EVENT RECAP: Specialty Cut Flower Farm Tour at Stone Meadow Gardens

Thank you to our hosts and the thirty people from around the Central Kootenay who joined us for a lovely late summer evening farm tour at Stone Meadow Gardens in Tarrys, BC (between Nelson and Castlegar) on August 28th, 2021! Farmers and friends gathered to enjoy the fresh air and sunset on the most colourful speciality cut flower farm around.

Thanks to owners and operators Sarah and Carl for hosting the third event of the Young Agrarians 2021 Farm Club event series. We had the opportunity to walk through the entire specialty cut flower farm and hear from both passionate farmers about their unique and vibrant business! Through their seven seasons of farming they’ve learned a ton and we were fortunate to hear from them about techniques for greenhouse and field production, sales and storage strategies and much more!

Stone Meadow Gardens cultivates hundreds of varieties of cut flowers on approximately 2.5 acres, focusing on succession planting a wide range of interesting blooms to use throughout the season in their mixed bouquets.

Another main focus of the farm is cultivating dahlias. They grow over 5,000 plants annually, which they use for cut flowers, and at the end of the season they harvest and divide the tubers (a very laborious job!) that they sell over winter via their website. They ship the tubers out in the spring and have sent packages to every Canadian province and territory except Nunavut!

With three full-time employees working with them, they currently have a subscription membership of 225 people who receive their gorgeous and uniques bouquets every week through out the growing season. Apart from their farm gate sales, subscriptions and online dahlia sales, they also sell their flowers through local grocer Ferraro Foods in Rossland and Trail, with multiple deliveries every week.

They sell through their beautiful farm store Thursday through Sunday during farming season.

Check their website for current opening times. The farm is located on traditional and unceded territories of the Ktunaxa, Sinixt and Syilx Nations at 2273 BC-3A Castlegar, BC V1N 4P1.

Learn more about Stone Meadow Gardens:

Web: https://www.stonemeadowgardens.ca/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stonemeadowflowers

Instagram: @stonemeadowflowers

Check out the rest of the events this season in this blog post. Don’t miss an update by subscribing to our Columbia Basin/Kootenay newsletter!

GOT LAND? WANT LAND? 

Through the B.C. Land Matching Program, Young Agrarians is offering support to farmers looking for land for their farm business and landowners looking for farmers to farm their land. The Columbia Basin Land Matcher will be attending the event to answer any questions about accessing land through this program. For those unable to join us, you can send a message to hailey@youngagrarians.org for more information.