Episode 523: Vashon Island Flowers, Part Two: Meet Halee Dams of Marmol Farm
September 15th, 2021
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I’m excited to share Part Two of my visit to Vashon Island and introduce you to Halee Dams of Marmol Farm. Halee describes herself as a small-scale grower who uses organic and earth-friendly practices.
She has a farm stand and a flower truck and she supplies private customers and Island shoppers through a retail partner on Vashon Island. The name Marmol Farm comes from Halee’s great-grandparents Agnes and Martin Marmol. They were dairy farmers in Canada (where she’s from) and she likes to think they’re the inspiration for her love of farming.
Halee is also a mother to two-year-old Russell and a palliative care social worker. She’s balancing quite a lot and I know many of you can relate to the demands of trying to do it all well. I found Halee’s attitude refreshing as we discussed the so-called work-life balance (does that really exist?). Anyone who’s flower farming as a side hustle or while also raising children will definitely related to her story!
Last week I visited Vashon Island, Washington and featured Part One of my two-part series about island flower farming with Alyssa O’Sullivan of Sweet Alyssum Farm. You can check out that episode here.
Here’s more about Halee: By training, she is a social worker whose career has mostly been involved in hospice and inpatient palliative medicine. These days, she combines social work with parenting a 2-year-old-son.
Halee believes in local, sustainable flowers and is proudly floral-foam free. she is a member of Slow Flowers, and tries to grow her flowers in a way that is regenerative to the earth. Marmol Farm is a certified wildlife habitat and Halee is an ambassador of the Growing Kindness Project.
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Thank you so much for joining us today. I’d love to hear from you about the addition of video interviews to the Slow Flowers Podcast. My visit to meet Halee Dam on her farm is the eighth video “Vodcast” and I’ve learned a lot about how to produce, record and share content with you in a new way! But I’m eager for feedback, so please post a comment in the show notes or shoot me an email at debra@slowflowers.com. I hope to hear from you!
Channel Your Inner Fashionista
I want to remind you that it’s time to apply to create a botanical couture look for American Flowers Week 2022!
Slow Flowers will Commission at least FIVE Floral Couture Looks for our 2022 American Flowers Week Collection. We’re soliciting proposals from farmer-florist creative teams for this campaign. Those submitting must be active Slow Flowers members. Consideration will be made for specific new regions and botanical elements not previously featured. We have special focus on inclusion and representation! The selected Botanical Couture fashions will be published in our 2022 Summer Issue of Slow Flowers Journal.
For the 2022 Application, you will be asked to submit a Mood Board or Pinterest Board to express your concept. You will also be asked to write a description of your construction methods and mechanics to be used. This is all to ensure that you will be able to execute the design for photography and publication. Please reach out to debra@slowflowers.com with any questions. As a bonus, we recorded a webinar earlier this year with tips and techniques shared by past American Flowers Week creative teams. I’ll share the webinar link for you to watch –you can find it in today’s show notes, too! Can’t wait to see the floral fashions that we’ll publish in 2022!
Thank you to our Sponsors!
This show is brought to you by Slowflowers.com, the free, online directory to more than 880 florists, shops, and studios who design with local, seasonal and sustainable flowers and to the farms that grow those blooms. It’s the conscious choice for buying and sending flowers.
Thank you to our lead sponsor for 2021, Farmgirl Flowers. Farmgirl Flowers delivers iconic burlap-wrapped bouquets and lush, abundant arrangements to customers across the U.S., supporting more than 20 U.S. flower farms by purchasing more than $9 million dollars of U.S.-grown fresh and seasonal flowers and foliage annually. Discover more at farmgirlflowers.com.
More thanks goes to:
Johnny’s Selected Seeds, an employee-owned company that provides our industry the best flower, herb and vegetable seeds — supplied to farms large and small and even backyard cutting gardens like mine. Find the full catalog of flower seeds and bulbs at johnnysseeds.com.
Mayesh Wholesale Florist. Family-owned since 1978, Mayesh is the premier wedding and event supplier in the U.S. and we’re thrilled to partner with Mayesh to promote local and domestic flowers, which they source from farms large and small around the U.S. Learn more at mayesh.com.
The Gardener’s Workshop, which offers a full curriculum of online education for flower farmers and farmer-florists. Online education is more important this year than ever, and you’ll want to check out the course offerings at thegardenersworkshop.com.
Thanks so much for joining us today! ! The Slow Flowers Podcast has been downloaded more than 764,000 times by listeners like you. Thank you for listening, commenting and sharing – it means so much. As our movement gains more supporters and more passionate participants who believe in the importance of our domestic cut flower industry, the momentum is contagious. I know you feel it, too.
I value your support and invite you to show your thanks to support Slow Flowers’ ongoing advocacy, education and outreach activities. You can find the donate button in the column to the right at debraprinzing.com
I’m Debra Prinzing, host and producer of the Slow Flowers Show. Next week, you’re invited to join me in putting more Slow Flowers on the table, one stem at a time. The content and opinions expressed here are either mine alone or those of my guests alone, independent of any podcast sponsor or other person, company or organization.
The Slow Flowers Podcast is engineered and edited by Andrew Brenlan. You can learn more about Andrew’s work at soundbodymovement.com.
Music Credits:
Game Hens; Turning on the Lights; Gaena
by Blue Dot Sessions
http://www.sessions.blue
Lovely
by Tryad
http://tryad.bandcamp.com/album/instrumentals
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
In The Field
audionautix.com