibly. And so I decided to come back.
00:04:57
Speaker
What were you doing up in Oregon? I was going to school and studying sociology and anthropology, but I really fell in love with the student farm there. It's a really unique place. It also happened to coincide with the sort of same time that a lot of this low flower movement was just beginning. And I remember picking up a book called, I think, The 50 Mile Bouquet by Deborah Prinzing. And it was
00:05:25
Speaker
It was a very transformative book for me because it was just reminding me that like there are amazing people growing flowers in all different ways and it was a very inspirational moment where I kind of took a look at our farm and also what I wanted to do and realized that there was some beautiful coexistence that could happen with arranging flowers and the flowers that we were already growing mostly for wholesale at that point.
00:05:56
Speaker
So you grew up on the farm, left for a while, came to University of Oregon. Yeah. Yeah. And then after college, did you immediately head back home to the
Venturing into and Burning Out of Weddings
00:06:08
Speaker
farm?
00:06:08
Speaker
I did, I was pretty angsty and even my, to get back and even in my senior year, I had already booked about four or five weddings for like right after college. So I moved back and I sort of jumped headfirst into the wedding industry. So that's what I was doing first. I was arranging flowers for weddings and events
00:06:34
Speaker
I did about I did that for about six years and I was doing weddings in all of Northern California the Bay Area and on our farm as well and It kind of burnt me out to be honest I feel like the wedding industry was is a is a really beautiful and awe-inspiring place, but also one that is It you need to be fully fully present and in love with it or else you get tired of it real quick and
00:07:04
Speaker
Yes, I was a wedding photographer, which is how I found flowers. And now I provide DIY buckets for bride and grooms and couples. And I also wholesale my flowers. But that was part of my shift is stepping away from the wedding photography into flowers because you're on, if they book you nine months in advance, you're getting emails for nine months from that couple. It's not a one and done delivery.
00:07:30
Speaker
Exactly. And I was realizing that I wanted more of my day to day to be in the flowers rather than the consultations leading up to it. How did you start doing the wedding flowers? Was that something your farm and your family was already offering or did you start that yourself?
00:07:47
Speaker
It was a pretty sweet deal because my brother and his wife had a catering company that was using our produce that we used at the farm or that we grew at the farm. And we just sort of decided to start offering flowers for events as well. So they were, you know, suggesting that folks
00:08:08
Speaker
use my flowers and then we have a pretty good brand recognition just because we've been growing for 40 years so we just announced that we were doing flowers for weddings and events and it's always been something that people have been interested in getting our you know our flowers that are usually for CSA or for farmers markets but
00:08:27
Speaker
people have been requesting wedding design, but we've never really dabbled in it. So that was something that I wanted to do. And that's sort of how it got started. And it just sort of, you know, snowballed from there. I think so much of the wedding industry, as you probably know, is word of mouth. So as soon as I was getting referrals, just more and more business came my way.
00:08:49
Speaker
That's so true. Word of mouth is so crucial in the wedding industry. If you do a good job for someone, you're going to get 10 more referrals. Exactly.
00:08:59
Speaker
How many years did you do weddings or are you still doing weddings? I did them until COVID. I was doing that exclusively and I was doing about 35 weddings a year, which included some DIY buckets of flowers and then also some events, doing some non-profit event work and things like that.
Pandemic Shift to Farm Operations
00:09:22
Speaker
Yeah, I was doing that up until COVID. And then I'm sure you're aware the COVID sort of just really brought the wedding industry to a grinding halt. And so I had a moment of just like all 30 of my weddings got canceled within a couple of weeks. And it was a really like,
00:09:41
Speaker
Okay, what am I going to do? And luckily, my business is sort of under the umbrella of Full Belly Farm. So I had a business to fall back on, but also I could sort of continue to work with flowers, which was really great. So I've been doing more of the day-to-day harvesting, arranging, and the bouquets for our farmers markets and our wholesale customers. And then we have six weddings here that we host at our farm.
00:10:07
Speaker
a year and so I've been still doing the wedding design for that but I'm no longer currently taking on outside weddings and it's for a lot of reasons. I feel like from a sustainability standpoint just driving so much.
00:10:23
Speaker
was getting really expensive and taxing. And then also just it was, yeah, I was definitely burnt out and I needed a little break. And I have a feeling I'll come back to it. I really love weddings, but I've been really happy with just scaling back for a little bit. And it came at a great time because I was writing a book.
Writing the Book: Inspiration and Process
00:10:44
Speaker
So when did you start writing this book or how did the book come to be? Did you all of a sudden one day wake up and say, I'm going to write a book on dried flowers?
00:10:52
Speaker
Yeah, I think that I've had this dream to write about our wreath room, which is what we call the room that we dry our flowers, for probably six or seven years. And I even wrote some of the first chapters of it and some of my ideas down at that time. And then I
00:11:14
Speaker
sort of it became a more of a dream and a little bit of a you know this maybe this will never happen and and then I actually went to the slow flowers um uh like meet up at falloli gardens like two years ago three years ago I guess that would have been and I met um an agent who has been really wonderful and she helped me create a proposal
00:11:38
Speaker
And it was a very serendipitous moment because she was looking for someone to write about, book about dried flowers and I had always wanted to write this book. So yeah, and then it kind of naturally fell from there. I mean, we wrote a proposal, it got accepted by Clarkson Potter, which they've been wonderful. And then we have been working with a wonderful photographer based out of San Francisco for the book. So yeah, it's been a really, really,
00:12:05
Speaker
great process and I was so scared entering into it you know like you have so many ideas of what the right the you know writing sort of author industry this whole thing where like you have these like idea that this editor is like hounding you for pages and I think it's mostly movies but it's been such a seamless beautiful process throughout the whole thing. So from start to finish how many years have you been working on this book?
00:12:31
Speaker
We started the proposal in 20... That would have been 2021, I believe. Yeah, 2021, I think. Or 2022. So it's been a multi-year. A multi-year. I'll have to look back on that. I'll send you the actual dates.
00:12:54
Speaker
I bet it's all blended together and sort of been a blur because I know that so much goes into writing a book. It's not just taking some beautiful pictures and putting a recipe for your photos on it.
00:13:07
Speaker
Yeah, and I really wanted it to be a personal sort of memoir in a lot of ways because just growing up at the farm, I felt like I had a lot of wonderful stories to tell. And I also wanted to do my mother's work and her legacy that she's sort of left behind. I mean, she's still here, but left for us is I just wanted to do it justice. And so I took the writing process really seriously and wrote everything and
00:13:36
Speaker
I'm very happy with how it turned out. So even the introductions to the different arrangements are all very personal and tell a really great story about growing up on a farm.
Childhood Memories and Floral Legacy
00:13:50
Speaker
Can you share one of those stories with us or give us a glimpse into one of the stories in your book? Yeah, one of my favorite arrangements is it's a mix of fresh flowers and dried flowers. So sort of showing how you can incorporate fresh and dried together. And it's a arrangement out in the middle of our flower fields that I kind of am calling the flower fairy set table. So it's a little bit of a take on one of my childhood
00:14:19
Speaker
favorite activities was to create flower fairy picnics and extravaganzas in my mom's garden. So it's definitely I tried to bring a lot of that like joy and playful energy into the book as well. Oh, I love that. So the farm has been around for over 40 years. Has there always been flowers on the farm?
00:14:44
Speaker
There has been, but again, it was probably a quarter of an acre, maybe even less to begin with. And it was just my mom trialing things like learning that, you know,
00:14:57
Speaker
Iris can be really finicky and sweet peas are beautiful, but need trellising and snapdragons will bend if you don't stake them. So there was a lot of trial and error that went into probably the first 15, 20 years, to be honest. And then slowly it's ramped up as I'm the youngest of four. So she was also taking care of four kids.
00:15:22
Speaker
And so as her kids grew, I think her garden grew a little bit each year. So it's been a, yeah, slowly moving forward and getting a little bit bigger and a little bit bigger. We grow about 15 acres of cut flowers now. They're all outside and that's not, you know, all 15 acres all the time. It's about five acres of spring flowers, five acres of summer flowers, and then five acres of fall flowers as well.
00:15:52
Speaker
even dividing it by the seasons, just five acres is a lot of flowers.
00:15:59
Speaker
It's a lot of flowers and it's beautiful. We may be over plant because we know that we love to dry flowers and we love pollinators and we just want to attract as many beneficials to our farm as possible. So we know that some will not get harvested, some will get harvested for drying and then we will harvest as much as we possibly can.
00:16:23
Speaker
And we're really fortunate to have a lot of acreage. Other folks are working with a lot of smaller scale. So we're constantly sort of rotating where our flowers are grown at our farm. And we're sort of doing a lot of crop rotation and also cover crops to sort of keep the nitrogen and soil really healthy. That's great. And what do you do with all of those flowers?
00:16:51
Speaker
Where do they go? Yeah, where do they go? Okay, so they go mostly to Northern California and we work with a couple of different distributing companies that send our flowers to different stores, but then also we sell directly to stores and restaurants in Sacramento and in the Bay Area.
Full Belly Farm's Market Presence
00:17:15
Speaker
And in San Francisco and then we also go to three farmers markets a week and we bring you know Flowers are a small small thing of what we do here at the farm. So like you said, there's 350 acres or growing fruits and vegetables So we have a farmers market where we sell all of the things that we grow including flowers and then we have a CSA and the CSA subscription can get a add-on of a bouquet of flowers and then
00:17:44
Speaker
We're selling, yeah, directly to stores as well and directly to customers as well. That's amazing. That's a lot of outlets you have, but you have so much. Yeah. And we have so many wonderful clients that have been working with my mom and my dad and our farm for almost all 40 years. And so like a lot of our co-ops, local co-ops love supporting us and just have really consistent orders over the years.
00:18:12
Speaker
That's great. Have dried flowers always been a part of the mix?
00:18:17
Speaker
They haven't really been as big of a mix. To begin with, my mom was growing flowers, drying flowers just to have a little bit for additional income and activities for the fall and winter. And then slowly, as she had a few more interns and folks that were interested in ramping up that production, it has grown a little bit.
00:18:45
Speaker
I would say in the last 10 years, it's really taken on a whole new like life of its own. And it's it's been really amazing to see it sort of progress. And I have tried my best to help it so that we're not only offering reads, which is what we were just offering our our beautiful reads, but they're very time consuming. So we now offer dried mixed bouquets and then also single varieties as well.
00:19:13
Speaker
Do you do dried bouquets and dried flowers year-round or is it seasonal?
Dried Flower Techniques for Beginners
00:19:17
Speaker
It's seasonal for us and part of that is just timing. It makes sense to only work with dried flowers when we don't have any fresh flowers. Another reason we do that is because we want to employ our employees year-round
00:19:35
Speaker
And so we look at our dried flowers as a big season extender and to keep our employees year employed year round. So we have eight women that work specifically with the flowers and we can employ those folks year round because of the dried flower program.
00:19:53
Speaker
And it's been amazing and I just, I've always had this just like huge crush on dried flowers. They are such a unique way of showing everlasting sort of love and I just love them as a gift. I love them in my home because they're so low stress and less mess. So yeah, it's definitely something that I've just always enjoyed.
00:20:19
Speaker
That's great. Now, earlier in our conversation, you mentioned that you have a recipe for a bouquet that is part dried and part fresh. Can you put those dried flowers in water?
00:20:32
Speaker
So I wouldn't recommend it. Generally, so this that this arrangement was using chicken wire as a base on the as kind of like a garland base and then adding dried flowers into that and then using a couple of vases for the fresh flowers interspersed with that.
00:20:50
Speaker
I have included dried flowers in bridal bouquets, but I like to add them the day of the wedding and I cut their stems shorter so that they're actually not sitting in the water because they'll start to rehydrate and they'll tend to look a little bit droopy.
00:21:07
Speaker
Oh, I would have not thought of that. So if someone was interested in drying flowers for the first time, what advice would you give to them? Where should they start? Yeah, I think just taking a look at an inventory at what you already are growing. So even on a small scale, if you're growing status or dusty miller or some of these other eucalyptus things that
00:21:33
Speaker
You might not think as of as dried flowers but make really great filler and dried flowers, I would just recommend experimenting with the flowers that you're already growing and taking inventory of that.
00:21:46
Speaker
I would also recommend investing in a clothes drying rack, a wooden clothes drying rack because it's a great way if you're just starting out to hang dry flowers and it's, you know, you can take it down, you can move it around. So it's a really simple way. You don't need an entire wreath room to dry flowers. You can do it very simply and in a small area in your house.
00:22:11
Speaker
So that's what I would recommend for somebody who just wants to try dabbling. And if you aren't even growing the flowers, you can also look at things that are at your local, you know, stores or also at your farmer's markets as well. There's a lot of flowers that are used in everyday mixed bouquets that make great dried flowers, like baby's breath or status as well.
00:22:32
Speaker
I love drying status. You can't see where we're chatting, but to the side of me, I have a wooden clothes drying rack and it's covered in status. Oh, I love it. That's so great. Yeah, it's just so great. I love making wreaths with it and also babies, or not baby's breath, I don't grow that. Dusty Miller. Yeah. I have a whole crate, a tote full of it next to me. How long can you store dried flowers for?
00:23:01
Speaker
We try to use all of our dry flower inventory the same year that we grow it and dry it because I mean you can you know they will last many many years but the rodent interest and also bleaching like sun bleaching can get a little bit
00:23:20
Speaker
You know, you just need to be really mindful of where you're storing them and making sure that they're staying away from mice or other interested critters. So we try to use everything the same year that we dry it, which means we're going
00:23:35
Speaker
through a lot of product. We have two shipping containers that we try to jam pack full of boxes of dried flowers and so we're taking down all of the flowers that are hanging in the wreath room and probably rehanging them about I want to say like 30 times.
00:23:53
Speaker
And then we are storing those in shipping containers. Some of the larger things like Nigella or wheat, we don't put into boxes, we actually put into big like watermelon bins, like the cardboard watermelon bins, and we store them that way. So yeah, we're like field mice. We're like trying to gather all of these little bits and bobs until the fall, until we're ready to use them.
00:24:21
Speaker
That's amazing. So if someone here is listening and doesn't have experience with dried flowers and they have a cut flower garden, do they need to plant differently to start flowers that they're going to be using to dry?
00:24:36
Speaker
Yeah, I think like I said earlier, I think just taking inventory of what you're growing, try drying, you know, one of each bunch of what you're already growing and seeing if you like it. Like marigolds and renunculus, we didn't know that those dried really beautifully until a couple of years ago. And so I think of dried flowers in two different ways. I think of things that you grow specifically for drying and things that you are already drying
00:25:04
Speaker
that you want to, sorry, already growing that you want to dry. So the things that you're growing specifically for drying might be things that like a lavender or a mobium, straw flower, a halypterum, things like that, that maybe you're not interested in using as a fresh flower, but you want to just save for your dried flower sort of inventory.
00:25:30
Speaker
And then things that you already are growing for drying, like we dry actually a lot of zinnias and sunflowers. And that sort of came out of just we had a lot of those things. And so we tried drying them and realized that they dried really beautifully and made great accents in dried mixed bouquets. That's incredible. So you had no idea that it would work, but you gave it a shot. Yeah, I call it dryeling.
00:25:57
Speaker
Driling, I love that. That's a great term. Are there any flowers that don't dry well?
00:26:07
Speaker
Yes, of course. Yeah, I think that even within like something like Solosia Coxcomb, you think, oh, everything's going to dry beautifully. There are certain colors that don't dry well. So yeah, definitely experimentation. I mean, my new book goes over all of the flowers that we dry. And that's 40 years of information. And it has tips for when we harvest each thing and how to sort of get the best
00:26:36
Speaker
end product. So that's a really helpful resource. I also think just like taking a look at other dried flower growers, like Charles Little and company, they're a great resource. Just people that have been doing it for a really long time, because those are the folks that have tested it and know what works, what doesn't work and what stage to harvest things at to get the best end result.
00:27:02
Speaker
Uh, Bethany from Charles, she came to the Pacific Northwest cut flower growers meetup. I hope I said that correctly. It was, I think two years ago that I had the chance to go and she did a dried flower workshop there. And that was where I saw her wooden drying rack and I said, Oh my gosh, what a great idea. And so that summer I dried, I have four totes sitting behind me of dried flowers that I will actually they're from last summer, but I need to get them used up before.
Handling and Storing Dried Flowers
00:27:31
Speaker
They're probably too crumbly to use.
00:27:33
Speaker
Well, there's a trick to that too as well. So a lot of folks, I think their biggest fear is that dried flowers can be really hard to work with because they're so brittle. But if you have a dried flower or if you have a flower cooler or even a refrigerator, we put our flowers just back into our flower cooler in the boxes. We don't put them in water or anything, but it actually helps absorb just a little bit of moisture and makes them a little easier to work with.
00:28:03
Speaker
just for like a day or so, just putting them back in the cooler. But also, I mean, it depends on where you live. Folks living in the Pacific Northwest or somewhere where it's more humid might not have that issue. Actually, they might have the other issue, which is dried flowers being a little bit too moist and needing to let them dry out even a little bit more.
00:28:28
Speaker
Okay, but if you have ones that are really dry and brittle. Yeah, you could put them in the cooler where there's high humidity. Exactly. Soften up. I'm going to try that because I've been wanting to make a wreath with my status. I had all the colors of the rainbow.
00:28:41
Speaker
Oh, great. Yeah. But it just keeps breaking on me. So maybe that will soften it enough that I can use it. Yeah, status is one of those things that can be really tricky to work with if it's too brittle. So yeah, try putting it into the cooler or just putting a wet paper towel or like a wet towel over it for, you know, six hours before you use it. It will really help. I'm going to totally try that. That's exciting. Yeah.
00:29:07
Speaker
What about drying the flowers? I know I've heard that there's certain places you're not supposed to dry them. What are your recommendations and advice for drying flowers? So our room is pretty bare bones. It's nothing fancy. So if you have a garage or an outbuilding that you want to try, the thing that you need
00:29:29
Speaker
to make sure is that it's very low light. Because as soon as dried flowers start seeing light, they will start to fade. So unless you like that look, some people like the sun bleached. And that's like, if that's what you're going for, actually all you would want is sun. But if you're wanting to preserve the color, which is what I have sort of tried to showcase in my book is just all of the amazing color that you can get with dried flowers.
00:29:58
Speaker
You'll want sort of the darkest room, but also a room that has good ventilation. So if you do want to try drying in a garage, just make sure that that garage door stays open a little bit or that there's a few windows or doors open so that there's a little bit of ventilation that will help with the drying process. Folks that live in a more humid climate might want to try having a fan on
00:30:24
Speaker
or a dehumidifier on in that zone. Okay, so if I want the bleach look, I could hang them in my greenhouse, but if I want to preserve the beautiful color, I need a dark space with ventilation. Exactly. Yeah, we tried drying things in our greenhouse this year and certain things like Nigella.
00:30:43
Speaker
we had like a green potted Nigella. It was actually really great in the greenhouse and did really well. Other things like we tried to dry safflower in the greenhouse, which generally safflower is this beautiful, vibrant green, but being exposed to so much sun really bleached it out and you weren't, I wasn't able to get that same dark, beautiful green. So just being wary of like what you, like wheat, you might not,
00:31:10
Speaker
need to worry about it preserving its color. So that might be a good option for drying in a greenhouse. Gotcha. And is there a certain amount of time that flowers need to dry? Yeah, it depends on the flower and depends on your location. So we are very fortunate. We're in a very hot, dry location, so almost ideal for drying. So things in the summer take about a week to dry for us.
00:31:37
Speaker
Right now, it's more like almost a month to dry something because it's not quite hot enough yet. So also just figuring out when your peak drying season is going to be. So you might know that your hottest season is between June and July, and that's when you're going to be doing the majority of your drying. Gotcha. And on the cover of your book is a whole bunch of sunflowers,
Drying Techniques for Sunflowers
00:32:04
Speaker
correct?
00:32:04
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, that was such a fun shoot. We actually shot so we shot each season at the farm and in the wreath room. And so we went in the glossary and my in my one of my favorite parts of the book is this beautiful glossary where we go over all of the different flowers that we grow to dry.
00:32:23
Speaker
And then there's an opener for each season of the wreath room during that season. So that was summer. The cover is summer and very bright. You can sort of see all of the light coming in through the windows and it's a beautiful scene. And yes, we grow a lot of different varieties of sunflowers, some that dry better than others. And we grow a variety called Vincent's Choice.
00:32:50
Speaker
I love that one. Yeah, that seems to dry really well. That's actually not the sunflower that's on the cover of the book though. And the one that's on the cover of the book does dry well, but it doesn't dry as well as Vincent's choice. And so I was thinking because like sunflowers have really thin petals. Are the petals super fragile once they're dry?
00:33:15
Speaker
They don't, especially with the Vincent's choice, they don't seem to be very fragile. They kind of curl up and they turn this like almost gold that I just love. It's not actually like that bright yellow sunflower, it's almost a gold. And it's hard to use in wreaths because, you know, sunflowers are large and their necks are very rigid. And so using those in wreaths can be tricky, but using them in dried mixed bouquets is really great.
00:33:43
Speaker
That's wonderful. Thank you for those tips. And for that story you've mentioned several times, the wreath room. Take us inside the wreath room. Tell us about it. So it's about a 40 by 20 foot room and it's tiled on the floor and it's got exposed beams and it's a very funky old wooden garage that was, it predates when my parents bought the farm.
00:34:12
Speaker
And it actually has this big giant garage door that opens with a big spring. It was before the invention of garage door apparatus. So it's a really weird, beautiful place.
00:34:32
Speaker
All we've done is just hang 14 gauge floral wire or it's actually baling wire across the beams from eye hooks every I want to say every foot or so across the entire building and that's what we use to dry our flowers and we just do it very simply we attach them with rubber bands
00:34:57
Speaker
and then let them dry. They're usually a mess right now. It's a huge mess because we haven't quite started drying in full for the season. So it's a little bit of a mishmash of things from last year and things from this year. There's usually seeds all over the floor and
00:35:17
Speaker
you know, bits and bobs and dried flowers and things that I can't seem to part with, like straw flower heads scattered all around. So it's a really beautiful spot. And like I said, one of my favorite places in this entire world. But it's also a very functional, very farm, real space. That's amazing. It sounds like a really unique spot to be in. So you literally have all of your dried flowers hanging from the ceiling.
00:35:47
Speaker
Yes, yep, they're all hanging from the ceiling. And then when we run out of room on the ceiling during like May and June, we also bring in the clothes drying racks that I was talking about. And last year we did have an overflow of in the greenhouse as well. Wow. It was a little crazy. I mean,
00:36:10
Speaker
It was beautiful. And we went through all of the flowers except for a bit of Nigella is left from last year. So yeah, we're people are just loving it. They're loving the dried
Sustaining Local Interest with Dried Flowers
00:36:22
Speaker
flowers. And I think one thing I wanted to mention in terms of the slow flower movement and local flowers is just that
00:36:31
Speaker
It's so sad to me that like during the fall and winter, for the most part, local flowers kind of go out the door because there isn't as many local flower options. And so for us, having a dried flower option is a really great way to keep our name and our brand in stores, but also keep people's interest in local flowers going throughout those, those slower seasons as well.
00:36:58
Speaker
That's a great point. Yes. Um, I always say when people ask me, what do you have blooming right now? I'm like, we'll look outside when it's the winter. I have, I have nothing just like you, but, um, that's always been a goal of mine to be able to build up my dried flowers. So I'm really looking forward to getting your book so that I can glean some information and hopefully expand my, um, dried flowers. I grew Nigella for the first time this last year. Yeah.
00:37:25
Speaker
And I did dry that one and I really love it. There's just so many great dried flowers. Do you have a favorite dried flower?
00:37:34
Speaker
Oh boy, I love straw flower. There's just something about it that's just really versatile. It's so easy to use in dried mix bouquets, but also makes a perfect gift if it's just a straight bunch of straw flower in a beautiful color. And then it also is just so fun to work with in wreaths and add such a great focal pop.
00:37:59
Speaker
I also have a huge soft spot for silosia
Improving Drying Processes
00:38:03
Speaker
and we grow, because we're so hot, we grow a lot of it and the variety and just like the colors and the velvety texture is just one of my favorites.
00:38:17
Speaker
Now I have a question with both of those. I really like drying both of those. They both have little leaves up and down the stems. When you're drying them, do you leave those leaves on or do you have to completely strip the stems to dry them?
00:38:32
Speaker
We strip everything about halfway up the stem. Yeah, we're not stripping them completely, but we're stripping them probably about halfway up the stem. Just to make it so that the rubber bands, there's not moisture where the rubber bands are being attached to the bundle. It helps with the drying process and helps make those stems not turn like that sort of funky brown color.
00:38:58
Speaker
And then you leave them after it's dry on there. Yeah, we do. Yeah, I know some folks are a little bit more particular about their stems being completely clean, but yeah, we're too big of a farm to try to worry about that for each one.
00:39:15
Speaker
To be honest, I think that's one of the things that's kept me from doing more is just the amount of time consuming little things. So knowing that I don't have to take off all of those leaves feels really freeing to think, oh, I could take those and dry them. Yeah, definitely. And one of the greatest things about dried flowers too is just you don't have the same time constraint.
00:39:35
Speaker
um that you do with fresh flowers like fresh flowers you're harvesting first thing in the morning before it gets hot and you know you want them to be at that like peak sort of closed stage but with dried flowers you really have a little bit more flexibility about when you're harvesting during the day as long as you're hanging them sort of right away and then also um just you you catch them at a different point when they're more open more mature so it's
00:40:02
Speaker
It's a great balance and also just sort of experimenting with things that you don't sell or things that come back from a farmer's market as well. So we've actually started drying a lot of our mixed bouquets if they come back from a farmer's market because we can find that we can use them as a dried mixed bouquet. And that's a lot of, you know, we dry a lot of, we grow a lot of things that work as dried flowers and fresh flowers like status and safflower as well.
00:40:31
Speaker
I love that. That's such a great idea because I did a pop-up this last weekend. And of course you always want to bring enough that at the end you're not short. Exactly. But then you have those that you've been out of water. They've been in the sun and the heat. Well, not out of water, but they've been out of the cooler. And so then you can't resell them again, but if you could dry them.
00:40:52
Speaker
It's giving things a new life. And we really look at our dried flowers as like a value added product. So we're taking something that may not have otherwise had as much of a value in adding value to it. So yeah, it's a great way to be a little bit more mindful and sustainable about those things that you may have otherwise discarded or composted or given away.
00:41:20
Speaker
I love that. Okay, we're coming off of tulip and daffodils season. Have you ever dried tulips or daffodils? We experimented this year with drying some double daffodil or double tulips and double daffodils actually. The daffodils I think dry beautifully. They're a little crumbly. I think it will take a little bit more experimenting with I think yellows often dry better than white.
00:41:46
Speaker
And then with the tulips, we did dry some, they're very crumbly as well. We'll see after we rehydrate them how they do. I think that certain things just tend to shed their petals more than others. So yeah, tulips are one of those things where you'd think that they'd be such a beautiful dried flower, but unfortunately, I think they just tend to shed their petals a little bit too much.
00:42:13
Speaker
I accidentally left one out two nights ago and I just found it this morning and it was pretty dried up and shriveled. I was thinking, I wonder if it could dry or if it would just, because it really shriveled up compared to some dried flowers, it just start to harden. Yeah. The other thing that I've noticed is we have some that are drying and because those stems are so thick and so
00:42:38
Speaker
like filled with water and moisture, it takes a really long time for them to fully, fully dry. And so just to be double checking when your dried flower is, you know, when you think it's done to really make sure that that neck is actually all the way dry or else you're going to be putting things away that have a tendency to mold. Okay. And what about stage of harvest? How important is it to harvest at a certain stage?
00:43:07
Speaker
I think it's very important and that's why I try to go over in the book I try to go over you know examples for when we harvest each thing and little tips of the trade because again it's a lot of trial and error and figuring out what stage you like things at and then also just yeah knowing that there are a little bit of tricks to each thing
00:43:31
Speaker
Okay, so in the book, we can read about each variety of flowers. You break it down by variety. Yes, I actually break it down into focal flowers, grains and grasses, and foliage and filler, and then I go over each of those things for each season.
00:43:48
Speaker
Oh, that's amazing. So I have to ask, my favorite flower is a dahlia. Can I dry my dahlias? You can try. We don't grow dahlias. They don't love our water. I think we have too much salt or boron in our water. So unfortunately, we don't have much luck with it, but I know folks that do dry them. And I think similar to a tulip, you want to just catch them at that right stage and then just make sure that those stems are fully dried because they are pretty thick.
00:44:18
Speaker
Right. Okay. Yeah. So what if I've had, if I harvest at the beginning of the week and I have a cooler full of flowers by the end of the week that I haven't sold, can I take those out of the cooler and dry them or do they need to come straight from the field?
00:44:34
Speaker
You can take them out of the cooler. The stems, I would give them a new recut and actually cut them above where they were in water, just so that that moisture doesn't continue on while you're trying to dry. But yeah, things that have been in the cooler, we will often, you know, if we have too much of something, we'll try drying it. But definitely cut those stems again above the water line.
00:45:00
Speaker
So what do you do with your dried flowers once they're dried? Are you wholesaling them, retelling them, sending them in your CSAs? What's your outlet for dried flowers?
Marketing Dried Flowers
00:45:11
Speaker
It's a little mixture of both, or all actually. We started off doing mostly wholesale reeds and direct to consumer reeds, so at our farmer's markets. And that's been really wonderful for us.
00:45:27
Speaker
The wholesale market is really tricky because you aren't able to get the price markup that you might need in order to really make a profit off of dried flowers. The majority of our dried flowers and reeds go to farmers markets where we have a really loyal customer base where we have been
00:45:48
Speaker
sending these reeds to the farmer's markets for the last 40 years. And people love gifting them. And so they come back year after year to gift reeds as their holiday gift. We also do have a CSA add on of dried flowers and dried reeds in the wintertime as well. Oh, that's amazing.
00:46:10
Speaker
What about if someone lives away from you? Can they go online and order one of your wreaths or dried bouquets? Unfortunately not, for a couple of different reasons. One is we are
00:46:26
Speaker
It's very supportive of our local industry. And so we want our flowers to stay as local as possible, including dried flowers. So while it's very tempting to ship our dried flowers, I think we have a really amazing customer base that's local and we kind of want to give them first priority.
00:46:48
Speaker
And another reason is that we don't really have the quantity that is required for that whole process. And so we've thought about definitely ramping up our production, but that's a whole nether ballgame. And our farm, while it's big, it's actually still pretty small in our whole managerial team. So trying to think of adding an entire shipping department is a little bit terrifying, to be honest.
00:47:19
Speaker
I can understand that I ship dahlias for about two and a half, three weeks a year. Oh my goodness. And I feel like I become my own shipping department and I sometimes I think, oh, I need a team for this because it's so labor intensive. Totally. And so people that are listening that want dried flowers, can we recommend that they search like local flowers?
00:47:39
Speaker
Don't worry, then go find some dried flowers. Yeah, definitely. I mean, I know Charles, I'm going to just tell them one more time, Charles Little and company does ship and they have beautiful dried flowers. So if you're interested in a really great company that ships local flowers, that is one of them. But yeah, definitely experiment with, you know, researching the growers in your area and seeing if anybody grows dried flowers or try experimenting growing your own.
00:48:08
Speaker
Perfect.
Celebrating Floral Artistry and Community Engagement
00:48:10
Speaker
What else can our listeners find in your book or what do you want to highlight that I maybe haven't asked you about your book? Oh my goodness. I think that, so the designs are really wonderful. I am so proud of them. It took two years of arranging and we make our reads in a really unique way and we have
00:48:32
Speaker
Some amazing artists here, our flower team, and I highlight all of their different personalities and also also their different ways of making reads so I tried to honor them and all of their artistry as well so
00:48:47
Speaker
I wanted to highlight that and then also just the fact that I do have an amazing tutorial in the book on how we make our reads. So if you're interested in learning how we get our really full, really thick based reads, I go over all of that in the book.
00:49:05
Speaker
I think that's, I mean, and then also just that the book is really for everyone. It has a little bit of something for somebody who's never dried flowers, that wants to experiment with, you know, designing just a few in their home. And then the last sort of section is celebration. So it's really big grand gestures like arches and sort of exploring the the grander things that you can create with dried flowers as well.
00:49:33
Speaker
Amazing. So whether you're a backyard gardener or a farmer florist or even a florist, you can gather ideas and inspiration from your book. Exactly. Yeah. Awesome. Well, I am so excited to get my copy and try drawing some more flowers this year. I've been very specific with getting some more dusty Miller and status to drive. These are some of my favorites. So where can people find your book?
00:49:58
Speaker
It's now available for pre-order and it should be available anywhere that books are sold. If you like a local bookstore, feel free to go inside and you can ask them to order it or for them to hold it in their store. It should be available anywhere online that books are sold.
00:50:21
Speaker
That is amazing. Well, congratulations. Thank you so much. A great experience and opportunity. And I know that so many people are going to be excited to pick up a copy of your book. Besides grabbing a copy of your book, where can our listeners find you?
00:50:36
Speaker
I run our three social media accounts for Full Belly Farm. So I run the Full Belly Farm Instagram, which is full underscore belly underscore farm. And then I run my own personal more floral filled journey at Full Belly Farm, which is farmer hands on Instagram. And then I have one that's dedicated specifically to the wreath room and drying flowers. That's just the wreath room, sorry, wreath room at Full Belly, or sorry, wreath room.
00:51:05
Speaker
on Instagram. Perfect. I will provide links in the show notes so people can click directly over to each of those different accounts. Our website is fullbellyfarm.com. Thank you, Hannah, for sharing those. Before we say goodbye today, do you have any parting wisdom or advice that you would like to leave our listeners with today?
Advice on Patience and Evolution in Flower Farming
00:51:29
Speaker
I think just take a moment to realize that everything takes time and that flowers and flower farming and your flower journey will probably
00:51:46
Speaker
adapt and change over the course of your lifetime and just to remember that it's a journey and things take a really long time. And we've been growing here for 40 years. It was not something that just instantly happened. Yeah, great things and especially floral filled things take time.
00:52:06
Speaker
I love it. That's a beautiful reminder. Well, Hannah, it's been such delight chatting with you. Thank you for sharing your dried flower knowledge with us. Thank you, Jennifer. I'd love to leave the door open and ask you to come back on the podcast again, maybe when you're writing book number two. Thank you so much for joining us and happy gardening. Have a great day.
00:52:30
Speaker
Thank you Flower Friends for joining us on another episode of the Backyard Bouquet. I hope you've enjoyed the inspiring stories and valuable gardening insights we've shared today. Whether you're cultivating your own backyard blooms or supporting your local flower farmer, you're contributing to the local flower movement, and we're so happy to have you growing with us.
Supporting Local Flowers and Podcast Subscription
00:52:52
Speaker
If you'd like to stay connected and continue this blossoming journey with local flowers, don't forget to subscribe to the Backyard Bouquet podcast. I'd be so grateful if you would take a moment to leave us a review of this episode. And finally, please share this episode with your garden friends. Until next time, keep growing, keep blooming, and remember that every bouquet starts right here in the backyard.