A Blossoming Tale at Lakshmi Farms

As the drowsy sun melted into the horizon and dusk shrouded the Earth, a little boy fell asleep in his mother’s arms.

In his slumber he dreamt of a farm, where he met day-old twin lambs as black as night, and petted a colt painted chestnut and white. He shuffled his feet to the clucking of chickens and the crowing of a rooster. He played in a field where marigolds and gladiolas and basil would eventually blanket the ground.

Goddesses kept watch at a distance.

Fantasy is reality at Lakshmi Farms in Anchorage, an operation that seeks to connect the community—especially children—to agriculture in a setting harmonious with the ecosystem.

Owner Prem Durham in three years has built an 18-acre sustainable oasis with a focus on education and community-supported agriculture that celebrates working with the land, not against it. In tribute to her Hindu religion, Durham named the farm after the Hindu goddess of wealth and prosperity.

Lakshmi Farms, not unlike a fairy tale, is divided into chapters: A little library championing literacy greets visitors at the front gate. The story unfolds with field hens that produce fresh eggs, and sheep and dairy cows to make cheese, yogurt, paneer and ghee.

And flowers. Especially flowers. Durham set aside an acre this year in her own “slow flower movement” experiment. Nearby, a swath of poppies will create a pollinator field for the farm’s bees.

“This was just green grass. I’m not a liker of green grass,” Durham says. “I’m always, like, ‘Which strip can I take?’ Imagine this whole field just red.”

LOCAL FLOWER POWER

Like the slow/local food movement, the slow flower movement is a real thing. It’s been 26 years in the making after the passage of the 1991 Andean Trade Preference Agreement, a federal act to combat drug production and trafficking in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.

The agreement, part of the war on drugs, was designed to promote the production of non- drug-related crops, including flowers. The result was a deluge of inexpensive, duty-free cut flowers, especially roses and  negatively impacted the U.S. industry. Domestic flower farms also have battled rising energy, labor and land costs, as well as mass-market retail.

Currently, about 80% of cut flowers in the U.S. are imported, mainly from South America, and 20% are domestically grown. The environmental impact concerns Durham.

“For them to be flown, think about the carbon footprint,” she says. “Think about the pesticides and fertilizers those countries would use. It still runs into their rivers, still runs into us. It’s one world.”

In the early 2010s, interest in domestically grown flowers began to take shape, sparked by initiatives on the West Coast. A noticeable rebound is taking place as American consumers are asking about the origins of all products, including flowers, says Seattle-based Debra Prinzing, founder of SlowFlowers.com, who is widely credited for nurturing the slow flower movement.

“By using and popularizing the term ‘slow flowers’ five or six years ago, I coined a phrase that others picked up on,” Prinzing says. “We are following the ‘slow food movement,’ trailblazed decades ago, as well as the farm-to-table ethos that chefs and restaurateurs like Alice Waters began more than four decades ago.”

Add the influence of social media, especially Instagram, where photos of beautiful floral arrangements pop on hand-held devices, and flower growers are securely in the mainstream.

“That has sparked a curiosity about the flower farming lifestyle and drawn all sorts of folks into this world,” Prinzing says.

The local floral industry is blossoming. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the number of cut flower and cut florist green farms increased 20% from 2007 to 2012, citing the latest numbers from the U.S. Census of Agriculture. Membership in the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers has doubled in the past five years.

“There are a lot of ‘new’ flower farmers who are new to the industry,” says Dave Dowling, president of the Fredon, N.J.–based association. “They can excel if they work hard, grow quality flowers, and price their products correctly.”

The USDA recently released a report that shows floriculture is one of the top five most profitable crops for small-acre farming. That’s where Kentucky, and places like Lakshmi Farms, come into play. The rise in popularity has inspired vegetable farmers to add to their diversity by growing some basic cut flowers, says Alexis Amorese, horticulture agent for the University of Kentucky with the Boyle County Cooperative Extension Service.

“Many of the flowers that were grown in our grandmother’s garden are seeing resurgence in popularity,” Amorese says, adding that there are about 15 flower farms in Kentucky. “This has allowed farmers in nontraditional flower-growing climates to have a stake in the flower game.”