2015 Winter – Grower Profile

Deborah went on to intern at Hawthorne Valley Farm in the Hudson Valley, and I worked as a community organizer for a few years. We both ended up at the University of California—Santa Cruz training program for organic farmers from 2006 to 2008, where we were first introduced to cut flower production.”Fortunate to have UCSC Farm Garden Manager and fellow ASCFG member Christof Bernau as an early mentor in cultivation, postharvest, marketing and bouquet making, she says, “We fell in love with flower growing and floral design. So, our advocacy around healthy food access morphed into farming and food justice advocacy, and it brought both of us back to New York City.”

From there, it was a natural outgrowth to incorporate their newfound love of flowers. Of course, with ready access to vegetables, you can be sure to find interesting vegetable and herb seedpods and foliage featured in their arrangements. Some favorites include flowers of arugula, chives, leeks, and fennel, radicchio leaves, chard stems, ‘Redbor’ kale, and garlic scapes.

Deborah is agriculture director for East New York Farms, one of the city’s oldest urban agriculture organizations, while Molly manages The Youth Farm, located in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, going on its sixth season. Molly says, “We have dreamed of having our own cut flower farm in Brooklyn; time will tell if the right opportunity presents itself!” She explains, “The main challenges to urban farming right now (in New York City) are accessing land that is affordable, and being able to scale up to a point where you could sustain yourself just from farming. For me, it’s not possible to make it on farming alone. Hence, the floral design business.”

From the Liberal Arts to Floral Artists

Deborah graduated from Vassar and Molly from Barnard. While neither studied agriculture, both left college and almost immediately got involved with food justice work in the city. Wanting to get actively involved in social justice work, Molly says that she found that food and organic agriculture felt like the right place and space for that. Similarly, neither has formal training with floral design. Molly says, “I believe I developed my sense for form and shape from my mom, who is a multi-media artist, and avid, lifelong vegetable and flower gardener. Her knack for creating beauty out of whatever was available to her was instilled in me early on.”

Molly Oliver Flowers, an independent business, purchases cut flowers from The Youth Farm and East New York Farms, just as other florists and restaurants do. The Youth Farm is a project of Green Guerillas, a 502 ( c ) 3 nonprofit that has operated in New York City for more than 30 years, mainly with community gardeners. East New York Farms is a project of the nonprofit, United Community Centers. Molly notes, “In some cases, our clients overlap. Some of our first clients of Molly Oliver Flowers were teachers and CSA members who teach at the High School for Public Service, our chief partner at The Youth Farm.” One of the reasons clients like working with Molly Oliver Flowers is that when flowers are sourced from The Youth Farm or East New York Farms, that money goes toward supporting youth and adult farm education.

Deborah grows popular annuals and some perennials at East New York Farms, but her primary market is the immediate East New York community, and the majority of their growing space is devoted to vegetables (especially hot peppers, and other Caribbean crops). At The Youth Farm, a third of the growing area is in cut flowers, and they grow over 80 varieties. Their staple flowers include: tulips, daffodils, sweet peas, larkspur, zinnias, scabiosas, sunflowers, gomphrena, euphorbia, cosmos, basils, mints, calendula, dahlias, yarrow, tansy, hyacinth bean vine, and marigolds.

The Youth Farm has one 40’x20’ hoophouse used for larkspur, but the majority of the flowers are grown outside in raised beds. Molly explains that using raised beds, “is really important in our setting for creating public awareness of where crops live and where people can walk. We have a sandy loam soil, so it’s not entirely necessary, but it’s also a point of instruction for our apprentices, in demonstrating healthy soil practices.” They learn to call the pathways the “zones of degradation,” and the beds the “zones of productivity.”

Cultivation is done on a hand-scale level. Apprentices learn primary and secondary cultivation techniques like double and single digging and the incorporation of compost, all using efficient tools like the garden fork, broadfork, rake, etc. Nearly 70 beds were double dug when first created. After that, they adhere to minimal soil cultivation for healthy soil biology development. In the spring the cover crop will be weed-whacked, or turn into the soil. Then the beds will be single dug with garden forks or broadforks, then raked and tamped. Molly say, “We use 3’ and 4’ bed markers to maintain an even bed width, edge and tamp our sides. For transplanting, we are big fans of the dibbler available through Johnny’s, as well as the 4-row seeder for salad mixes.”

City Farming Isn’t Like Country Farming

One challenge of urban farms is bringing in raw materials, like straw, fertilizer, and compost, without paying too much for transport. For the past three years, Molly has organized a cooperative purchase of organic potting soil from McEnroe Farm for eight different urban farms. She explains, “If we can put 20 pallets (40 yards) of potting soil on one flatbed truck the freight cost is much more affordable for our operations.”

Urban farms find different solutions for irrigation water. East New York Farms collects rainwater from five adjoining homes, but most use city water. Gardens without direct access can hook up to street hydrants. The Youth Farm gets water from spigots on the outside of the school. They have several drip irrigation systems, some overhead sprinklers, and wands. Using chlorinated city water makes it sterile for rinsing, but there is potential for destroying some of the good bacteria in the soil.

Being in the city perhaps opens the farms to more scrutiny. Molly says, “We’ve all faced some question from the city and whatever agencies we are tied to about the safety or liability of what we’re doing. We’ve had to work together to create safe standards for soil fertility and to build awareness of what soil health is and how to establish and maintain it.”

Despite those generalized issues urban farmers face, Molly says one of their biggest challenges is balancing farmer training and education with field work. “Making sure we get to that first flush of weeds with the hula hoe, or getting Hortonova trellis up over a crop can be a challenge when you are training others.”

Her position at The Youth Farm is a year-round, full-time job. From preparing soil in late winter to full scale production through spring, summer and fall, and finally updating records and setting new goals in late fall, Molly is always busy. She has found that her floral design work provides balance to her roles teaching and farming. She reflects, “It is a different kind of creative process, and I really love coming to the studio to focus on design after a long week of farming and teaching and so much interaction and movement.”

While it’s not unusual for flower farmers to dabble in floral design as part of their business, Molly Oliver Flowers is unique as a floral design business owned and operated by two urban farmers who farm for social justice.