Dream Acre Flower Farm

12/14/2024

Just a friendly reminder that December is not a race :)

Have you ever stopped to think about how when you act hurried, you automatically feel more hurried, which just feeds the vicious stress cycle of never feeling like you have enough time or space to breathe?

I know you have a lot going on (hello, holiday season!), but take a minute and internalize the following today so that you can go into this weekend with a mindset that will set you up to be present and your best self rather than stressed and harried:

✅ "I have enough time today to do what matters most"
✅ "There are happy moments in store for me today"
✅ "I have time right now -- and every time I remember -- to stop and take a deep, calming breath"

Your weekend has some beautiful things in store for you -- now go out and find them!

Love you, friends 🩷

12/13/2024

True story: This custom order was delivered not only with a side of chocolate from Candies on Main, but also with my husband and I singing an impromptu two-part jingle of happy birthday on the customer's front porch as we made the delivery.

As we talked with the clients to see what they wanted to give, they gave us pretty free reign on color palette and flowers (always my favorite choice!), but hearing about how much love and affection they had for the beloved grandma they were giving these to for her birthday, we decided that extra love and attention needed to go in the presentation of the flowers as well. So we sang (in two-part harmony, I might add) a very dramatic version of happy birthday right there on her front step (and would be happy to do so again if asked, lol!).

And honestly? The experience proved just as much fun for us as for her, as we got to witness her complete surprise and feel her joy through her tears as she felt so loved and appreciated.

You might think that going into a 5th season doing this, some of the charm has worn off, but it really hasn't. There is nothing I love more than putting together something special with you or your loved one in mind. I think of what might add elements of surprise and delight, both through whimsy and beauty but also through fragrance. I think of what you might be going through, and as cheesy as it sounds, I put a lot of love into each arrangement and bouquet. YOU are my inspiration, and the flowers are just my medium for expressing the beauty I find in all of our connections with each other.

Thank you for letting us be one of your local sources for flowers meant for your dearest loved ones!

P. S. We don't have arrangements available currently as our season is over until spring, but we do still have a few bouquet subscriptions for our 2025 season left if you're wanting to gift one to someone special for the holidays. Check out our shop on our website to purchase one today, or you can DM me directly for details :)

12/08/2024

Here's the thing I've been thinking about -- no one else can appreciate beauty for you: it's something you need to take the time to notice and feel for yourself. Same goes for wonder, or awe, or gratitude.

And the thing about all those feelings is that they are some of the strongest predictors of life satisfaction and emotional well-being. But how often do we sometimes "wait" for them to happen for us? Perhaps for someone else to point them out or plan the trip or buy us the flowers?

I was thinking this week that too often, I wait for someone else to do for me what I can do for myself.

I wait for someone else to make the first (or next) move to deepen a friendship.

I wait for someone else to plan a fun event.

I wait for someone else to buy me something luxurious and beautiful, just because.

Something I want to work on in the new year ahead is to stop waiting around so much for someone else to do for me what I can only do for myself, really -- to sit up and look on with rapturous wonder at the beautiful life that's happening all around me, every day. To not only notice beauty, but to put more of it in front of me. To not only hope for friendship and deeper connections, but to do the necessary work to make it happen.

What's something you want to do more for yourself in 2025?

12/07/2024

We are humbled and beyond grateful to have found out this week that our farm has received a grant from For Farmers so that we can finally buy an industrial grade hand tiller! Matt has been hand tilling our entire farm for years with a super cheap, poorly made tiller we got from Amazon four years ago, and trust us when we say that we are THRILLED for this grant!

Many farmers often have been in it for generations, which means that many large, established farms have no problem getting access to the equipment needed to tend to their operation. Since we are a small, specialty crop operation only growing on about a half acre, it doesn't necessarily make sense for us to invest in something like a tractor yet. There's also the fact that neither my husband nor I grew up as farmers -- we not only had to teach ourselves everything we know, but we've also had to bootstrap every single leg of our flower farming operation in order to scale up.

In most every business, when you're about to grow and expand to another level, there will be a time when your business won't quite have the money to give you what you need, but you need that leg up in order to get to where you want. We have felt SO. MUCH. GRATITUDE. for programs like For Farmers, who make it possible for us to get the (relatively) small amount of funding that has made a HUGE impact on our growth.

I'm so thankful for the individuals, organizations, and opportunities that have made it possible for us to continue growing so that we can more fully start to actualize the big dream we have for our farm. Our farm might have initially started as a side hustle that I largely did for my own mental health, but it has grown into a dream so much larger than anything I could have imagined in the beginning. We have big plans for the ways in which we plan to serve our community now and in the future, and we're so appreciative of everyone who has helped us get to where we are. Thank you for being the good you want to see in the world ❤️

12/03/2024

The long nights and colder days are nature's invitation for us to rest and reflect at the end of a long, productive year.

While January and February tend to be much more of a "grit my teeth and get through winter" kind of thing, I love that in December, the idea of resting indoors is still very much a welcome one, and I also love that the end of the year is an organic opportunity to pause and reflect on all that I've learned and experienced.

Each year end, I've come to ponder a few questions pretty regularly:

✅ What am I proud of myself for doing this year?
✅ What really worked for me?
✅ What didn't?

Taking even just a few minutes to think about my answers to each of these is a valuable tool for going into the idea of a new year with fresh perspective, as well as a great opportunity to feel gratitude for all that I've experienced and the ways in which I've grown.

For me, I'm proud of myself for a lot of things this last year. I'm proud of myself for just running at my dream of flower farming full-time with all I had. There were times I was so tempted to just back off a bit because of how hard it was and how uncertain, but because we forced ourselves to just keep on pushing through, it was amazing how many doors opened up just simply because we kept pushing on.

I'm proud of myself for learning to just express what I really felt in most any situation, rather than on just always going with the polite, expected response (or sometimes no response at all). I'm proud of myself for consistently having the guts to have tough conversations and let myself feel hard things. I wasn't perfect at it (not by a long shot), but I'm so much better at it than I used to be.

Some things that worked for me were continuing to drastically minimize the number of possessions in our home and cutting out dairy and sugar on top of gluten for awhile so that I could get my autoimmune disease finally under control again. Another huge thing that worked for me was starting up our farm's weekly newsletter. I love having that outlet for sharing more of an in-depth look at what flower farming is all about, as well as my headspace about it all from week to week. I love how many people it's allowed me to connect one-on-one with, and since I love writing, it's been a good way for me to do that in longer chunks, too.

I'll perhaps share what didn't work for me in another post, but I'm curious to know -- how would you answer the first two questions? What are some things you're proud of yourself for doing this year? And what are some things that worked for you?

Please do share! I love hearing from you so we can all learn from each other :)

11/29/2024

2025 BOUQUET SUBSCRIPTIONS ARE NOW LIVE!!

It's the gift pretty much every woman wants, and it's available for purchase now! The actual flower subscription starts in April and goes through September, but we give you a beautiful gift certificate to present the recipient so they know what they have to look forward to. We have both monthly options and twice-monthly options available, and we can't wait to surprise you with the beautiful varieties we've chosen for next year!

Our subscription slots are limited, so order soon to reserve a spot!!

https://www.dreamacreflowerfarm.com/shop/subscriptions

Send a message to learn more

11/28/2024

i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday; this is the birth
day of life and love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any-lifted from the no
of all nothing-human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

- e. e. cummings

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone :)

11/28/2024

The older I get, the less "stuff" appeals to me. Perhaps it was starting to run my own home or becoming a mom that did it, but once I basically realized that it was ME managing, cleaning, and keeping track of the lion's share of all the items in our house, my desire to accumulate more stuff has sharply decreased.

I have been on a journey towards becoming more of a minimalist for over a decade, actually, but the last year especially has shown me going much more "all in" about it.

And you know what I've found?

Space to breathe.
More peace.
Waaaay less stress about my house.

And perhaps surprisingly?

Way more TIME.

Time to slow down and appreciate the moments.
Time to devote to the hobbies and pursuits that are life- and purpose-giving for me.
Time to be with my family (instead of feeling like I have to be "cleaning up around my family," if you know what I mean).
Time to appreciate the beauty of everyday life a lot more.

I think for a lot of us, we don't really "need" more stuff for Christmas. But something we could all use a little more of in this world?

Beauty.

In case you didn't know, our 2025 bouquet subscriptions go up for sale on Black Friday at 9 a.m. Call me biased, but I think they're the perfect gift to get pretty much any woman because they only add beauty (not stress), they'll give her something to look forward to month after month, and since each month's offering is so unique from the months before and after, it's such a fun surprise to see what you're going to get each time.

We have subscription options available for both Sanpete residents and we actually do subscriptions up in Bountiful too (our hometown!), and so if you're needing a great gift to go in on with your siblings or to ask your spouse to gift you, this is a great option!

P. S. If you're on our email newsletter list, you'll actually get a special discount code to use this weekend on all subscriptions. If you're not on our email list yet but want to be, go ahead and comment BLACKFRIDAY below, and I'll DM you to get you signed up :)

11/25/2024

2025 Bouquet Subscriptions are now OPEN and available for purchase, and we will once again be offering options for both Sanpete County AND Bountiful! It's the gift that pretty much every woman wants, and you'll love knowing that you've gotten something that not only will be appreciated, but that will also be something to look forward to month after month next year.

https://www.dreamacreflowerfarm.com/shop/subscriptions

Read on for answers to some frequently asked questions about how bouquet subscriptions work!

Q: WHAT EXACTLY IS A BOUQUET SUBSCRIPTION?

A bouquet subscription is where you pay upfront for a certain number of bouquets during our growing season that you then either receive monthly or every other week. It makes a fantastic gift for the person who already has it all, and each month's bouquets feature entirely different flowers, colors, and textures. They're SO much fun for us to put together!

The first bouquet is always a vase arrangement featuring the best of our early, fragrant spring flowers, and subsequent bouquets will all be wrapped in kraft paper (aka, not in a vase).

Q: WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT SUBSCRIPTION OPTIONS?

As in years past, we will have a monthly subscription option that features one deluxe bouquet per month from April to September, and then we have a premium all-season subscription that is for one bouquet every other week. You can either choose to pick up your subscription yourself from our farm (which is the lower cost option), or you can choose to pay extra for delivery, which is a great choice if this is a gift for someone else or if you're particularly busy.

Q: HOW MUCH DO THE SUBSCRIPTIONS COST?

Our Sanpete subscriptions cost $195 for a monthly subscription (6 bouquets) and $365 for an all-season premium subscription (12 bouquets) as the base prices (meaning: if you pick up from our farm). If you desire delivery, that can be added at checkout.

Our Bountiful subscriptions cost $299 and automatically include delivery in that price.

Q: WHEN DO THE SUBSCRIPTIONS START, AND HOW LONG DO THEY RUN FOR?

Subscriptions run for the length of our growing season, so from April through September. Since many people like to give them as gifts for Christmas, we mail out a certificate with each subscription purchase explaining what it represents that you can give to the recipient to get them excited about this gift that will keep on giving next year!

Q: HOW DO I KNOW WHEN IT'S TIME TO PICK UP MY SUBSCRIPTION? OR WHEN IS IT DELIVERED EACH MONTH?

We will be in contact before every pickup date or delivery to ensure that you're able to receive the bouquet at that time. If there is a conflict, we will reschedule so that you can be sure to enjoy each one of your bouquets for the maximum length of time intended. In general, our Sanpete subscriptions usually happen on Thursdays, and our Bountiful deliveries happen on Fridays.

P. S. We do need to limit subscriptions next year because of commitments to other sales outlets we have, so if you're interested in one either for yourself or for someone else, don't dilly dally on ordering! Once all the spots are filled, we're sold out until next season!

Drop a comment below if you have any questions, or tag your spouse/significant other/kids to give them a hint about what you REALLY want this Christmas ;)

11/22/2024

Here's a powerful mindset shift for when you're going through challenging seasons 🧐

Nearly 8 years ago, I was in the ICU waiting room in Salt Lake with Matt, where we were sitting in anxiety and dread as we wondered if my father-in-law was going to pull through or not. While there, I read the book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller, which ended up being very much "right book, right time" for me.

In the intro, Miller says this:

"If you watched a movie about a guy who wanted a Volvo and worked for years to get it, you wouldn't cry at the end when he drove off the lot, testing the windshield wipers. You wouldn't tell your friends you saw a beautiful movie...[in fact], The truth is, you wouldn't remember that movie a week later, except you'd feel robbed and want your money back. Nobody cries at the end of a movie about a guy who wants a Volvo.

"But we spend years actually living those stories, and expect our lives to feel meaningful. The truth is, if what we choose to do with our lives won't make a story meaningful, it won't make a life meaningful, either."

This was the first time I really remember internalizing the power that comes from thinking of our lives as a story we're currently writing. The book is largely about how to make sure we're not putting off our dreams or making meaningful connections and so on, but I've taken a different spin on the idea when times are hard.

When you're in the middle of a challenging season, remember this:

✅ In any meaningful story/movie/book/etc., the hero must go through hard things. He/she must face down the demons, go up to the edge of his/her limits, and have their mettle tested.
✅ When in the thick of a hard and brutal season, remember -- THE STORY DOES NOT END THERE. So when you're really struggling, remember that your story doesn't end here, either.
✅ As the hero of your own story, guess what? YOU get to have a heck of a lot of influence on what the ending will look like. So take a minute and think -- how do you want this challenging spot to fit into the narrative of your life? How do you want it to teach you or refine you? How can you spin this challenge so that you get the triumphant conclusion at the end of this story?

It's a powerful exercise, friends. You need to try it.

(And my father-in-law? We've been counting it as nothing short of a miracle that he is with us to this day, and healthier than before. Such a gift!)

Happy weekend, everyone 😘

11/21/2024

Battle of the Christmas gifts!!

I asked AI to generate the top three most common gifts to give to women for Christmas, and they were (in order of popularity): 1 - jewelry, 2 - perfume, and 3 - clothing (esp. things like scarves, chunky hats, sweaters, and gloves).

The real question is -- how do all three of those compare to receiving fresh flowers as a gift?! (Because as you might know, our bouquet subscriptions for 2025 go up for sale on Black Friday!) 😉

So, here's how you play. Comment below and let us know which YOU prefer in each bracket:

1. Flowers or Jewelry?
2. Flowers or Perfume?
3. Flowers or Clothing?

Let's see if the most popular gifts to receive are actually the gifts that everyone even wants! 😁

P. S. If flowers are your favorite hands down, make sure you tag your spouse/partner/kids and let them know our bouquet subscriptions are what you really want from Santa this year!!

11/16/2024

Now that we're nearly all done with fall planting, are you ready for the overload of pics you're about to get from this last season? 😅😅😅

Fun Fact: Our kids actually help us out a TON on our farm. At the beginning, it was more like, "Yeah, sure, they 'help' us on the farm," but now, we've slowly but surely trained them to be genuinely effective, at least for smaller bursts of time (although our oldest actually can give us a solid couple of hours when we need her to!).
The three older kids all put in solid hours this last week planting daffodils, which is great because kids' hands are the perfect size to put bulbs in the holes made by the bulb auger!

I remember when my oldest was around 2 or 3 and I was putting in all this time to try and train her to do things, but I would sometimes get so frustrated with the process because it was soooooo much faster to do it myself. While sometimes I gave in to my relentless inner drive to hustle and just did it quickly alone (and still give in to that drive nowadays sometimes, let's be honest!), I'm SO GRATEFUL for all the times I took the slower road and taught my kids over and over again when they were super little---it's pretty amazing to be able to finally start seeing the dividends of some of that training now!

Jobs my kids regularly do around here: sowing seeds in spring (both inside in plant cells and directly outside in the soil), transplanting plugs, weeding, running harvested bundles back and forth from harvester to bucket, harvesting simple stems, double checking number of stems in a bundle, planting bulbs, and more. I'm excited to see how their skill sets will grow over the years!

What age did you start noticing that your kids' "helping" became genuine help? (For us, it started to become more apparent around age 5 with a LOT of encouragement/parental discipline still, but then by age 6-8, it seems to start to take off, especially when we're around to lightly monitor still. Nowadays, our 9-year-old is getting to the point she can even do some tasks entirely independently, which feels like we've hit the jackpot!!)

11/15/2024

Hey! Just letting everyone know that interest was high enough that we did end up ordering in another load of mushroom compost (both retail bags and super sacks), so we should be all set to fulfill your compost needs now and in early spring.

(Mushroom compost pictured on the left with the used, tired soil from last growing season on the right)

Remember: It's not too late to plant fall bulbs such as tulips and daffodils! As long as you can get it in the ground, you can plant it. Also, fall is actually the best time to top dress with compost if you can spare the time so that the compost will have all winter to work itself down into your soil and break up all your clay.

11/11/2024

Here's something I want you to know:

Spring flowers require the greatest sacrifice from flower farmers to grow. They are planted in the depths of autumn weariness, after we have spent long, hot days for months on end harvesting and weeding and arranging and selling.

They require the largest upfront cost from us in the price of bulbs and labor, held up only with the hope that we will not only get a beautiful payoff of blooms in the spring, but also customers who love and appreciate locally grown flowers enough to purchase them from us.

With few exceptions (dahlias being one), they are in general the most labor intensive crops we grow, requiring diligent and constant monitoring of temperatures and moisture levels throughout the winter. If we make a mistake and slip up even once, it can sometimes cost us hundreds and even thousands of dollars in lost crops.

These past few weeks, we have dredged up every last burst of energy from our staggeringly tired bodies so that we can plant thousands of bulbs in the ground, dozens more peonies, and hundreds of other perennials. We will spend the next week finishing the planting of our daffodils and our high tunnel, which is where we grow our anemones and ranunculus, among other things.

Every fall, I think I'm insane for doing this.

And every spring, I rejoice in the fact that my fall self was willing to make those sacrifices so that I have beautiful, life-giving blooms to enjoy and share with all of you.

Pictured here are the subscription bouquets that went out this last spring to our all-season bouquet subscription members, who received flowers every other week for the entirety of our growing season. Both our monthly and our all-season bouquet subscriptions open up on Black Friday this year.

(Hint: If you're a newsletter subscriber, you'll receive an exclusive promo code right before that will give you a one-weekend-only discount on all bouquet subscriptions! Comment DISCOUNT below to sign up for the newsletter now so you can get that code when it's sent out.)

11/10/2024

"Winners obsess over action, not results."

This quote by Lys over .education perfectly summarizes an important lesson I've needed to learn over and over again this year.

My whole life, I've been a major go-getter. I love to set goals, make ambitious plans, and take on huge projects and challenges. In general, this is a great thing! It means I've gotten to experience and learn a ton over the course of my life, and I've done many things I'm very proud of.

However, it also means I can tend to become much more results-driven rather than growth-driven. It can also mean that I sometimes feel a sense of failure if the results don't match up to the expectations in my head.

My friend and fellow business owner Kavic over gave me similar advice back in the spring when I was obsessing over our first real Mother's Day sales week. He told me that if I was constantly placing my sense of worth and feeling of success based on external results I couldn't totally control, I was doomed to "fail" just as often as I "succeeded." He encouraged me instead to place my sense of success squarely on things I COULD control -- namely, the actions I could take over and over again to try and influence a more positive outcome and my own attitude towards my work, NOT on any particular number of sales, customer reaction, etc.

This has been game changing for me, mindset-wise, not only in business but in life. There is so much we can't control about the results we get, but we can ALWAYS focus on the actions we can take, and exert our influence there.

So if you're finding yourself frustrated because your results aren't lining up with your expectations in whatever area of your life, shift your focus instead to the actions you can consistently take that are entirely within your control rather than obsessing about the outcome. I think you'll be astounded at how much of a difference it makes!

Happy weekend, friends :)

11/08/2024

Just an FYI -- we only have four more of our 40-lb. retail bags of compost in stock, and we only have about 8 of the super sacks left, too. We are not currently planning on getting in any more loads for fall, so if you need mushroom compost, now's your chance! If demand is high enough, we might order in one more last minute load, but this is likely it until we get more in the spring.

We're also planting all our daffodils this weekend, so if you want to snag any of those bulbs, you need to order them off our website in the next few hours so I can set some aside for you! Anything that's not sold goes in the ground :)

Here's the link to our online shop, which is the only way to essentially "reserve" any of the compost or bulbs for yourself:

https://www.dreamacreflowerfarm.com/shop

11/03/2024

UPDATE: Thanks so much to everyone who entered! Our winners were Kaitlyn Bown Sorensen and Emily Johnson!!! We loved reading everyone's reviews, and we appreciate your support more than we could ever say.

HUGE BULB GIVEAWAY!!! Read on for how to win one of TWO prizes of 50 BULBS EACH!

Since we're about to plant all of our bulbs this week, we wanted to do a thank you giveaway of some of our top favorites, so we're giving away 100 bulbs total this week to two lucky recipients!

As any small business owner can tell you, one of the best ways you can support any small business is to leave a public review so that people who are searching for us in the future can know that we're a business worth buying from.

Think about it--whenever you're thinking of purchasing through a new place, how many times do you check out the reviews first to make sure that the business is 1) legit, 2) good quality, 3) has good customer service, and 4) is worth spending some of your hard-earned dollars to support?

Positive reviews of our farm are like GOLD to us!

For this giveaway, each person can earn up to two entries by

1) leaving our business a review through Google (link below):

https://tinyurl.com/cjdx7dmw

and/or

2) reviewing our business on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/dreamacreflowerfarm/reviews

After leaving a review, comment below letting me know you left one (and make sure you write 2 separate comments if you left a review in both places). And for those of you beautiful souls who left us one in the past, make sure you comment below and enter since past reviews totally count!

We would love reviews on ANYTHING we offer, including our self-serve cooler, bouquet subscriptions, DIY wedding flowers, custom orders, bulbs/peonies, cut flower class, mushroom compost, pay-it-forward program, etc. If you have bought anything from us whatsoever (or had someone else buy something for you as a gift), we would love for you to support us by leaving a review!

Please note: reviews must be made public in order to count towards the giveaway, and winners must be willing to pick up their prize from our farm. Prize packs will contain 10 of each the following: Dreamer & Exotic Emperor (tulips); Pink Charm, Geranium, & Obdam (daffodils). All are on our website.

Thank you so much in advance, and may the odds be ever in your favor :) Winners will be announced Friday 11/8 at 9 a.m.!

11/03/2024

This year's subscription bouquets were my favorite yet! I feel like I've finally nailed down 1) what blooms when (and reliably!) so that I can make a pretty good plan from season to season so that we're working from abundance, not scraping for material; 2) I got way smarter about the quantities I planted of everything so that I could just work from a recipe and make the bouquets basically the same (with maybe two color variations, just so people had a choice), and 3) because we planned for abundance, each bouquet was full, lush, and featured totally different colors, flowers, and textures from month to month, which I hope was as fun for the subscribers as it was for me!!

I also took pictures of every single set of subscriptions that went out this season so that I didn't repeat color patterns and so that I would have them to look back on for reference.

These were the bouquets for the monthly subscribers for August this season, and they featured zinnias, scabiosa, lemon mint (or ageratum), celosia, and lisianthus. I also did a color variation where I subbed in purples for the oranges for anyone who might want a slightly more jeweled palette.

I can't believe that our 2025 bouquet subscriptions open up at the end of this month on Black Friday! I'm already so excited with what I have in store for next year's subscribers :)