Getting Festive on the Farm

Dear Farm Community -

We’re so stoked to already have a good number of folks on board for our 2025 CSA!! In case you missed our on-sale last week, read our blog post of last week’s newsletter for the overview of the year ahead, and head to our website to check out which CSA option best suits you! We have something for everyone and our weekly-pay on-sale will go live on Monday, December 30th.

Markets have been extra merry lately with our fresh evergreen wreaths making the air smell like an enchanted forest - there’s a wreath for every door and we’re sure you’ll be able to find one you love. ‘Tis also the season to get little gifts for your sweeties and loved ones! If you have someone in your life who loves local agriculture, good food, cool clothes, beautiful flowers, Diamond Hill Farm, all of the above, or any combination of the above…. may we “present” to you some gift ideas! We had a small run of Diamond Hill Farm hats and sweatshirts designed by Farmer Carolyn and printed/stitched locally by Satisfactory Printing. They’ll keep anybody snug all winter long. You can also pick up a Diamond Hill Farm Gift Card at the market, too! :) Redeemable at any of our market locations (Athens, Freedom, & Morningside) for anything we’re selling - we’re talking the yummiest veggies, the freshest flowers, dried floral wreaths, or whatever merch they fancy! We’ll have them all year long but be sure to swing by our Saturday market on 12/21 to snag them before Christmas :) Head to our instagram page to get a closer look!

What’s up at the farm? Boy oh boy last week was a doozie for weather. Between the 3.5 inches of rain we saw at the farm early in the week, the winds that came Wednesday, and the low evening and early morning temps that visited us every night, we are certainly feeling like we deserve a break from the elements. We had a few laughable/annoying moments with the wind last week - between the silage tarps doing what they do best on windy days (see: blowing away, coming untethered, being a problem) and one of our tents literally taking flight across the farm and landing in our compost heap….. we are looking forward to the relatively tame weather ahead of us. And before you ask…. we do not have any cool videos of our airborne EZ-Up…. just this laughably sad “after” photo.

Fortunately after a visit to our tent graveyard for parts we were able to make the necessary repairs and the tent made a full recovery.

The rainy days did give us the opportunity to get some weeding done in the high tunnels and set our winter crops up with the best real estate possible. We also spent a good chunk of Thursday and Friday unearthing our dahlia field to put the tubers into storage for the winter. Even though we had a bit of disappointing year for dahlia blooms, the tubers did what they do best and multiplied enough underground that we’re feeling good about our gameplan for 2025. The beauty of farming is the ability to take a look at how things went and regroup better and more informed. Most of these tubers will be planted out next year for our new and improved dahlia plan, but we’re looking forward to spreading the love and bringing some of these tubers to market next year when planting time comes.

Even though we didn’t have as many dahlias this year as we wished, we did have an unbelievable year for flowers - more varieties than we’ve ever grown, the quality of the blooms have been unmatched, and we’re thrilled to have partnered with even more incredibly talented florists. For all of this we can thank our very own Flower Manager, Alex. She dreams! She plans! She puts it all into action! And you have the distinct opportunity to get to know her better as this week’s Know Your Farmer!

Know Your Farmer:
Alex

What is your role on the farm?
I’m the farm’s Flower Manager! My roles include leading the incredibly skilled flower crew, crop planning, communicating with our wholesale flower accounts, and working the Athens farmers market. I spend most of my time on the farm, doing things like harvesting flowers and making bouquets, but I swear I get dirty too sometimes.

Please share your farming journey!
I'm from the Minnesota Twin Cities suburbs and was an indoor cat for most of my life. The fact that I'm a farmer still surprises me. While getting a degree in Speech Therapy at UofMN and after college I worked front of house in farm-to-table restaurants and was able to pay off my student loans. Once I was freed from my debt, I wanted to try something different and a good friend thought I should give organic farming a shot. Shout out to Kajsa! I started in 2020 managing a large industrial pack shed in MN. I searched online for something more educational and found a magical year long apprenticeship on an organic veggie and flower farm. I sold all my things and packed up my car for the long road trip ahead and arrived somewhere I had never been before, Middle Georgia ~ shout out to Julia Asherman at Rag and Frass Farm! The feeling I had there can be summed up in Julia's words, "finding farming felt like finding my soulmate." After that I spent a year traveling abroad by way of WWOOF and dreamed of what I wanted to do next - and Diamond Hill Farm is that dream come true. I'm now entering my third season here.

What makes you passionate about organic farming?
I love how you can bring any of your passions or skills to a farm - are you an artist? an engineer? a mechanic? an athlete? an accountant? a scientist? If you are, you might be a farmer. If you're not, work on a farm and you could be. It's such a multifaceted job that can push you to grow in any direction.

What do you like to do when you're not at the farm?
Sleep. I’m a very sleepy person.

What’s something you’ve done on the farm that you are proud of?
I'm proud to have grown our wholesale flower business. I don't consider myself a designer so I love to see what we grow in designs arranged by amazing florists.

What is a small thing on the farm that you are grateful for?
The sunrise on the drive in.

What’s your favorite way to pass time weeding with other farmers?
”Would you rather Wednesday” (it's when we play “would you rather” on Wednesdays).

In your opinion, what is the best season and why?
The transition from winter to spring. Georgia's winters are far from glamorous and we spend months looking at a variation of the color brown. During that time dried flowers seem to become brighter and each shade of brown becomes more distinct and lovable. But there's nothing quite like that first bloom in spring. It feels like the brightest colors my eyes have ever seen.

We’re all in the pack shed finishing up a big market harvest and you’re handed the AUX. What do you play?
Something sing-y or dance-y, it's fun to pretend to be Beyonce when you're wet with sweat and covered in dirt.

You’ve got a week off from the farm and no budget limit. What are you doing?
Rent a private island, invite any friend I've ever had, pay them to be there, and do private island stuff! BBQ! Eat a crab! Drink a coconut! Make sandcastles! Swim!

What is something you want people to know about our farm?
Come get a face full of our flowers! Most have a fragrance that might surprise you. If it is an edible flower- they are food grade quality and safe to eat or decorate a cake or use in body products. Conversely DO NOT stick your face in a store-bought bouquet of roses or put them in your bed and definitely not in your bath. In the US around 80 percent of cut flowers available to us are imported. Flowers that travel long distances must be very strong and free of diseases and pests which means they are sprayed with synthetic pesticides and fungicides and are treated with synthetic preservatives. And because they are not typically an edible product, the chemicals used can be more harmful than those used in conventional vegetable production. Our flowers are organically grown making it safe for the farmers and you!

xoxo
Diamond Hill Farmers

get a face full of our flowers