Saturday, June 17, 2023 | Country Acres • Page 1
Country Acres Saturday, June 17, 2023
Volume 10, Edition 09
Focusing on Today’s Rural Environment
Spreading
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Zinnias abound at Honeydew Fields in St. Cloud and Sauk Centre. Owner Leah Bischof aims to provide blooms that have a long vase life and a fresh color palette.
Boutique micro flower farm inspired by infertility BY SARAH COLBURN STAFF WRITER
At 18-months-old, Eve Bischof toddles about the fifth of an acre of land that makes up Honeydew Fields in St. Cloud and Sauk Centre. She plucks weeds from the soil, grabs at flowers, sprinkles seeds and watches alongside her mom Leah Bischof. This is the second year Honeydew Fields, a boutique micro flower farm, is growing and selling flowers. From sunflowers and lisianthus to ranunculus, peonies, dahlias, snapdragons, larkspur, pincushions, strawflowers and rudbeckia, the farm has a little bit of everything. Leah bundles the flowers into bouquets to serve her weekly or bi-weekly Fresh from the Field subscription customers. She also provides wholesale flowers to florists and floral designers. On the farm, Leah focuses on regenerative farming as the farming and flowers quite literally regenerated her. Originally, she grew vegetables in her garden, but after reading about the benefits of pairing
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Publications bli ti The newspaper of today is the history of tomorrow.
them with flowers, she found a new passion. The focus came at a time she and her husband Brad were struggling with infertility and she put her energy into the garden, finding solace in the work. “Flowers ultimately became this beautiful thing in a not-so-beautiful situation,” she said. “They were this thing that brought so much joy to me in a time that was just not fun at all.” Now, she said, she’s growing flowers to bring joy to others, and she works side-byside with Eve. “I want to teach her the life lessons that growing up on a farm taught me,” Leah said. They grow a lot of the flowers from seed, and others they sow directly in the soil. Leah said they carry the transplant seedings outdoors to harden off and then, eventually, get things in the ground. “I’m more focused on working with Mother Nature directly,” Leah said. “A common question I ask myself is how would Mother Nature fix
Honeydew page 2
This month in the
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Leah Bischof and her daughter Eve plant together in a bed at Honeydew Fields. Eve can often be found sowing seeds, planting and picking flowers.
COUNTRY: Watch for the next edition of Country Acres on July 15, 2023
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Parade Season Tiffany Klaphake column
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A trail of painted patchwork Staples
16 Strawberries Galore Albany 21 Country cooking Villard 20 Quoth the raven Nancy Packard Leasman column
22 Planning a place with purpose Herman 25 Like father, like daughter Randall