Texas Specialty Cut Flowers

Sorry for the break, there was a lot of farming to attend to upon my return from San Antonio but I wanted to give you the second half of the trip.  The morning after our excellent board meeting we hopped on a bus and headed for Blanco County and the home of Pamela and Frank Arnosky and Texas Specialty Cut Flowers.  If you do not live in Texas, or are not a cut flower grower you might not know that Pam and Frank are LEGENDARY.

They started farming in Blanco in 1990 and have steadily built their business, reputation and carry the banner for BUYING LOCAL.   It was a thrill to be invited to their farm and to hear a little about their story first-hand.

We met in the big blue barn and treated to a gorgeous breakfast Texas style--local, fresh, delicious.  Frank was mostly in charge of an excellent slide presentation, with Pamela right there with any corrections or clarifications.  They are a great team. 

After more food and time to meet and mingle with ASCFG folk from all over North America we walked the farm with Frank.  Such gracious hosts, we were invited all over their farm, Frank sharing stories, tips and tricks and information gleaned over a life time of farming.  The greenhouses were in rough shape as they were hit with 60 mile an hour winds and nearly destroyed just a week prior to our meeting.

This is a transplanter.  It rides behind the tractor and two people feed the seedlings from these seats--wistfully I ran the idea by the big boss but as he reminded me, we do not transplant hundreds of thousands, just thousands.  So it's back to hands and knees for Bindweed.

Pamela was our hostess through the greenhouses and processing area.

They transplant almost everything and germinate their own seedlings, so they are in constant production.  It made me exhausted just contemplating the scale--Texas size!

Naturally all these buckets were clean and organized--until the wind re-arranged them.

One of the gems was Pamela's processing presentation.  She is the Goddess of Bouquets--to watch her in action is a revelation.  Texas Specialty Cut Flowers provides hundreds of local, home grown and hand assembled bouquets each week.  When asked, Pam said her record was 45 bouquets in an hour.  These folks really work.

ASCFG members are always there to lend a helping hand.  Pam is nurturing some tiny goats and Betsy Hitt of Peregrine Farm, was doing double-duty here.

And this is our own fearless leader, Judy Laushman, executive director of ASCFG aka the Goat Whisperer.

Who knew?