Read an Excerpt
Introduction
My mom and I speak to each other through the flowers we grow. The joys and triumphs of our flower fields and bouquets are etched into the smile lines around our eyes, and each late frost that hit our spring flowers or gopher that found our tulips has added a wrinkle to our furrowed brows. We gawk over seed catalogs together, wondering whether new flower varieties would fare well in our growing zone. We harvest together early in the morning. We dream the same dreams of snapdragon fields, mixed bouquets, and fragrant wreaths.
My mom, Dru Rivers, has been growing flowers on our farm since 1984. In the beginning, Full Belly Farm grew mostly organic fruits, vegetables, and nuts, but my mom believed that organic flowers were equally important to the sustainable food and local farm systems in the United States. She saw what it meant to care for the pollinators by planting flowers. She enjoyed seeing the transition from seed to bloom and loved being able to pass on her enthusiasm for the natural world to her children. So she experimented with flowers until she knew how and when to plant each seed and learned what grew well in our dry, hot climate. She would bunch sweet peas on our kitchen floor after her four kids had gone to bed so that the flowers would be ready for market and orders the next morning. Slowly her passion for growing flowers grew into more than just a hobby, and her love for flowers was contagious. She ignited a desire for locally grown flowers in all the stores to which Full Belly Farm sold, and, as the years went on, the farmers’ market customers begged for more. So my mom started growing on an acre plot of land, increasing slowly year after year. As her babies grew, so did her small flower-farming operation.
I was always uniquely intertwined with the flowers that my mom grew. I slept in harvest boxes as she weeded and harvested out in the flower fields. I spent the earliest parts of my childhood roaming through her garden, watching her experiment with growing flowers, learn to trellis rambling sweet peas, and dry her own flowers; she began to imprint a deep love for flowers and farming into my hands and heart. I built fairy houses and foraged bouquets and flower crowns with the flora I found on my adventures around our farm.
Over the years, the small, old garage that had belonged to the previous farmer of the land became the room where my mom experimented with drying extra flowers for wreaths and bouquets for the fall and winter. This was my favorite place to spend afternoons. I would gaze in awe at the colors, textures, and smells that hung from the ceiling’s beams. I made my first wreath when I was about four. I learned the techniques by watching my mom and her friends work to make wreaths for the markets where they sold their flowers and produce. I practiced for years and years, and even though my first wreaths were lumpy and misshapen, my mom hung them with pride in our house—just as my grandma had done with my mom’s first wreaths.
My love for flowers has endured. I moved away for college and eventually moved back to our farm to begin my floral business. My adoration has not wavered even as my relationship with my mom changed from simply mother-daughter to best friends and co-workers. And now, after years of working with flowers in the field, arranging fresh flowers for countless weddings and events, and learning the art of dried flowers through trial and error and lessons passed down from friends and family, I hope that I can impart some of my love and knowledge of flowers to you.
Within the pages of this book, you’ll find stories, recipes, and inspiration from a year of growing, drying, and arranging with dried flowers at Full Belly Farm. We have compiled two generations (my mother’s and my own) of knowledge on which flowers dry best, when to harvest each bloom to receive the best outcome, and what to create once they are dried. I explain the tools and foundation that you will need to create your own space to dry flowers, and I share lessons we have learned along the way. The third part of this book is devoted to all of the amazing things that you can create with dried flowers. You’ll find small arrangements for every day, beautiful wreaths for every season and occasion, and celebration showstoppers that will look beautiful in the moment and for months to come.
This book is meant to instruct, inspire, and encourage you to dry your own flowers and begin to live with them intrinsically. Dried flowers have a way of connecting us to the past through sights and smells that remind us of the special moments of our lives while simultaneously allowing us to create something that will last far into the future. Overall, I hope to impart even a small amount of what my mother gave to me: a lasting love for flowers.
