Little Big Farm has evolved since Patti Doell started the flower farm 20 years ago.
For the first few years Doell lugged flowers to farmers markets, worked directly with people planning bridal showers and weddings, but she has turned more to wholesale in recent years.
“We had DYI parties and weddings, a flower club and a robust CSA,” she said. The CSA thrived May through October. Local flowers were in great demand at that point.
COVID changed the dynamic. Customers are now more likely to want flowers delivered, although Doell does still sell to the areas two noted flower providers, Peggy Patton and Barbara Connelly.
Now the cooler at Little Big Farm is full of boxes of flowers to be delivered, many to Boonton where the Garden State Flower Cooperative has its space. Doell was on the co-op board for five years after it was formed in 2019 with about 15 flower farmers from Sussex to Hunterdon counties. The flowers are delivered to Brooklyn for sales by retail florists. About 75% of her sales are now wholesale, Doell said.
A farmstand at the end of her driveway on Heller Hill Road does a brisk business. The road is fairly busy, but most customers aren’t just driving by, Doell said. She uses social media to bring in customers. Flowers that don’t ship well, like zinnias, cosmos and anemones, sell well.
At its peak, the farm featured about 100 varieties, but Doell has scaled back to around 80.
A Regenerative Operation
Another thing that has changed is the way Doell works the land. For the first 10 years she tilled the soil, but now she uses methods that don’t disturb the soil, such as a broad fork. She also cut back on the amount of fabric she uses to keep weeds at bay since the fabric heats up the soil. These are part of her move to more regenerative practices. She is also planting cover crops.
The hotter, dryer summers brought about by climate change are complicating life for flower farmers as they are for vegetable farmers. Fortunately, Doell has a quarter-acre pond that is deep and spring-fed and is used for irrigation.
Flowers are cut every day.
To assist with the weeding and other chores, Doell has one full-time employee and three or four high school or college students she employs during the summer. The students do general gardening and cleanup work, while the full-time worker plants and harvests along with Doell. She sometimes also uses an employee for deliveries.
The flowers are about evenly divided between perennials and annuals, although Doell is planning on growing more perennials like her elegant limelight hydrangeas. The hoop house now holds newly planted rows of poppies.
As important as flowers to bouquets and arrangements is the foliage that enhances the look of the flowers. She grows bush clematis and a number of varieties of smoke bush.
Farmland Evolution
Doell’s husband, Kevin, turned the farm’s former milking parlor into a workshop.
He recently retired from his day job, but is helping out with repairs around the farm, she said.
The farm really is “little,” only 5.5 acres, which means Doell doesn’t have farmland assessment. The law states the house counts as one acre and there must be five additional acres in order for farmland assessment to be applied. Only 1.5 acres are cultivated.
The original farm, a dairy formed in the 1820s, covered about 300 acres, land that now has been chopped up into several parcels.
The couple bought the property more than 20 years ago when they were looking to be an equal distance from both of their families. Patti is from Warwick, NY, and Kevin is from Bergen County. They feel like Hope was an excellent choice for many reasons.
Jane Primerano is a veteran journalist covering Warren County municipalities, agriculture, and historic preservation. Her work has appeared in New Jersey Monthly, New Jersey Farmer, and more. A past president of NJ Press Women and SPJ NJPro, she lives in Hope Village and enjoys music, singing with the Warren County Community Singers, reading, and the Jersey Shore.
- Jane Primerano, Contributing Writerhttps://ridgeviewecho.com/author/jane-primerano-contributing-writer/
- Jane Primerano, Contributing Writerhttps://ridgeviewecho.com/author/jane-primerano-contributing-writer/
- Jane Primerano, Contributing Writerhttps://ridgeviewecho.com/author/jane-primerano-contributing-writer/
- Jane Primerano, Contributing Writerhttps://ridgeviewecho.com/author/jane-primerano-contributing-writer/
