For Terri Barr , making the leaping from civic engine room technician to blossom raiser was a natural move . She had farming in her rake , a lifelong making love for gardening and a desire to work outside .
The result is Wild Lark Farm in Claremore , Oklahoma , which she lead off in 2018 and is building from the ground up . She ’s maturate specialty and heirloom flowers – mums , old - school lilac and helianthus among them – on about an acre of the 40 - acre spread where she dwell with her husband and their three minor . It ’s a former cows pasture with clay - like soil that she ’s slow transubstantiate into an constitutional , sustainable growing operation .
But her path to becoming a flower farmer , and earn Certified American Grown status , is definitely collateral .
She maturate up on a farm in Kansas where her family grew corn , straw , milo and soya bean . She went to college in Oklahoma and graduated with a stage in internal intention . But instead of designing rooms , she went to make for as a technician in a civil engineering firm . She put her drafting acquirement to exercise in designing substructure – weewee argumentation , toilet lines , parking batch .
But despite working for a company she liked and with “ fantastic ” colleagues , she knew she want to be alfresco . The turning point came in 2017 when she attended a floral shop in the Mount Vernon arena of Washington . It was there that she found what she was await for . She was with efflorescence people from all over the United States and savor discover their stories . Everything about it was a good fit .
Photos provided by Wild Lark Farm .
“ This is what I require to feel . This is perfect , ” she recalls think at the fourth dimension . “ There was really nothing like that in Oklahoma . So when I came back here I just decided to give a go . ”
As a daughter of sodbuster , she knew what she was getting into .
“ I did n’t go and start this farm with the idea that this is going to be amazing and I ’ll be dancing in peak every mean solar day , ” she say . “ I knew it was going to be heavy employment . It ’s red-hot and humid and when it rains , it rains too much or it does n’t rain enough . So , I knew belong in that this is punishing . ”
But it ’s where she ’s find fulfillment .
“ Last yr was the first year I really increase what I was turn and really put myself out there . I just wanted to gauge how much interest citizenry had , if they were receptive or if they believe it was just the craziest idea that they ’d ever hear . But hoi polloi have bonk it . That ’s been really positive . ”
She got her first customer by walk into a fresh flower store shop in Claremore with some of her flower in a pail .
“ I said , ‘ These flowers are just for you to use . If you wish them , smashing . ’ And I give them my card . They loved them and they posted them on Instagram . ”
The reply was almost immediate . Three florists in Tulsa who saw the Instagram stake make out to her to demand if she sold to other multitude . Her reply : “ Yeah , sure . ”
Those florist have given her a substructure in the door and something to build on . In the meantime , she ’s building an organic , sustainable operation .
Although she could take up on her agriculture backdrop , she have it away she could n’t farm like her parent . Practices had evolved and she was adamant about it being organic .
“ For one , I have child and I do n’t want all the chemicals and the pesticides out there . I want people to be able to walk out there and be able-bodied to touch and can reek everything . So they sleep together what they ’re getting is the real deal .
“ And since I ’ve work so firmly to get my soil in good precondition , I require to ensure that it ’s sustainable . ”
In addition , she feels an obligation to Oklahoma custom to leave the land better than she find it .
“ One of the catchword in Oklahoma is ‘ Keep the land chiliad , ’ ” she said . “ hoi polloi are really conscious that we humans are n’t here forever . You want to keep the land nice , you require to keep it sustainable for masses who come after you . A lot of the great unwashed here have that mindset of make it salutary than you found it . So , that ’s what I endeavor to do . ”
Three to five years down the route , she would like to have a farm she can partake with the public .
“ What I would really love to do once I get things set up is to open it up and make it accessible to mass . Not necessarily a you - choice affair , but just so multitude can come out and physically bask it , to see how it mold and see where flowers come from . ”
She postdate other farms on Facebook and Instagram and sees that many of them keep their operation close to the public .
“ I get that it ’s hard to do what you have to do and have masses around . At the same , I want to be able to apportion as much as I can . I do n’t want my farm to be closed off . There ’s so much out there , there ’s so much peach , that I just desire to divvy up as much as I can . ”
For more information : American Grown Flowers916.441.1701[email protected]www.americangrownflowers.org
